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DELEOATES  TO  THE  THIRD  (ECUMENICAL  METMOUIST  CONKEKENCl;.   LOMJO.N, 

Fmm  plioloar.iph  lalccn  in  front  <.f  City  Koad  Cli^ipcl. 


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PROCEEDINGS^^ 


THIRD 

(ECUMENICAL  METHODIST  CONFERENCE 

HELD   IN 

CITY    ROAD    CHAPEL,    LONDON, 

SEPTEMBER,    1901. 


WITH     INTRODUCTION 

BY 

T.    B.   STEPHENSON,    D  D.,   LL.D. 


NEW   YORK:    EATON  &   MAINS 

CINCINNATI:  JENNINGS  &  PYE 

1901. 


EDITORIAL    NOTE. 

r  1 1  HIS  volume  has  been  published  by  direction  of  the  (Ecumenical 
Methodist  Conference,  1901,  and  contains  a  full  and  accurate 
account  of  its  proceedings.  The  Editors  were  instructed  to  print  the 
Essays,  Invited  Addresses,  and  Remarks  as  they  were  published  in 
the  daily  issue  of  the  Methodist  Recorder ,  with  corrections  made  by 
the  Essayists  and  Invited  Speakers  on  proofs  sent  to  them.  These 
instructions  have  been  adhered  to,  and  the  whole  volume  carefully 
edited.  We  can  hardly  hope  that  mistakes  have  in  every  case  been 
avoided,  but  the  utmost  care  has  been  taken  to  secure  accuracy  in 
passing  the  volume  through  the  press. 

The  Numerical  Statistics  contained  in  the  Appendix  were  care- 
fully prepared  by  the  Committee  appointed  for  that  purpose,  and 
every  effort  has  been  made  to  secure  their  accuracy.  It  is  to  be 
regretted  that  it  has  not  been  possible  to  compile  all  the  statis- 
tics  suggested  in  the  Conference,  but  the  suppleme»tary  statistics 
of  the  Eastern  Section,  althoxigh  incomplete,  may  be  regarded  as 
substantially  correct. 

The  publication  of  this  volume,  and  the  holding  of  the  Conference 
whose  proceedings  it  records,  mark  an  important  epoch  in  the  pro- 
gress of  Methodism  throughout  the  world,  and  the  Editors  trust 
that  its  perusal  will  inspire  Methodists  everywhere  to  labour  with 
increased  enthusiasm  for  the  spread  of  the  Redeemer's  Kingdom. 

Hanford  Crawford, 
Andrew  Crombie, 
Stephen  J.  Herben,     [ 
Herbert  B.  Kendall, 

Andrew  Crombie,  Convener. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Editoeiai.  Note in 

Inteobuction \^ 

Official  List  of  Delegates xjv 

Officbes  of  the  Conference    xxviii 

List  of  Committees ^^f? 

RuiiEB  AND  Regulations  fob  the  Goveenment  of  the  Confeefnce xxxm 

Dailt  Peogeamme  xxxvi 

FIRST     DAY. 

FIRST  SESSION.— Opening  Service,  3;  Sermon  by  C.  B.  Galloway,  3;  Sacramental 
Service,  21 ;  Dinner  and  Tea  Arrangements,  21 ;   PhotoKraph  of  Delegates,  21. 

SECOND  SKSSION.— Opening,  21;  Roll  of  Representatives,  21 ;  Appointment  of  Secre- 
taries, 21 ;  Appointment  of  Presidents,  22.  Addresses  of  Welcome— W.  T.  Davison,  22; 
E.  E.  Jenkins,  23;  J.  Odell,  27;  Charles  T.  Skeltou,  30.  Responses— J.  F.  Hurst,  31 ; 
John  Potts,  35 ;  A.  Walters,  40 ;    Adjournment,  43. 

SECOND     DAY. 

FIRST  SESSION.— Opening,  44  ;  Degrees  and  Titles,  44  ;  Conference  Arrangements,  41: 
Communications  from  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  Bishop  of  London,  44;  Deceased 
Delegates,  44.  Essay,  The  Pkesent  Position  of  Methodism  in  the  Eastern  Section, 
E.  Boaden,  44.  Addresses  — J.  Berry,  52;  Wesley  Guard,  55.  Discussion- W.  A. 
Bracken,  57;  W  I.  Shaw,  58;  T.  E.  Duckies,  59;  Z.  Robinson,  60;  T.  Champness,  61 ; 
M.  C.  B.  Mason,  62 ;  J.  C.  Hartzell,62;  C.  S  Smith,  63;  A.  B.  Leonard,  64;  E.J. 
AVatkin,  65  ;    F.  Langham,  66  ;    F.  W.  Bourne.  67 ;    Adjournment,  68. 

SECOND  SESSION.- Opening,  68.  Essay,  The  Pre.sent  Position  of  Methodism  in  the 
Western  Section,  J  F.  Goucher,  68.  Addresses— J.  D.  Hammond,  73  ;  N.  W.  Rowell, 
77.  Discussion— J.  C.  Simmons,  80  ;  John  Handley,  81 ;  E  E.  Hoss,  82  ;  J.  Gibson, 
82;  J.  P.  Brusbingham,  83;  J.  A.  B.Wilson,  84:  H.  C.  Tucker,  85;  J.  W.  Butler,  86  ; 
A.  B.  Leonard,  87;  W.  B.  Derrick,  88.  Business  Committee  Report,  89;  Appointment  of 
Memorial  Committee,  89  ;  Gi-eetings  from  the  Bishop  of  London,  90;  Changes  in  Com- 
mittees,  90;  Appointment  of  Presidents,  91;  Vote  of  sympathy  with  Revs.  W.  L. 
Watkinson  and  H.  P.  Hughes,  91 ;   Adjournment,  91. 

THIRD    DAY. 

FIRST  SESSION.— Opening,  92;  Greetings  from  Cincinnati  Conference,  92;  Sunday 
Services,  92;  Common  Hymnal,  92.  Essay,  The  Influence  of  Methodism  in  the 
Promotion  of  InterwtionaIi  Peace,  C.  W.  Smith,  93.  Addresses— R.  W.  Peks,  97; 
A.W.Wilson,  99.  Discussion— T.  Snape,  101;  E.  E.  Hoss,  102;  A.  B.  Leonard,  103; 
R.  Abercrombie,  104;  A.  Adams,  105;  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  106;  G.  Elliott,  107;  T.  M. 
Harvey,  108;  R.  J.  Cooke.  109;  J.  M.  King,  109:  W.  D.  Parr,  110;  T.  Allen,  111. 
Adjournment,  111. 

SECOND  SESSION.— Opening,  112;  Essay,  The  Relation  of  Methodism  to  the  Evan- 
gelical Fkee  Church  Movement,  W.  J.  Townsend,  112.  Address,  Methodism  and 
Christian  Unity,  R.  S.  Williams,  118.  Address,  Inter-Denominational  Fellowship 
Among  Methodists,  T.  B.  Stephenson,  120.  Discussion— G.  T.  Candlin,  122 :  G.  P. 
Dymond,  123:  R.  Abercrombie,  125;  P.  W.  Buntmg,  126;  F.  M.  North,  128;  T.  Rider, 
129;  E.  Boaden,  130  ;  G.  A.  Bennetts,  131  ;  F.  W.  Bourne,  132  ;  T.  Mitchell,  133.  Busines.- 
Committee  Report,  135;  Conference  Arrangements,  135;  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society,  135  ;  Introduction  to  OfiQcial  Volume,  136 ;  Report  of  Memorial  Committee,  135 ; 
Adjournment,  135. 

FOURTH    DAY. 

Opening,  136.  Attempted  Assassination  of  President  McKinley,  136.  Addresses  on  Vote 
of  Sympathy— B.  W.  Arnett,  136;  W.  T.  Davison,  137;  D.  J.  Waller,  137;  E.  B. 
Jenkins,  138;  C.  B.  Galloway,  138, 139;  C.  Stewart,  140;  F.  M.  Bristol,  141  :  J.  M.  King, 
142;  A.  B.  Leon  11(1,  112:  W.  J.  Gaines,  143;  D.  Brook,  143;  G.  Lidgett,  144;  H.  S. 
Doyle,  144.  Resolution,  145.  Essay,  Biblical  Ceiticism  and  ihe  Christian  Faith, 
J.  J.  Tigert,  146.  Address,  Recent  Corroborations  of  the  Scripture  Narratives, 
M.  Randies,  151.  Address,  The  Appeal  of  the  Old  Testament  to  the  Life  ani> 
Conscience  of  To-Day,  D.  S.  Stephens,  154.  Discussion— W.  T.  Davison,  159;  J.  A. 
Beet,  160;  R.  J.  Cooke,  161 :  G  Elliott,  161  ;  A.  E.  P.  Albert,  162.  Business  Committee 
Report,  164;  Resolut'ons  on  President  McKinley,  164,  165;  Greetings  from  Dr.  J. 
Parker,  165;  Adjournment,  165. 


VI  CONTENTS. 

FIFTH    DAY. 

FIRST  SESSION.— Opening,  166;  President  McKinley,  166;  Greetings  from  H.  P. 
Hughes,  166 ;  Accuracy  of  Official  Report,  167.  Essay,  Pkinciples  of  Protestantism 
VERSUS  Modern  Sacerdotalism,  F.  W.  Bourne,  167.  Addresses— 0.  Stewart,  172;  J.  S. 
Banks,  174.  Discussion— E.  E.  Hoss,  176:  S.  M.  Dick,  177;  J  E.  Radtliffe,  178;  G. 
Whelpton,  179;  B.  T.  Tanner,  180;  T.  Champness,  181;  G.  A.  Bcimetts,  182:  R. 
Abercrombie,  183;  G.  Parkin,  183;  J.  Bond,  184;  R.  J.  Cooke,  184;  G.Jackson,  185; 
G.  Elliott,  187;  H.  0.  Tucker,  187  ;  W.  A.  Bracken,  188;  T.  Allen,  189.  Greetings  from 
W.  L.  Watkinson,  190;  Adjournment,  190. 

SECOND  SESSION.— Opening,  191.  Essa.y,  Methodism  and  Education  in  the  Twentieth 
Centuet,  Ijy  C.  J.  Little  (read  by  J.  H.  Vincent),  191.  Addresses— T.  G.  Osborn,  195; 
H.  T.  Kealing,  198.  Discussion— J.  H.  Moulton,  203 ;  J.  P.  Brushinghani,  205  ;  F.  Chappie, 
206;  T.  Snape,  206;  W.  J.  Gaines,  207;  S.  G.  Atkins,  209;  G.  P.  Dymond,  210;  R.  C. 
Ransom,  211;  W.  F.  King,  212;  P.  H.  Swift,  213;  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  214.  Business 
Committee  Report,  215 ;  Greetings  from  Societ.y  of  Friends,  215 ;  Common  Hymnal, 
216.  Resolution  on  Methodist  Union,  216.  Discussion— A.  Clayton,  216 ;  P.  W.  Bunting, 
216;  T.  Mitchell,  216;  W.  T.  Davison,  217;  T.  B.  Stephenson," 217.  Editors  for  Official 
Volume,  218 ;  Adjournment,  218. 

SIXTH    DAY. 

FIRST  SESSION.— Opening,  219;  President  McKinley,  219;  Greetings  from  British 
Cohunbia  Conference,  220 ;  Conference  Arrangements,  220.  Essay,  Chkistianitt  and 
Modern  Unbelief,  J.  A.  Beet,  220.  Address,  Secularism  and  Christianity,  J.  W. 
Hamilton,  221.  Address,  R.  Abercrombie,  227.  Discussion— Evaus  Tyree,  229 ;  A.  B. 
Leonard,  230 ;  J.  B.  Young,  231 ;  J.  Hallam,  232 ;  W.  H.  Nelton,  232  ;  N.  Burwash,  233  ; 
G.  Parkin,  234 :  P.  A  Huljbard,  234 ;  G.  Elliott,  235  ;  T.  Rider,  236  ;  R.  H.  Gilbert,  237  ; 
R.  G.  Rovrs,  238;  R.  J.  Cooke,  239;  J.  O.  Park,  240;  J.  Rooney,  211 ;  D.  K.  Tindall,  242. 
Official  Volume,  243  ;  Adjournment,  243. 

SECOND  SESSION.— Opening,  244;  President  McKinley,  244;  Trip  to  Ipworth,  244. 
Essay,  Modern  Iniuffekentism,  W.  I.  Shaw,  244.  Address,  Apitht  in  the  Church, 
J.  Ritson,  251.  Address,  The  Antidote  foe  Indipfeeentism  and  Apathy,  J.  M.  King, 
253  Discussion— M.  S.  Hard,  259;  E.  J.  Gray,  260;  W.  D.  Walteis,  261;  L.  H. 
Dorchester,  263  :  F.  W.  Bourne,  264 ;  J.  Gibson,  265  ;  G.  L  Blackwell,  266;  J.  Handley, 
266;  ,T.  A .  B.  Wilson,  267.  Visit  of  Baroness  Burdett-Coutts,  2CS  ;  Business  Committee 
Report,  269;  Address  to  the  Churches  Committee,  269  ;  Appointment  of  Presidents,  269; 
Reply  to  Bishop  of  London,  269;  Greetings  from,  and  Reply  to.  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  271 ;  Adjournment,  272. 

SEVENTH    DAY. 

FIRST  SESSION.- Opening,  273 ;  Report  of  Statistical  Committee,  273 ;  B.  W.  Arnetfe, 
274 ;  T.  Mitchell,  274.  Discussion  on  Report— N.  Curnock,  275  ;  T.  Mitchell,  275  ;  J.  A. 
B.  Wilson,  276:  B.  W.  Arnett,  276;  W.  A.  Bracken,  276;  D.  J.  Waller,  276;  J.  M.  King, 
277 ;  J.  Handley,  277  ;  Wesley  Guard,  277  ;  R.  J.  Cooke,  278 ;  C.  B.  Galloway,  278  ;  W.  I. 
Shaw,  278  ;  R.  Bird,  279  ;  E.  B.  Hoss,  279 :  John  Bond,  279.  Chairman's  Address,  G.  T. 
CandUn,  280.  Essay,  Methodist  Literatuee,  H.  B  Kendall,  280.  Address,  New 
Demands  upon  Methodist  Authorship,  E.  E.  Hoss,  285.  Address,  Methodist 
Journalism,  W  Brimelow,  288.  Discussion — V.  H.  Pearce,  291  ;  Homer  Eaton,  293  ; 
E.  J.  WatMn,  294;  I.  B.  Scott,  295;  C.  H.  Phillips,  296;  C.  W.  Smith,  296;  T.  Sherwood, 
297 ;  T.  Parr,  298 ;  W.  H.  Nelson,  299 ;  G.  Jackson,  299.  Arrangements  for  Provincial 
Meetings,  300  :  Adjournment,  301. 

SECOND  SESSION.— Openhig,  301.  Essay,  Methodist  Young  People's  Societies,  W.  L 
Haven,  301.  Addresses— D.  Sheen,  306 ;  J.  B.  Colbert,  309.  Discussion— R.  H.  Gilbert, 
311;  F.Brown,  312;  A.  B.  Leonard,  313 ;  P.  H.  Swift,  314;  W.  J.  Crothers,  315;  T.  B. 
Stephenson,  316;  C.  H.  KeUy,  317  ;  J.  A.  B.  Wilson,  318;  A.Walters,  319:  N.  W.  Rowell, 
320;  W.  D.  Parr,  321;  R.  A.  Carter,  322;  J.  W.  Newman,  323;  J.  E.  Balmer,  323. 
Business  Committee  Report,  324  ;  Training  Candidates  for  Foreign  Missions,  324 ;  Mrs. 
Susannah  Wesley's  Monument,  324  ;  Missionary  Statistics,  325 ;  Adjournment,  325. 

THIRD  SESSION.-  Opening,  325  ;  Chairman's  "  Address,  325 ;  Address  from  National 
Council  of  the  Evangelical  Free  Churches,  326.  Addresses— J.  Monro  Gibson,  326;  G. 
Cadbury,  328 ;  J.  Clifford,  330.  Address  from  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  335 ; 
Address,  W.  Ross  Taylor,  337 ;  Address  from  Moravian  Church,  341 ;  Address,  J.  M. 
Wilson  342;  Address  from  the  Huguenot  Congregation  of  Canterbury,  343;  The 
Salvation  Army — Address  by  Commissioner  Coombps,  344.  Addresses  of  Response — 
J.  Luke,  347;  J.  W.  Hamilton,  348;  0.  H.  Phillips,  351;  Adjournment,  352, 

EIGHTH    DAY. 

FIRST  SESSION.— Opening,  353.  Essay,  Is  Methodism  Retainino  its  Spieituax 
Vitality?  W.  J.  Williams,  353.  Addresses— C.  B.  Mitchell,  358;  J.  C.  Granbery,  360. 
Discussion— W.  T.  Davison,  361  ;  S.  M.  Dick,  363  ;  A.  Adams,  365;  D.  K.  Tindall,  366; 
T.  Ruddle,  367  ;  W.  S.  Allen,  368  ;  0.  J.  Youngs,  369  ;  J.  C.  Wilmore,  370;  J.  A.  Duncan, 
371 ;  G.  Parkin,  372  ;  D.  Brook,  372  ;  T.  Mitchell,  373;  T.  Allen,  375.    Adjournment,  376. 

SECOND  SESSION.— Opening,  376.  Addresses  from  Free  Churches,  376.  Essay,  Thb 
Neglect  op  Family  Religion  and  Worship,  G.  W.  Clinton,  376.  Addresses— S.  B. 
Cawood,  383;  T.  Rider,  387.  Discussion— A.  K.  Sanford,  388;  P.  P.Wood,  389;  A.  B. 
Leonard,  390 ;  E.  E.  Hoss,  391 ;  T.  Champness,  392  :  F.  W.  Bourne,  393 ;  W.  A.  Wright, 
394 ;  J.  S.  Caldwell,  395 ;  J.  W.  Edge,  396 ;  W.  J.  Ferguson,  397.  Arrangements  foi 
Provincial  Meetings,  398.   Address,  G.  Campbell  Morgan,  398.   Adjournment,  400. 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

NINTH    DAY. 

FIRST  SESSION.— Opeiiiujj,  401.  Excm-sion  to  Epworth,  401.  Telegram  from  American 
Aml)assador,  401.  Bulletins,  President  McKinley,  412.  Chairman's  Address,  401.  Essay, 
PbacticaIj  Methods  op  Dealing  with  the  Liquor  Tkaffic,  D.  Baker,  402.  Addresses 
—J.  H.  Freeborough,  406;  T.  H.  Murray,  408.  Discussion— E.  J.  Gray,  411 ;  J.  B.Cams, 
413;  A.  Adams,  414;  T.  Champness,  415;  J.  O.  Willson,  416;  J.  Luke,  416;  A.  B. 
Leonard,  417.  President  McKinley,  418;  Special  Prayers  Offered,  419.  Adjourn- 
ment, 419. 

SECOND  SESSION.— Opening,  419.  Telegram  re  President  McKinley,  419.  Essay,  The 
Ethics  of  Gambling,  F.  L.  Wiseman,  420.  Addresses— J.  P.  Brushingham,  425;  T.  R. 
Ferens,  428.  Discussion-T.  Parr,  431 ;  R.  H.  Gilbert,  432 ;  J.  White,  433 ;  W.  B.  Luke, 
434;  G.  A.  Bennetts,  435;  J.  M.  King,  436;  J.  C.  Coates.  437;  E.  Dalton,  438;  F.  M. 
Jacobs,  439.  Business  Committee  Report,  440;  Committee  to  Draft  Replies  to  Addresses 
given  at  Open  Session,  441.  Resolution  re  Opium  TraflSc,  441.  Fourth  (Ecumenical 
Methodist  Conference  (1911),  441.   Appointment  of  President,  442.   Adjournment,  442. 

TENTH    DAY. 

Opening,  443.  Business  Committee  Report,  443.  Resolution  on  the  Death  of  President 
McKinley,  T.  B.  Stephenson,  443.  Addresses  on  Resolution— C.  B.  Ga'loway,  444;  R. 
W.  Perks,  444;  F.  M.  Bristol,  444;  J.  C.  Hartzell,  444.  Representatives  to  Fourth 
fficiiniemcal  Methodist  Conference  (1911),  445;  Number  of  Delegates,  446.  Memorial 
from  Meeting  on  Women's  Work,  446  Essay,  The  Perils  o»  Increasing  Wealth  and 
Luxury,  Sir  George  Smith,  447.  Address,  The  Conseceation  of  Wealth,  L.  L.  Morse, 
451.    Adjournment,  453. 

ELEVENTH    DAY. 

FIRST  SESSION.— Opening,  454.  Conference  Daily  Photographs,  454.  Essay,  The 
Elements  op  Pulpit  EppEcnvENEss,  B.  T.  Tanner,  464.  Addresses— R.  G.  Rows,  464; 
G.  C.  Rankin,  467.  Discussion— T.  H.  Murray,  469 ;  A.  B  Sanford,  471 ;  T.  Parr,  472  ; 
J  A.  B.  Wilson,  473;  W.  J.  Gaines,  474;  J.  Gibson,  476;  J.  B.  Young,  477;  R.  H. 
Gilbert,  478;  M.  B.  Salter,  479;  G.  Lidgett,  480;  N.  W.  RoweU,  481;  W.  McNeOl,  482; 
J.Bond,  483;  P. W.  Bunting,  483;  J.  B.  McCutcheon,  485;  F.  T.  Tagg,  486.  Adjourn- 
ment, 486 

SECOND  SESSION.— Opening,  487.  Essay,  How  to  Mobilise  the  Whole  Church, 
D.  Brook,  487.  Addresses— J.  H.  Young,  493 ;  W.  Windsor,  496.  Proposed  Memorial 
Service,  President  McKinley,  498  Discussion  on  Essay— J.  A.  B.  Wilson,  498;  E  Smith, 
499 ;  F.  Brown,  500.  Arrangements  for  Memorial  Service,  501.  Business  Committee 
Report,  501.  Arrangements  for  Fourth  fficumenical  Methodist  Conference  (1911),  501. 
Replies  t  >  Addresses  at  Open  Session,  503.  Resolution  re  Foreign  Missions,  Evan- 
gelistic Work,  and  Women's  Work,  507.  Address  to  the  Churches,  read  by  W.  Redfem, 
507.  Adjournment,  511. 

TWELFTH    DAY. 

FIRST  SESSION.— Opening,  512.  Presentation  of  Gavel,  512.  Essay,  Missioirs— The 
Work  Before  Us,  F.  Galpin,  513.  Addresses— A.  B.  Leonard,  520;  J.  B  McCutcheon, 
533;  Y.  J.  Allen,  525.  Discussion— E.  J.  Gray,  530;  H.  Mann,  530;  T.  E.  Duckies,  532; 
J.  C.  Hartzell,  533;  D.  W.  Carter,  531.  Greetings  from,  and  Reply  to.  Lady  Henry 
Somerset,  535.  Resolutions  of  Thanks  to  Officers,  etc.,  A.  W.  Wilson,  536;  J.  C. 
HartzeU,  537 ;  W.  B.  Derrick,  538 ;  S.  P.  Rose,  538 ;  P.  T.  Tagg,  539 ;  E.  E.  Hoss,  639 ; 
A.  B.  Leonard,  539.  Resignation  of  Rev.  J.  Bond,  539;  Appointriient  of  Rev.  J.  Chapman 
(Secretary),  539.    Address  to  King  Edward  VII.,  640.   Adjournment,  541. 

SECOND  SESSION.— Opening,  641.  Essay,  Missions— Oue  Resources  for  the  Woek, 
W.  R.  Lambuth,  541.  Addresses— F.  W.  Macdonald,  54^;  W.  Burt,  561.  Memorial 
Service  for  late  President  McKinley,  654.  Addresses — T.  B.  Stephenson,  654  j  J.  H. 
Vincent,  556.    Close  of  Memorial  Service  and  Conference,  668. 

APPENDIX— 

fficuMENiCAL  Statistics  '. 561 

Sunday  Services,  Receptions,  and  Public  Meetinqs  564 

Provincial  Meetings 567 

Reply  fhom  King  Edwaed  VII 570 

INDEX 571 


INTRODUCTION. 


-*— 


IN  1881  the  first  CBcumenical  Methodist  Conference  was  held 
in  London,  and  the  Report  of  its  proceedings  was  intro- 
duced by  a  "  Prefatory  Statement."  The  Report  of  the  second 
CEcumenical  Methodist  Conference,  1891,  which  was  held  in 
Washington,  was  prefaced  by  an  "Introduction."  Both  were 
written  by  William  Arthur.  He  died,  eighty-two  years  old,  a 
few  months  before  the  assembling  of  the  third  CEcumenical 
Methodist  Conference,  whose  Report  is  here  presented.  That  I 
should  have  been  appointed  to  write  an  Introduction  to  this 
volume  is  a  task  at  once  more  honourable  and  more  difficult 
because  I  am  following  in  the  steps  of  such  a  man.  For 
fully  a  generation  William  Arthur  has  been  the  most  venerable 
and  the  most  widely-known  figure  in  our  Churches  of  every 
land.  Bishop  Simpson  alone  of  the  men  of  modern  Methodism 
could  stand  on  the  pedestal  beside  him,  and  the  Bishop  saw 
only  the  first  of  the  CBcumenical  Conferences.  It  is  unnecessary 
here  to  sketch  the  life-history,  or  to  define  the  personal  cha- 
racteristics, which  gave  to  William  Arthur  his  unique  position. 
It  is  enough  that  I  should  here,  in  the  name  of  the  Conference 
of  world-wide  Methodism,  pay  to  his  memory  this  tribute  of 
affectionate  respect. 

Many  honourable  men,  chiefs  of  the  tribes  of  our  Israel, 
have  passed  away  from  earth  during  the  interval  of  ten  years. 
It  would  be  a  grateful  task  to  mention  their  names,  to  describe 
their  excellencies,  and  to  define  their  places  in  the  ever-unfolding 
story  of  Methodism  and  of  Christianity.  But  to  attempt  such  a 
task  would  savour  of  pi-esumption,  and  it  would  be  difficult  to 
avoid  partiality  for  some  and  injustice  towards  others.  Let  it  be 
enough  that  we  reverence  the  memories  of  those  who  have 
"  fought  the  good  fight,  and  finished  the  course" ;  that  we  rejoice 
in  the  ever-inci  easing  throng  of  the  "  great  multitude  which  no 
man  can  number  " ;  and  that  we  draw  from  their  example  and 
triumph  courage  for  the  tasks  which  are  still  to  be  wrought  on 
earth. 

lA  « 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

The  third  Oecumenical  Conference  met,  as  did  the  first,  in 
Wesley'a  Cliapel.  Ifc  found  the  venerable  building  renewed, 
beautified,  and  more  commodious,  while  every  characteristic  and 
historical  feature  of  the  edifice  had  been  preserved  with  a  most 
reverent  care.  It  was  gratifying  to  the  Wesleyan  Methodists, 
who  are  especially  the  guardians  of  the  venerable  church,  that 
their  brethren  from  all  parts  of  the  world  should  find  Wesley's 
Chapel,  in  its  structure  and  adornments,  not  unworthy  of  its 
great  history.  Their  pleasure,  too,  was  enhanced  by  the  fact  that 
so  many  of  the  Churches  of  the  Methodist  stock  had  gladly  taken 
a  part  in  the  work  of  restoration.  For  centuries  to  come,  if  the 
world  should  last  so  long,  ever-increasing  throngs  of  the  loyal 
children  of  Methodism  will  journey  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  to 
meditate  and  pray  on  the  spot  where  Wesley  most  frequently 
preached,  and  where  his  "  bonnie  dust  "  reposes. 

Again  the  Conference  consisted  of  500  delegates,  the  larger 
number,  as  was  plainly  just,  representing  the  larger  Methodism 
of  the  New  World.  Alike,  the  Eastern  and  Western  Sections 
included  the  Missionary  Churches,  irrespective  of  geographical 
position,  which  have  drawn  their  life  from  the  Mother  Church  in 
Great  Britain,  and  from  the  eldest  daughter — herself  now  a  proud 
and  fruitful  mother — in  the  United  States.  The  Methodism  of 
Canada,  which,  happily,  unites  many  of  the  qualities  of  British 
and  American  Methodism,  was,  for  geographical  reasons,  counted 
in  the  Western  Section.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Methodism  of 
the  young  Australian  Commonwealth,  and  of  the  South  African 
Colonies,  were,  by  unquestionable  right  of  spiritual  descent,  held 
to  form  part  of  the  Eastern  Section. 

With  one  notable  exception,  the  Conference  represented  only 
one  of  the  great  races  of  mankind.  Missionaries — themselves 
Anglo-Saxons — were  present  from  China,  Japan,  India,  Africa, 
and  the  Islands  of  the  Seas,  and  represented  them  nobly.  A  few 
voices  were  heard  speaking  for  races  which  are  English  neither  in 
blood  nor  in  language.  But,  on  the  whole,  the  Conference  lacked 
the  picturesqueness  and  pathetic  elements  which  should  have  been 
contributed  by  the  presence  of  men  who,  themselves  the  fruit  of 
Missionary  labour,  would  have  represented  the  people  of  their 
own  blood  as  none  else  can.  This  lack  was  noted  ten  years  ago  ; 
it  was,  perhaps,  even  more  conspicuous  in  the  recent  assembly. 
It  will  be  a  glad  day  when,  in  some  future  CEcumenical  Con- 
ference, natives  of  China  and  Japan,  of  India  and  Ceylon, 
of  Central  and  Southern  Africa,  of  Fiji  and  New  Guinea,  of 
Syria  and  Bulgaria  and  Finland,  shall  be  present  to  declare  in 


INTRODUCTION.  ^» 

their  own  tongues  the  wonderful  works  of  God.  Among  all 
these  people  our  Churches  are  actively  at  work  for  Christ,  and 
some  day  they  will  be  able  to  make  themselves  heard  in  the  gieat 
Council  of  Methodism. 

A  promise  and  pledge  of  this  were  given  by  the  presence  at 
Wesley's  Chapel  of  a  large  and  able  group  of  men  of  the  African 
race.  They  formed  a  striking  and  important  element  in  the 
Conference.  The  ability  and  earnestness  of  their  utterances 
stirred  the  hopes  of  all  who  have  faith  in  the  power  of  their 
race  to  rise  triumphant  from  the  tragedy  and  detriment  of  their 
past  history.  They  represented  conspicuously  the  fact  that  Chris- 
tianity expressed  by  Methodism  is  adapted  to  races  of  mankind 
differing  by  widest  extremes  in  blood,  climate,  and  mental 
development. 

The  CBcumenical  Conferences,  occurring  once  in  ten  years,  are 
valuable  as  points  of  definition  and  calculation.  It  is  satisfactory 
to  know  that  the  number  of  Church  members  has  steadily 
advanced  during  the  decade,  and  that  the  totals  of  churches, 
Sunday  scholars,  and  adherents  all  show  a  corresponding  increase. 
The  Statistical  Reports  presented  to  the  Conference  are  profoundly 
interesting,  and  full  of  inspiration.  They  will,  without  doubt, 
be  carefully  studied  alike  by  comrades  and  critics. 

This,  the  winning  of  souls  to  Christ,  and  building  them  up  in 
their  most  holy  faith,  is  the  prime  work  of  the  Church,  without 
which  all  else  is  vain,  and  by  reference  to  which  everything  else 
should  be  judged.  To  alter  the  constitution  of  a  Church,  to  draw 
the  Churches  nearer  to  each  other,  or  to  unite  those  who  have 
been  disparted,  is  not  in  itself  of  any  importance,  except  as  it 
improves  the  capacity  of  the  Church  for  its  great  work  of  saving 
mankind.  Whatever  promotes  this,  directly  or  indirectly,  is 
worthy  of  all  care  and  effort ;  nothing  that  will  not  help  this 
is  worth  the  time  spent  upon  it.  For  the  Church's  business 
is  salvation  ;  and  it  is  a  matter  for  rejoicing  that  Methodism  is 
still  a  fruitful  bough,  even  "  a  fruitful  bough  whose  branches  run 
over  the  wall." 

Nevertheless,  the  needless  existence  of  separate  Churches  is  to 
be  regretted,  and  separation  is  needless,  except  when  sufficiently 
grave  variations  of  creed,  method,  or  polity  compel  it.  It  can 
scarcely  be  denied  that  in  some  of  the  now  divided  Churches  of 
Methodism  there  are  no  sufficient  causes  for  their  separation.  In 
such  cases  economy  of  men  and  means  might  well  be  promoted, 
and  a  larger  result  of  the  highest  kind  expected  from  labours 
which  would  be  no  longer  in  any  degree  expended  upon  rivalry  or 


xn  INTRODUCTION. 

self -protection.  True  everywhere,  this  is  especially  true  in  new 
and  sparsely-populated  countries.  Hence  it  was  a  cause  of  deep 
thankfulness  that,  whilst  the  second  (Ecumenical  Conference  was 
heralded  by  Methodist  Union  in  Canada,  the  third  could  rejoice 
over  a  like  Union  in  Australasia,  all  but  completed. 

It  would  have  added  to  the  joy  of  the  Conference  if  any 
decisive  step  could  have  been  reported  towards  Union  between 
some  at  least  of  the  several  Methodist  Churches  in  Great  Britain 
and  in  the  United  States.  But  it  was  tacitly  recognised  that  in 
the  countries  where  Methodism  has  been  longest  planted,  is  most 
widely  and  strongly  entrenched,  and  has  the  memory  of  past 
struggles  still  surviving,  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  Union  are 
the  greatest.  The  Conference,  however,  greatly  rejoiced  in  the 
fact  that  controversy  between  Methodist  Churches  is  a  thing  of 
the  past,  and  the  relations  between  those  Churches  are  cordially 
harmonious,  and  show  promise  of  an  increasing  intimacy  of 
relation  and  feeling  as  the  years  pass  on. 

It  must  be  admitted,  and  the  Conference  indicated  this  by 
resolution,  that  the  programme  gave  inadequate  opportunity  for 
the  discussion  of  some  of  the  topics  which  should  be  most 
congenial  to  the  Methodist  spirit.  Woman's  work  in  the  Church, 
for  instance,  was  only  represented  by  an  extemporised  public 
meeting  added  to  the  programme,  and  to  the  imperial  subject  of 
Foreign  Missions  only  one  day  was  allotted.  These  and  some 
other  topics  will  doubtless  have  larger  opportunity  given  to  them 
at  future  Conferences. 

When,  twenty  years  ago,  the  first  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference assembled,  its  proceedings  were  shadowed  by  the  assassi- 
nation of  President  Garfield,  and  it  was  the  painful  duty  of  the 
Conference  to  hold  a  Memorial  Service,  which  should  pay  respect 
to  the  dead,  and  manifest  the  sympathy  between  the  two  English- 
speaking  peoples.  By  a  remarkable  coincidence  the  late  Con- 
ference was  darkened  by  the  shadow  of  a  like  crime.  Again 
a  President  of  the  United  States  was  struck  down  by  a  mur- 
derer. This  time  the  sorrow  of  the  Conference  was  more  acute, 
for  President  McKinley  was  not  only  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the 
American  nation,  but  was  a  loyal  and  consistent  Methodist.  Many 
hearts  in  the  Conference  wept  for  the  friend  and  brother,  and  for 
the  beloved  and  desolate  wife,  as  well  as  for  the  President  and 
the  bereft  nation.  Most  properly,  although  in  a  deep  and  solemn 
sadness,  the  Conference  closed  with  a  Memorial  Service,  which 
none  can  ever  forget  who  were  present  at  it.  Dark  as  was  the 
shadow  of    this   tragedy  upon   the   Conference,    even  it  brought 


INTRODUCTION. 


blessing  with  it,  for  it  revealed  to  Britons  and  Americans  liow 
close  and  true  their  hearts  beat  towards  each  other  in  the  day  of 
distress. 

Now,  what  remains  for  us,  except  to  learn  humbly  every  lesson 
taught  by  the  late  Conference,  to  cherish  the  spirit  of  comity  and 
brotherhood  which  it  represented  and  promoted,  and  to  fill  what 
remains  of  our  lives  with  loyal  service  to  Christ,  the  Head  of  the 
Church,  and  to  Methodism,  the  Church  of  our  choice  ? 

T.  Bowman  Stephenson. 


IB 


OFFICIAL   LIST   OF   DELEGATES, 

(Those   marked    thus  *   were    not   present   at    the   Conference.) 


EASTERN     SECTION. 


APPORTIONMENT    OF    DELEGATES   IN    THE    EASTERN    SECTION 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church 86 

Irish  Methodist  Church lO 

Methodist  New  Connexion lo 

Primitive  Methodist  Church  34 

Bible  Christian  Church  10 

United  Methodist  Free  Churches   20 

French  Methodist  Church 2 

Australasian  Methodist  Church    12 

Independent  Methodist  Church    3 

Wesleyan  Reform  Union    3 

South  African  Methodist  Church 6 

West  Indian  Methodist  Church 4 

WESLEYAN     METHODIST    CHURCH. 

Rev.  W.  T.  Davison,  M.A.,  D.D.  (President 

of  the  Conference) Friary    Road,    Handsworth,    Bir- 
mingham. 
Marshall     Hartley    (Secretary    of    the 

Conference) i,  Coleman  Street,  London,  E.C. 

Thomas  Allen,   D.D.   (Ex-President  of 

the  Conference) Wesleyan     College,     Handsworth, 

Birmingham. 

R.  W.  Allen 26,  Edith  Road,  West  Kensington, 

London,  W, 

John  S.  Banks Wesleyan      College,     Headingley, 

Leeds. 

J.  Agar  Beet,  D.D Wesleyan       College,      Richmond, 

Surrey. 

G.  Armstrong  Bennetts,  B.A 75,  Gordon  Road,  Ealing,  London, 

W. 

John  Bond    29-35,  City  Road,  Londor   E.C. 

xiv 


LIST    OF    DEI.EOATES.  XV 

Joseph  Bush Wellington  Road,  Newark. 

Thomas  Champness  "  [oyful  News"  Home,   Rochdale. 

James  Chapman  WesleyanNormalInstitution,South- 

lands,  Battersea,  London,  S.W. 

Thomas  J.  Choale  I55,  Stanley  Road,  Bootle,  Liver- 
pool. 

Albert  Clayton 31,  City  Road,  London,  E.G. 

Samuel  F.  Collier 6$,     High     Street,     Chorlton-on- 

Medlock,  Manchester. 

Robert  Culley  2,     Ludgate      Circus      Buildings, 

London,  E.C, 
Nehemiah  Curnock 14,  Prittlewell   Square,   Southend- 

on-Sea. 

John  Gould  Cavendish  Avenue,  Cambridge. 

Walford  Green i,  Coleman  Street,  London,  E.C. 

A.  E.  Gregory,  D.D The  Children's  Home,  Bonner  Road, 

Victoria  Park,  London,  E. 
John  Hornabrook Central  Buildings,  Oldham  Street, 

Manchester. 
Geo.  Jackson,  B.A 34,  Newbattle  Terrace,  Edinburgh. 

E.  E.  Jenkins,  LL.D 23,  Queen's  Road,  Southport. 

Simpson  Johnson 16,  Vernon  Road,  Leeds. 

Hugh  Jones St.  Paul's  Manse,  Bangor. 

Charles  H.  Kelly 2,  Castle  Street,  City  Road,  London, 

E.C. 

J.  Scott  Lidgett,  M.A Farncombe  St,,  Jamaica  Rd.,  Ber- 

mondsey,  London,  S.E. 

F.  W,  Macdonald    I,  Coleman  Street,  London,  E.C. 

R,  Waddy  Moss,  D.D Wesleyan  College,  Didsbury,  Man- 
chester. 

J.  Hope  Moulton,  M.A 3,  Queen  Anne  Terrace,  Cambridge. 

Rice  Owen   Ferndale,  Pontypridd. 

William  Perkins i,  Coleman  Street,  London,  E.C. 

H.  J.  Pope,  D.D 49,  City  Road,  London,  E.C. 

Joseph  Posnett Ivydene,  Clarendon  Park,  Leicester. 

Marshall  Randies,  D.D Wesleyan  College,  Didsbury,  Man- 
chester. 

James  H.  Rigg,  D.D Wesleyan       Normal       Institution, 

Horseferry  Road,  Westminster, 
London,  S.W. 

Enoch  Salt   St.  Elmo,  Sandon  Road,  Edgbaston, 

Birmingham. 

T.  Bowman  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  ...Grove  Lodge,  Ilkley,  Yorkshire. 

Peter  Thompson 583,      Commercial      Road      East, 

London,  E. 

David  J.  Waller,  D.D,,  LL.D Wesleyan  Training  College,  Horse- 
ferry  Road,  Westminster,  Lon- 
don, S.W. 

William  D.  Walters    58,    Cromwell     Avenue,    Archway 

Road,  London,  N. 

Owen  Watkins 33.  Corbett  Road,  Cardiff. 

Frederick  L.  Wiseman,  B.A The  Central  Hall,  Corporation  St., 

Birmingham. 

Dinsdale  T.  Young 16,  St.  Catherine  Place,  Edinburgh. 


XVI  LIST    OF    DELEGATES. 

Ml.  Moses  Atkinson Faiimount,  Headingley,  Leeds. 

,,    Thomas  H.  Bainbridge T. Holmwood,    Jesmond,    Newcastle- 

on-  Tyne. 

„    John  Barnsley Earlsfield,  Woodbourne  Road,  Edg- 

baston,  Birmingham. 

„    Thomas  Barnsley,  J.P 27,    Augustus     Road,    Edgbaston, 

Birmingham. 

„    Joseph  Beckett,  J.P Belvidere,  Whitchurch,  Salop. 

„    Henry  Bisseker  31,    Augustus    Road,    Edgbaston, 

Birmingham. 

,,  John  Broxap  351,  The  Cli£f,  Broughton,  Man- 
chester. 

,,    Percy  W.  Bunting,  I\I.A II,    Endsleigh    Gardens,    London, 

W.C. 

Sir  George  H.  Chubb,  Bart.* Newlands,  Chislehurst. 

Mr.  J.  Calvert  Coates   25,  Highbury  Quadrant,  London,  N. 

,,    Thomas  Cole*    Park  Spring  House,  Sheffield. 

„  John  Cooper  Woodville,  Cheetham  Hill,  Man- 
chester. 

„    James  Vanner  Early Springfield,  Witney. 

„  J.  Wilcox  Edge,  J.P Huntly,  Wolstanton,  Stoke-on- 
Trent. 

„    S.  Rathbone  Edge,  M.A.,  J.P Newcastle,  Staffordshire. 

,,    Thos.  R.  Kerens Saxby    House,   Holderness    Road, 

Hull. 

„    John  R.  Flitch* Southlands,  Moor  Allerton,  Leeds. 

„    T.  W.  Griffith Glyn  Garth,  Llandudno. 

„    T.  Morgan  Harvey    Salesmere,  Camden  Park,Tunbridge 

Wells. 

„    Charles  Heap Rochdale. 

„    Norval  W.  Helme,  M.P Springfield  Hall,  Lancaster 

„    John  R.  Hill* Millfield,  York. 

„    Henry  HoUoway    Burntwrood  Grange,  Upper  Tooting, 

London,  S.W. 

„    Alfred  Jermyn,  J.P Burleigh  House,  King's  Lynn. 

„    Williamson  Lamplough     8,  Vanbrugh  Terrace,  Blackheath, 

London,  S.E. 

„  George  Lidgett,  B.A Grove  Lodge,  Conduit  Vale,  Black- 
heath,  London,  S.E. 

„  James  Lovatt,  J.P  Sunny  Bank,  Newcastle,  Stafford- 
shire. 

„    Alexander  M'Arthur,  D.L.,  J.P 79,  Holland  Park,  London,  W. 

„    William  Mewburn  Pembury,  Tunbridge  Wells. 

„    William  Middlebrook* Morley,  Leeds. 

.     George  W.  Munt   Hazlemere     Road,     Crouch     End, 

London,  N. 

„    Thomas  G.  Osborn,  M.A Rydal    Mount,    Colwyn    Bay,   N. 

Wales. 

„    Robert  W.  Perks,  M.P 11,    Kensington    Palace    Gardens, 

London,  W. 

„    Joseph  Rank  Willersley,  Pearson's  Park,  Hull. 

„    J.  Bamford  Slack,  B.A 10,  Woburn  Square,  London,  W.C. 

Sir  Clarence  Smith    Falcon     Wood,     Shooter's     Hill, 

London,  S.E. 


LIST    OF    DELEGATES.  XVll 

Sir  George  Smith  Treliske,  Truro, 

„   William  H.  Stephenson*    Elswick  House,  Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

Mr.  James  E.  Vanner Camden  Wood,  Chislehurst. 

„    Thomas  Walker  Southfield,  Bolton. 

„    Ezra  T.  Wilks Ashlyns,  Watford,  Herts. 

„    D.  Davies  Williams    Madagascar    House,    Machynlleth, 

N.  Wales. 

„    Peter  F.  Wood    Lubbock  Road,  Chislehurst. 


IRISH    METHODIST    CHURCH. 

Rev.  John  O.  Park,  B.A.  (Vice-President  of  the 

Conference)    94,  Stephen's  Green,  Dublin. 

„     Wm.  A.  Bracken  5,  Montpellier  Terrace,  Cork. 

„     J.  W.  R.  Campbell,  M.A 44,  Harcourt  Street,  Dublin. 

„     Wesley  Guard   59,  Botanic  Avenue,  Belfast. 

,,     R,  Crawford  Johnson,  D.D 87,  University  Street,  Belfast. 

Mr.  Saml.  M.  Comas,  J.P Rockfort,  Dalkey,  Dublin. 

„    John  B.  M'Cutcheon      Laurel  Bank, Osborne  Park,  Belfast. 

„    John  A.  Duncan,  J.P Fort  Barrington,  Athy. 

„    Geo.  Hadden,  J.P Main  Street,  Wexford. 

„    Frank  Megarry,  J.P Adelaide  Park,  Belfast. 


METHODIST    NEW    CONNEXION. 

Rev.    G,    T.     Candlin     (President     of     the 

Conference)    Mount  Preston,  Leeds. 

„     George  Packer Belle  View  Road,  Leeds. 

„     J.  E.  Radcliffe  Blundell  Street,  Leeds. 

„     T.  Rider    East  Mount,  Barrow-in-Furness. 

„    W.  J.  Townsend,  D.D Prestatyn,  N.  Wales. 

Mr.  W.  P.  Burnley    Higher  Broughton,  Manchester. 

,,    J.  Hepworth,  J.P Park  Drive,  Harrogate. 

Sir  C.  T.  Skelton,  J.P Meadow  Bank,  Sheffield. 

Mr.  J.  G.  Watson  Chester     Crescent,     Newcastle-on- 
Tyne. 
„    W.  Wilson,  J.P.*  Knowle  Brow,  Mirfield. 


PRIMITIVE    METHODIST    CHURCH. 

Rev.  H.  B.  Kendall,  B.A.  (President  of  the 

Conference)    121,  Dover  Street,  Folkestone. 

„     Robert  Bryant  21,  Beacon  Hill,  Holloway,  London, 

N. 

„     Richard  W.  Burnett     71,     Freegrove     Road,     Holloway, 

London,  N. 

„     R.  R.  Connell  4,  Oakington  Road,  Harrow  Road, 

London,  W. 
„     Edwin  Dalton    12,  Cromer  Terrace,  Armley,  Leeds. 


XVin  .  LIST    OF    DELEGATES. 

Rev.  Arthur  T.  Guttery    19,      Queen's       Road,      Jesmond, 

Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

„     John  Hallam 25,  Beacon  Hill,  Hollovvay,  London. 

N. 

,,     Robert  Hind Scarcroft  Hill,  York. 

„     Thomas  Mitchell 22,    Mount     View     Road,     Stroud 

Green,  London,  N. 

,,     Joseph  Odell Langley    House,    Langley    Road, 

Small  Heath,  Birmingham. 

„     George  Parkin,  M.A.,  B.D Primitive        Methodist       College, 

Alexandra  Road,  Manchester. 

,,     Theophilus  Parr,  M.A 1 18,      Droylsden      Road,     Newton 

Heath,  Manchester. 

„     James  Pickett    35,  Albany  Street,  Hull. 

„     Joseph  Ritson   Pine  Grove,  Avon   Street,   Mother- 
well, N.B. 

„     Danzy  Sheen 189,  Hyde  Park  Road,  Leeds. 

„     John  Slater  124,  Upperthorpe,  Sheffield. 

„     James  Watkin  7,  Albert  Square,  Clapham   Road, 

London,  S  W. 

Mr.  Adam  Adams,  J. P , 94,  Denmark  Road,  Lowestoft. 

,,    E.  Beacham,  J.P Eston,  Middlesbrough. 

„    W.  Beckworth,  J.P Headingley,  Leeds. 

„    W.  R.  Bootland  33,  Wellington  Road,  Eccles,  Man- 
chester. 
,,    Amos  Chippindale Lindale,  Harrogate. 

„    G.  S.  Dobson,  J. P.*    Ash  Tree  Villa,  Grimsby. 

„    John  Harrison*   Commercial  Chambers,  Cookeridge 

Street,  Leeds. 

„    W.  P.  Hartley,  J.P Inglewood,  Aintree,  Liverpool. 

„    E.  Jennings     Ashleigh  Villas,  Leicester. 

„    Thomas  Lawrence Humberstone  Gate,  Leicester. 

„    F.  C.  Linfield 148,  Montague  Street,  Worthing. 

„    L.  L.  Morse,  J.P The  Croft,  Swindon,  Wilts. 

„    W.  McNeill,  J.P Crewe. 

„    E.  C.  Rawlings Newnham     Lodge,    4,     Rivercourt 

Rd.,  Hammersmith,  London,  W. 

„    W.  Savage  King's  Lynn. 

„    W.  Windsor     37,  Brown  Street,  Manchester. 

„    C.  J.  Youngs   St.  Winifred's,  Plain  Street,  Hull. 


BIBLE    CHRISTIAN    CHURCH. 

Rev.  J.  Luke  (President  of  the  Conference) 39,  Fort  Street,  Barnstaple. 

J.  H.  Batt  Yelverton,  R.S.O.,  Devon. 

F.  W.  Bourne    Fairhaven,  Woolstone   Road,  Cat- 
ford,  London,  S.E. 

W.  B.  Lark    The  College,  Shebbear,  Highamp- 

ton,  Devon. 

A.  Trengove 79,    Rouge    Bouillon,    St.    Heller, 

Jersey. 
Mr.  G.  P.  Dymond,  B.A Lockyer  Street,  Plymouth. 


LIST    OF    DELEGATES.  XIX 

Mr.  W.  B.  Luke,  J.P Leinster     Lodge,    Leinster     Road, 

South  Kilburn,  London,  N.W. 

„  S.  P.  Rattenbury,  J.P Polshilsa,  Stokeclimsland,  Calling- 
ton. 

„    T.  Ruddle,  B.A College  Villa,  Shebbear,  Highamp- 

ton,  Devon. 

„    J.  White  55>  Pa"s  Street,  Exeter. 


UNITED    METHODIST    FREE   CHURCHES. 

Rev.  D,  Brook,  M.A.,    D.C.L.   (President   of 

the  Annual  Assembly)  2i,  Scarisbrick  New  Rd.,  Southport. 

„     R.  Abercrombie,  M.A Norleigh    House,  Somerset   Road, 

Huddersfield. 

E.  Boaden Crescent   House,   Cheetham    Hill, 

Manchester. 

J.  C.  Brewitt Hawcoat     Lane,      Abbey      Road, 

Barrow-in-Furness. 

E.D.Cornish   59,    Howard    Street,    Eccles    New 

Road,  Manchester. 

Andrew  Crombie Rothbury,  122,  East  Dulwich  Grove, 

London,  S.E. 

F.  Galpin  Woone  Lane,  Clitheroe,  Lancashire. 

W.  H.  Cory  Harris Warwick   House,   Waterloo   Road, 

Burslem. 

W.  Redfern  Westfield  Villa,  Wakefield. 

T.  Sherwood Free    Methodist   College,  Victoria 

"        *  Park,  Manchester. 

Mr.  John  Akers,  C.C Letcombe,        Cambridge       Road, 

Wanstead,  London,  N.E. 

J.  E.  Balmer   Hyde  Lodge,  Eccles,  Manchester 

J,  G.  Benson    Grey  Street,  Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

''    Robert  Bird,  J.P Ellerslie,  Roath,  Cardiff. 

Sir  Christopher  Furness,  M.P.*  23,  Upper  Brook  Street,  London,  W. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Hart   J.P Newlyn,  Driffold,  Sutton  Coldfield 

Birmingham. 

William  Mallinson,  J.P The  Limes,  Walthamstow,  London, 

"  N.E. 

„    R.  G.  Rows,  J. P.,  C.C Helston,  Cornwall. 

„    Thomas  Snape,  J.P The      Gables,      Croxteth      Road, 

Liverpool. 

E.  S.  Snell  Treverbyn,       Cambridge        Park, 

"  '  Wanstead,  Lordon,  N.E, 

FRENCH    METHODIST   CHURCH. 

Rev.  Edouard  Gallienne 21,  Rue  d'Orleans,  Calais. 

„    George  Whelpton    4.  Rue  Roqu^pine,  Paris. 


AUSTRALASIAN    METHODIST   CHURCH. 

Rev  J.  Berry South  Australia. 

„  '  j!  Doran '"!!".'. Queensland. 


XX  LIST    OF    DELEGATES. 

Rev.  F.  Langham  65,      Carysfort      Road,      Stoke 

Newington,  London,  N. 

„    J.  F.  Orr     New  South  Wales. 

„    Isaac  Rooney    South  Australia. 

„    S.  Rossiter South  Australia. 

„    E.  J.  Watkin,  D.D Victoria  and  Tasmania. 

,,    W.  J,  Williams Auckland,  New  Zealand. 

Mr.  W.  Shepherd  Allen,  M.A Cheadia,  Staffordshire. 

„     F.  Chappie,  B.A.,  B.Sc South  Australia, 

„    A.  Harkness,  J,P Victoria  and  Tasmania. 

„    A.  J,  Littledike  Queensland. 

INDEPENDENT   METHODIST  CHURCH. 

Mr.    John    Crumblehulme    (President    of    the 

Conference)    Lostock,  Bolton. 

„    William  Brimelow,  J.P Carlyle  House,  Bolton. 

„    Thomas  Robinson  Wheatfield,Thetford,  Manchester. 

WESLEYAN    REFORM    UNION. 

Mr.   John  H.    Freeborough    (President    of   the 

Conference)    73,  Montgomery  Terrace   Road, 

Sheffield. 

„    George  Carr    Smelter  Lane,  Pitsmoor,  Sheffield 

„    William  Marsden    122,  Cemetery  Road,  Doncaster. 

SOUTH  AFRICAN    METHODIST   CHURCH. 

Rev.  S.  B.  Cawood    Ladysmith,  Natal. 

„     Zadock  Robinson Birstall,  Leeds. 

„     J.  Smith  Spencer Watford,  Herts. 

Mr.  Thomas  Ball   Cape  Town. 

„    T.  E.  Duckies King  William's  Town. 

„    H.  A.  Oliver* Kimberley. 

WEST   INDIAN    METHODIST  CHURCH. 

Rev.  Arthur  Bourne*    Stafford,  England. 

„    George  Lockett Kingston,  Jamaica. 


WESTERN    SECTION. 


APPORTIONMENT    OF    DELEGATES    IN    THE    WESTERN    SECTION. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church    120 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South  7° 

Methodist  Church  of  Canada  24 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church... 18 


LIST    OF    DELE  HATES.  XXI 

African   Metl)odist  Episcopal  Zion  Church  14 

Coloured  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 9 

Methodist  Protestant  Church  9 

African  Union  Methodist  Protestant  Church   

Union  American  Methodist  Episcopal  Church    

United  Evangelical  Church 

Primiti\'e  Methodist  Church     

Free  Methodist  Church     


METHODIST     EPISCOPAL    CHURCH. 

Bishop  J.  F,  Hurst,  D.D.,  LL.D Washington,  D.C. 

„       John  H.  Vincent,  D.D.,  LL.D     Zurich,  Switzerland. 

,,       J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.D.,  LL.D San  Francisco,  Cal. 

„       J.  C.  Hartzell,  D.D.,  LL.D Monrovia,  Liberia. 

Rev.  A.  E.  P.  Albert,  D.D Baldwin,  La. 

„  C.  E.  Bacon,  D.D Indianapolis,  Ind. 

„  Chas.  W.  Baldwin,  D.D Baltimore,  Md. 

„  J.  W.  E.  Bowen,D.D.*    South  Atlanta,  Ga. 

„  Geo.  H.  Bridgman,  D.D.*  Hamline,  Minn. 

„  Frank  M.  Bristol,  D.D Washington,  D.C. 

„  Frederick  Brown,  F.R.GS Tientsin,  China. 

„  John  P.  Brushingham,  D.D Chicago,  111. 

„  Wm.  Burt,  D.D Rome,  Italy. 

„  John  Wesley  Butler,  D.D Mexico  City,  Mex. 

„  M.  M.  Callen,  D.D.*    Eaton  Rapids,  Mich. 

„  J.  B.  Cams,  D.D.,  Ph.D Lincoln,  Nebraska. 

„  J.  M.  Carter,  D.D.*     Huntingdon,  Tenn. 

„  Richard  J.  Cooke,  D.D Chattanooga,  Tenn. 

„  Wilbur  F.  Corkran,  D.D Smyrna,  Del. 

„  Wilbur  L.  Davidson,  D.D Washington,  D.C. 

„  Samuel  M.  Dick,  Ph.D Providence,  R.I. 

„  L.  H.  Dorchester Boston,  Mass. 

„  Homer  Eaton,  D.D New  York  City. 

„  Geo.  Elliott,  D.D Detroit,  Mich. 

„  W.  P.  Ferguson,  D.D Newark,  N.J. 

„  R.  Forbes,  D.D.*  Duluth,  Minn. 

„  S.  W.  Gehrett,  D.D Philadelphia,  Pa. 

„  C.  M.  Giffin,  D.D Scranton,  Pa. 

„  R.  H.  Gilbert,  D.D Berwick,  Pa. 

„  Hillary  A.  Gobin,  D.D Greencastle,  Ind. 

„  John  F.  Goucher,  D.D Baltimore,  Md. 

„  E.  J.  Gray,  D.D Williamsport,  Pa. 

„  John  Handley,  D.D Long  Branch,  N.J. 

„  Manley  S.  Hard,  D.D Evanston,  111. 

„  W.  I.  Haven,  D.D New  York  City. 

„  Stephen  J.  Herben,  Lit.D New  York  City. 

„  Karl  A.  Jansson    Stockholm,  Sweden. 

„  A.  Johnson,  D.D Philadelphia,  Pa. 

„  J.  W.  Johnston,  D.D.* New  York  City. 


XXU  LIST    OF    DELEGATES, 

Rev.  W.  H.  Jordan,  D.D Sioux  Falls,  S.  Dak. 

„  P.  G.  Junker Fninkfort-on-Main,  Germany, 

„  J.  M.  King,  D.D Philadelphia,  Pa. 

„  W.  F.  King,  D.D Mount  Vernon,  la. 

„  T.  Kirkpatrick  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

„  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D New  York  City. 

„  C.  J.  Little,  D.D Evanston,  IlL 

,.  Hugh  McBirney,  D.D Pittsburg,  Kansas. 

,,  Henry  Mann Cannstadt,  Germany. 

„  Joseph  H.  Mansfield,  D.D Boston,  Mass. 

„  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  D.D Cincinnati,  O. 

„  William  H.  Meredith   Boston,  Mass. 

„  P.  S.  xMerrill,  D.D Buffalo,  N.Y. 

„  C.  W.  Millard,  D.D.*  Yonkers,  N.Y. 

„  Edmund  M.  Mills,  Ph.D.,  D.D Elmira,  N.Y. 

„  C.  Bayard  Mitchell,  Ph.D  ,  D.D Minneapolis,  Minn. 

,,  Wm.  Moses    Harrisburg,  Pa. 

„  L.  H.  Murlin,  D.D.*    Baldwin,  Kan. 

„  Albert  J.  Nast,  D.D Cincinnati,  O. 

„  Walter  H.  Nelson,  Ph.D.,  D.D Huntsville,  Ala. 

„  F.  Mason  North,  D.D New  York  City. 

Prof.  J.  L.  Niielson    Berea,  O. 

Rev.  A.  J.  Palmer,  D.D.*     Newburg,  N.Y. 

„  William  D.  Parr,  D.D Fort  Wayne,  Ind. 

„  John  Parsons*  .Salem,  Ore. 

„  John  H.  Poland,  D.D Macon,  Mo. 

„  Russel  P.  Pope,  D.D Cambridge,  O. 

„  A.  B.  Sanford,  D.D Brooklyn,  N.Y. 

„  A.  K.  Sanford,  D.D New  York  City. 

„  L  B.  Scott,  D.D New  Orleans,  La. 

„  J.  M.  Shumpert,  D.D Columbus,  Miss. 

„  C.  W.  Smith,  D.D Pittsburg,  Pa. 

„  E.  C.  Smith* Leavenworth,  Kansas. 

,,  Henry  Spellmeyer,  D.D Newark,  N.J. 

,,  Charles  Lewis  Stafford,  D.D Muscatine,  la. 

„  John  Stafford,  D.D Red  Wing,  Minn. 

,,  Henry  A.  Starks,  D.D.* Middletown,  Conn. 

„  L.  H.  Stewart,  D.D.*  Cleveland,©. 

„  J.  E.  Stubbs,  D.D.* Reno,  Nevada. 

„  P.  H.  Swift,  D.D Chicago,  111. 

„  Edward  O.  Thayer,  D.D Portland,  Me. 

„  D.  K.  Tindall,  Ph.D.,  D.D Omaha,  Neb. 

„  L.  T.  Townsend,  D.D.*  Boston,  Mass. 

„  Samuel  Van  Pelt,  D.D Monmouth,  111, 

„  W.  G.  Waters,  D.D.*   Lima,  O. 

„  William  H.  Wilder,  D.D Bloomington,  III. 

,,  John  A.  B.  Wilson,  D.D San  Francisco,  Calif. 

„  W.  Arthur  Wright,  Ph.D Jamestown,  N.Y. 

„  Jesse  Bowman  Young,  D.D Cincinnati,  O. 

Mr.  Willard  S.  Allen,  M.A East  Boston,  Mass. 

„    John  Eugene  Annis    Chattanooga,  Tenn. 


LIST    OF    DELEGAIES  XXIU 

Mr.  Horace  Benton    Cleveland,  O. 

„    W.  J.  Booth*   Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 

„     W.  P.  Burnham Brooklyn,  N.Y. 

„     David  H.  Carroll,  D.D Baltimore,  Md. 

President  G.  Prentice  Carson* De  Land,  Fla. 

Mr.  M.  H.  Chamberlain,  LL.D  * Lebanon,  111. 

,,     Hanford  Crawford  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

„     R.  S.  Copeland,  M.D Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 

„     C.  C.  Corbin    Webster,  Mass. 

„     Arthur  Dixon*     Chicago,  111. 

,.     William  M.  Field  Wilmington,  Del. 

„    J.  F.  Force,  M.D Minneapolis,  Minn. 

„     Anderson  Fowler    , Newr  York  City. 

„     R.  W.  G.  Goff Philadelphia,  Pa. 

„     S.  Hannaford* Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

„    John  G.  Holmes Pittsburg,  Pa. 

„     Robert  Laidlav?    Calcutta,  India. 

„    Thomas  S.  Lippy   Seattle,  Wash. 

„     David  McWilliams Dwight,  III. 

,,     Chas.  R.  Magee Boston,  Mass. 

„     W.  H.  Murphy    Newark,  N.J. 

Hon.  Thomas  H.  Murray Clearfield,  Pa. 

Mr.  Joshua  S.  Rawlings    Baltimore,  Md. 

„     W.  D.  Rippey*   Severance,  Kansas. 

„     Geo.  O,  Robinson  Detroit,  Mich. 

„     Henry  A.  Salzer*    La  Crosse,  Wis. 

„     Chas.  Scott Philadelphia,  Pa. 

„     Jas.  G.  Shepherd    Scranton,  Pa. 

„     F.  W.  Tunnell    Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Professor  J.  M.  Van  Vleck,  LL.D Middletown,  Conn. 

Mr.  Geo.  F.  Washburn Boston,  Mass. 

Professor  C.  T.  Winchester Middletown,  Conn. 


METHODIST    EPISCOPAL    CHURCH,    SOUTH. 

Bishop  Chas.  B.  Galloway,  D.D.,LL.D Jackson,  Miss. 

„       J.  C.  Granbery,  D.D Ashland,  Va. 

„      A.  W.  Wilson,  D.D Nashville,  Tenn. 

Rev.  Gross  Alexander,  D.D.*  Nashville,  Tenn. 

„  Young  J.  Allen,  D.D.,  LL.D Atlanta,  Ga. 

„  James  Atkins,  D.D.*     Waynesville,  N.C. 

„  R.  J.  Bigham,  D.D.*    Atlanta,  Ga. 

„  J.  W.  Blackard,  D.D Memphis,  Tenn. 

„  Harvey  J.  Brown  Wagoner,  I.T. 

„  David  W.  Carter,  D.D Havana,  Cuba. 

„  S.  P.  Cresap Moberly,  Mo. 

„  J.  R.  Deering    Danville,  Ky. 

„  Chas.  E.  Dowman,  D.D Oxford,  Ga. 

„  John  S.  Frazer,  D.D Montgomery,  Ala. 

„  Thomas  Gregory Cuero,  Tex. 


XXIV  LIST    OF    DELEGATES. 

Rev.  J.  M.  Gross    Ardinore,  I.T. 

„     J.  D.  Hammond,  D  D Nashville,  Tenn. 

„     E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D Nashville,  Tenn. 

„     R.  P.  Howrell Murphysboro',  111. 

„     F.  A.  Jeffett  Paragould,  Ark. 

„     F.  S.  H.  Johnston     Conway,  Ark. 

„     J.  C.  Kilgo,  D.D Durham,  N.C. 

,,     A.  J.  Lamar,  D.D Montgomery,  Ala. 

„     Walter  R.  Lambuth,  D.D Nashville,  Tenn. 

„     W.  C.  Lovett,  D.D.*    Columbia,  S.C. 

„     W.  B.  Murrah,  D.D.,  LL.D Jackson,  Miss. 

,,     W.  L.  Nelms,  D.D Georgetown,  Tex, 

,,    John  R.  Nelson    Waco,  Tex. 

,,    John  W.  Newman,  D.D Falladegar,  Ab, 

„    W.  B.  Palmore,  D.D St.  Louis,  Mo. 

,,     F.  N.  Parker New  Orleans,  La. 

„     E.  H.  Pearce,  D.D Paris,  Ky. 

„    W.  M.  Poage Monticello,  Fla. 

„     S.G.Preston*  Cattellsberg,  Ky. 

,,     F.J.  Prettyman     Washington,  D.C. 

,,     George  C.  Rankin,  D.D Dallas,  Tex, 

,,     J.  C.  Simmons,  D.D Woodland,  Cal. 

„     A.  Coke  Smith,  D.D Norfolk,  Va. 

,,     E.  S.  Smith,  D.D Austin,  Tex. 

„     L.  S.  Smith    Dallas,  Texas. 

„     James  Thomas Little  Rock,  Ark. 

„     Jno.  J.  Tigert,  D.D.,  LL.D Nashville,  Tenn. 

„     W.  F.  Tillett,  D.D.*     Nashville,  Tenn. 

„     D.  F.  C.  Timmons    Texarkana,  Texas. 

„     Hugh  C.  Tucker  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Brazil. 

„     P.  H.  Whisner,  D.D Louisville,  Ky. 

„     Paul  Whitehead,  D.D Lynchburg,  Va. 

„     John  Owens  Willson,  D.D Columbia,  S.C. 

„     J.  Hay  Young,  Ph.D.,  D.D St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Hon.  S.  B.  Adams*     Savannah,  Ga. 

„     W.  J.  Boaz*  Dallas,  Tex. 

„     Peter  V.  D.  Conway Fredricksburg,  Va. 

Mr.  W.  M.  Eads Carrollton,  Mo. 

,,    E.  P.  Hamblen     Houston,  Tex. 

Hon.  W.  R.  Hammond*    Atlanta,  Ga, 

Prof,  R,  S.  Hyer,  LL,D Georgetown,  Tex. 

„     Thomas  W,  Jordan,  LL,D Knoxville,  Tenn. 

Chancellor  J.  H,  Kirkland* Nashville,  Tenn. 

Hon,  C.  R.  Long    Louisville,  Ky. 

Mr.  S.  B.  McCutchen*  New  Orleans,  La. 

„    C.  W.  Moore    Kansas  City,  Mo. 

„    George  H.  Mulkey Fort  Worth,  Tex. 

„    J.  A.  Odell* Concord,  N.C. 

„    G.  C.  Rhodes Jackson,  Tenn. 

„    R.  J.  Pepper    Memphis,  Tenn. 

Hon,  E.  M.  Skipworth* Eugenes,  Oregon. 


LIST   OF    DELECAIES. 

Hon  G.  D.  Shaiids*  Oxford,  Miss. 

„  W.  G.  Vincenhiller* Fayetteville,  Ark. 

„  Charles  W.  White    Citra,  Fla. 

„  Pleasant  Green  Wood Selmo,  Ala, 


METHODIST    CHURCH   OF   CANADA. 

Rev.  Wm.  Briggs,  D.D Toronto. 

„     Chancellor  N.  Burwash,  D.D Toronto. 

„     William  J.  Crothers,  D.D Belleville. 

„    W.  H.  Emsley   Brandon,  N.  West. 

„     George  Wells  Fisher    Moncton,  New  Brunswick. 

R.  W.  Freeman     7,Beardsairs  Row,Ret[ord, Notts. 

„     George  W.  Henderson London  Conference. 

„     Robert  Hughes Victoria,  B.C. 

„    J.  W.  McConnell Charlotte  Town,  P.E.I. 

„    J.  F.  Ockley Toronto. 

„     John  Pickering Brantford,  Ontario. 

„    John  Potts,  D.D Toronto. 

„     S.  P.  Rose,  D.D Ottawa. 

„     Professor  W.  I.  Shaw,  D.D.,  LL.D Montreal. 

„     Professor  Chas.  Stewart,  D.D Sackville,  New  Brunswick. 

„    John  Wakefield,  D.D Ontario. 

G.  M.Young Charlotte  Town,  P.E.I. 

Mr.  W.  J.  Ferguson  Stratford. 

Joseph  Gibson Ingersoll. 

James  R.  Inch,  LL.D Frederickton,  New  Brunswick. 

Wm.  Johnson Belleville. 

W.  H.  Lambly    Inverness. 

L.  N.  Lovering  Coldwater. 

N.  W.  Rowell Toronto. 


AFRICAN     METHODIST    EPISCOPAL    CHURCH. 

Bishop  Benjamin  W.  Arnett,  D.D Wilberforce,  O. 

„      Wesley  J.  Gaines,  D.D Atlanta,  Ga. 

„      Benj.  Tucker  Tanner,  D.D Philadelphia,  Pa. 

„      Benj.  F.  Lee,  D.D Wilberforce,  O. 

„      M.  B.  Salter,  D.D Charleston,  S.C. 

„      Wm.  Benj.  Derrick,  D.D Flushmg,  N.Y. 

„      C.  S.  Smith,  D.D Detroit,  Mich. 

„      Evans  Tyree,  D.D Nashville,  Tenn. 

Rev.  J.  E.  Edwards,  D.D Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

„     L.  H.  Evans,  D.D Norfolk,  Va. 

„     P.  A.  Hubbard,  D.D Washington,  D.C. 

„    John  Hurst  Baltimore,  Md. 

„    T.  H.  Jackson,  D.D Argenta,  Ark. 

„    John  Albert  Johnson,  D.D Washington,  D.C. 

Professor  H.  T.  Kealing  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


XXVI  LIST    OF    DELEGATES. 

Rev.  E.  W.  Lee,  D.D Americus,  Ga. 

„     R.  C.  Ransom,  D.D Chicago,  111. 

Professor  W.  S.  Scarborough,  LL.D Wilberforce,  O. 


AFRICAN     METHODIST    EPISCOPAL    ZION     CHURCH. 

Bishop  T.  H.  Lomax,  D.D Charlotte,  N.C. 

„       C.  R.  Harris,  D.D Salisbury,  N.C. 

„       A.  Walters,  D.D Jersey  City,  N.J. 

„       G.  W.  Clinton,  D.D Charlotte,  N.C. 

„      J.  B.  Small,  D.D York,  Pa. 

„      J.W.  Alstork,  D.D Montgomery,  Ala. 

Professors.  G.  Atkins,  A.M Winston,  N.C. 

Rev.  G.  L.  Blackwell  D.D Philadelphia,  Pa. 

M.  A.  Bradley Porchester,  N.Y. 

J.  S.  Caldwell,  D.D Philadelphia,  Pa. 

J.  B.  Colbert,  D.D Saint  Louis,  Mo. 

F.  M.  Jacobs,  D.D Brooklyn,  N.Y, 

J.  McHenry  Farley,  D.D Philadelphia,  Pa. 

J.  F.  Moreland,  Ph.  D St.  Louis,  Mo. 


COLOURED    METHODIST    EPISCOPAL    CHURCH. 

Bishop  E.  Cottrell,  D.D Holly  Springs,  Miss 

„       R.  S.  Williams,  D.D Augusta,  Ga. 

Rev.  R.  A.  Carter,  M.A Atlanta,  Ga. 

H.  S.  Doyle,  M.A Augusta,  Ga, 

J.  W.  Gilbert,  M.A Augusta,  Ga. 

J,  C.  Martin,  D.D Columbia,  S,C. 

C.  H.  Phillips,  D.D Jackson,  Tenn. 

G.  H.  Stewart,  D.D Selma,  Ala. 

Professor  C.  W.  Lane,  B.A Carlisle,  Ky. 


METHODIST    PROTESTANT    CHURCH. 

Rev.  M.  L.  Jennings,  D.D Pittsburg,  Pa. 

„    George  Shaffer,  D.D Bellevue,  Pa. 

„     CD.  Sinkenson Atlantic  City,  N.J. 

„    D.  S.  Stephens,  D.D Kansas  City,  Kan 

„    F.  T.  Tagg,  D.D Baltimore,  Md. 

Mr.  Daniel  Baker Baltimore,  Md. 

„     T.  J.  Ehrenfeld  West  Virginia. 

„     James  Ervine Pittsburg,  Pa. 

„     H.  J.  Heinz Pittsburg,  Pa. 


AFRICAN     UNION     METHODIST    PROTESTANT    CHURCH. 
Rev.  J.E.  Sargeant  Wilmington,  Del. 


LIST    OF    DELEGATES.  XXVll 


UNION     AMERICAN     METHODIST     EPISCOPAL    CHURCH. 

Bishop  James  C.  Wilmore,  D.D Chatham,  Ontario,  Canada. 

Rev.  R.  S.  Accoo   Wilmington,  Del. 

..     Ezekiel  Smith  New  York  City. 


UNITED    EVANGELICAL    CHURCH. 
Bishop  R.  Dubs,  D.D.*    Chicago,  111. 

PRIMITIVE    METHODIST    CHURCH. 
Rev.  Thomas  Kent* 

FREE    METHODIST    CHURCH. 
Mr.  Benson  Howard  Roberts* North  Chili,  N.Y. 


OFFICERS  OF  THE  CONFERENCE. 


PRESIDENTS. 

Rev.  W.  T.  Davison,  M.A.,  D.D., 

President,  Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference. 

Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.D., 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

Rev.  H.  B.  Kendall,  B.A., 

President,  Primitive  Methodist  Church. 

Bishop  B.  W.  Arnett,  D.D., 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Rev.  E.  J.  Watkin,  D.D., 

Australasian  Methodist  Church. 

Bishop  J.  H.  Vincent,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Rev.  G.  T.  Candlin, 

President,  Methodist  New  Connexion. 

Rev.  J.  Luke, 

President,  Bible  Christian  Church. 

Rev,  Chancellor  N.  Bur  wash,  D.D., 

Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 

Rev.  D.  Brook,  M.A.,  D.C.L., 

President,  United  Methodist  Free  Churches. 

Bishop  J.  C.  Hartzell,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Rev.  F.  T.  Tagg,  D.D., 

Methodist  Protestant  Church. 

Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D,,  LL.D., 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 


SECRETARIES. 
Rev.  John  Bond,  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 
Mr.  Thomas  Snape,  J.P.,  United  Methodist  Free  Churches. 
Rev.  James  M.  King,  D.D.,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
Rev.  Professor  W.  I.  Shaw,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 


LIST   OF   COMMITTEES. 

EXECUTIVE    COMMITTEE. 
EASTERN    SECTION. 

Rev.  W.  T.  Davison,  M.A.,  D.D.,  Chairman. 

Rev.  F.  W.  Bourne  and  Mr.  R.  W.  Perks,  M.P.,  Treasurers. 

Rev.  John  Bond,  Secretary. 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 


Rev.  W.  T.  Davison,  M.A.,  D.D. 
Rev.  Thomas  Allen,  D.D. 
Rev.  Marshall  Hartley. 
Rev.  John  Bond. 
Rev.   T.  B.  Stephenson,   D.D., 

LL.D. 


Mr.  Percy  W.  Bunting,  M.A. 
Mr.  T.  Morgan  Harvey. 
Mr.  Robert  W.  Perks,  M.P. 
Sir  Clarence  Smith. 
His  Hon.  Judge  Waddy. 


Primitive  Methodist  Church. 


Rev.  John  Hallam. 

Rev.  H.  B.  Kendall,  B.A. 

Mr.  E.  C.  Rawlings. 


Rev.  R,  W.  Burnett. 
Rev.  William  Goodman 

{Deceased), 

United  Methodist  Free  Churches. 

Rev.  H.  T.  Chapman.  i   Mr.  E.  S.  Snell. 

Rev.  Andrew  Crombie.  | 

Methodist  New  Connexion. 

Rev.  George  Packer.  |    Rev.  W.  J.  Townsend,  D.D. 

Irish  Methodist  Church. 

Rev.  R.  Crawford  Johnson,       I    Mr.  Robert  W.  Booth. 

D.D.  I 

Bible  Christian  Church. 

Rev.  F.  W.  Bourne.  |   Mr.  W.  B.  Luke.  J. P. 

Wesleyan  Reform  Union. 

Mr.  William  Marsden. 

Independent  Methodist  Church. 

Mr.  William  Brimelow,  J.P. 

French  Methodist  Church. 

Rev.  F.  W.  Macdonald. 


IC 


Australasian  Methodist  Church. 

Rev.  F.  Langham. 

xxix 


LIST    OF    COMMITTEES. 


WESTERN   SECTION. 


Bishop  J.  F.  Hurst,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Chairman. 
Rev.  J.  J.  TiGERT,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Secretary. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 


Bishop  J.  F.  HURST,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
Bishop  J.  M.  Walden,  D.D. 
Bishop  D.  A.  GOODSELL,  D.D. 
Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.D., 

LL.D. 
Rev.  L.  B.  Wilson,  D.D. 
Rev.  W.  L  Haven,  D.D. 
Rev.  Henry  Spellmayer,  D.D. 
Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D. 


Rev.  M.  S.  Kaufman,  Ph.D. 
Mr.  J.  E.  Andrus. 
Mr.  H.  K,  Carroll,  LL.D. 
Mr.  Anderson  Fom^ler. 
Mr.  D.  H.  Carroll,  D.D. 

Mr.  J.   B.   FORAKER. 

Prof.  J.  M.  Van  Vleck,  LL.D. 
Mr.  J.  H.  Jackson. 
Mr.  F.  W.  Tunnell. 


Methodist  Episcopal  Church,   South. 


Bi'shop  C.  B.  Galloway,  D.D., 

LL.D. 
Rev.  J.  J.  Tigert,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


Rev.  P.  H.  Whisner,  D.D. 
Rev.  J.  W.  Lee. 
Mr.  James  Atkins. 


Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 

Genl.-Supt.  A.  Carman,  D.D.  |  Rev.  Prof.  W.  L  Shaw,  D.D.,LL.D. 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

Bishop  B.  W.  Arnett,  D.D.  i   Bishop  W.  B.  Derrick,  D.D. 

Bishop  Abraham  Grant,  D.D.      I 

African   Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church. 

Bishop  A.  Walters,  D.D. 

Coloured  Methodist  Episcopal    Church. 

Bishop  R.  S.  Williams,  D.D. 

Methodist  Protestant  Church. 
Rev.  F.  T.  Tagg,  D.D. 

Other   Methodist  Churches. 

Rev.  J.  Mason  (Primitive  Methodist  Church). 


Rev.  John  Bond. 
Rev.  Albert  Clayton. 
Rev.  C.  H.  Kelly. 


business  committee. 

First  Division. 

Rev,  T.  B,  Stephenson,  D.D., 

LL.D. 
Mr.  R.  W.  Perks,  M.P. 
Mr.  J.  Bamford  Slack,  B.A. 


LIST    OF   COMMITTEES. 
Second  Division- 


xxxi 


Rev.  F.  W.  Bourne. 
Rev.  J.  Hallam. 


Rev.  Geo.  Packer. 
Mr,  E.  S.  Snell. 


Third  Division. 


Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.D. 
Mr.  Hanford  Crawford. 
Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D. 


Mr.  R.  J.  Pepper. 

Prof.  J.  M.  Van  Vleck,  LL.D. 


Fourth   Division. 


Bishop  W.  B.  Derrick,  D.D. 
Bishop  A.  Walters,  D.D. 
Rev.  W.  Briggs,  D.D. 


Rev.  C.  H.  Phillips,  D.D. 
Rev.  F.  T.  Tagg,  D.D. 


FINANCE    COMMITTEE. 


Rev.  John  Hallam. 

Rev.  J.  Smith  Spk^cer, Secretary. 

Rev.  E.  Wright. 


Mr.    F.   C.    LiNFIELD. 

Mr.  R.  W.  Perks,  M.P.,  Chairman. 
Mr.  E.  S.  Snell. 


Rev.  T.  P.  BULLEN. 
Rev.  A.  Crombie. 
Rev.  John  Hallam. 
Rev.  Hugh  Price  Hughes,  M.A., 
Chairman. 


RECEPTIONS    committee. 

Rev.  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  M.A., 

Secretary. 
Mr.  J.  Calvert  Coates. 
Mr.  Geo.  Lidgett,  B.A. 

Mr.    F.   C.    LiNFIELD. 

Mr.  W.  B.  Luke,  J.P. 


statistical  committee. 


Bishop  B.  W.  Arnett,  D.D. 
Rev.  J.  J.  Tigert,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
Mr.  H.  K.  Carroll,  LL.D. 


Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D., 

LL.D. 
Rev.  T.  Mitchell. 
Rev.  E.  BOADEN. 


HOMES    AND     ENTERTAINMENT    COMMITTEE. 


Rev.  R.  Bryant. 
Rev.  James  Chapman,  Chairman. 
Rev.  W.  Stephen,  Secretary. 
Rev.  W.  Suttle. 


Rev.  J.  E.  Wakerley. 
Mr.  H.  Hollow  ay. 
Mr.  W.  B.  Luke,  J.P. 
Mr.  E.  S.  Snell. 


XXXll 


LIST   OF    COMMITTEES. 


WESLEY'S     CHAPEL     COMMITTEE. 


Rev.  T.  Ferrier  Hulme,  M.A. 
Rev.  H.  B.  Kendall,  B.A. 
Rev.  Peter  Thompson. 
Rev.  W.  Wakinshaw,  Secretary. 


Rev.  W.  D.  Walters. 
Mr.  George  Lidgett,  B.A. 
Mr.  W.  B.  Luke,  J.  P. 
Mr.  E.  T.  WiLKS,  Chairman. 


PLAN     FOR     SUNDAY    SERVICES    COMMITTEE. 


Rev.  Andrew  Crombie, 

Chairman. 
Rev.  R.  Cullev. 
Rev.  W.  Kayf  Dunn,  B.A., 

Secretary. 


Rev.  John  Hallam. 

Rev.  F.  W.  Bourne. 

Rev.  H.  TwYFORD. 

Mr.  J.  Bamford  Slack,  B.A. 


PUBLICATIONS    COMMITTEE. 


Rev.  F.  W.  Bourne. 
Rev.  R.  Bryant. 
Rev.  Andrew  Crombie. 
Rev.  H.  B.  Kendall,  B.A. 


Rev.  W.  L.  Watkinson, 

Chairman, 
Mr.  George  Burroughs, 

Secretary. 


EDITORIAL    COMMITTEE. 


Rev.  Andrew  Crombie, 

Convener. 
Rev.  H.  B.  Kendall,  B.A. 


Rev.  S.  J.  Herben,  Lit.D. 
Mr.  Hanford  Crawford. 


COMMITTEE     TO    ARRANGE    FOR     PROVINCIAL     MEETINGS. 

Rev.  S.  F.  Collier.  Rev.  Wm.  Wakinshaw. 

Rev.  Andrew  Crombie,  Mr.  W.  B.  Luke,  J.P. 

Convener.  Mr.  E.  S.  Snell. 
Rev.  Enoch  Salt,  Chairman. 


RULES  AND  REGULATIONS  FOR  THE  GOVERNMENT 
OF  THE  CONFERENCE. 

Constitution  of  the  Conference. — The  Conference  shall  be  con- 
stituted of  500  members  in  two  Sections,  300  being  assigned  to  the 
Western  Section  and  200  to  the  Eastern  Section,  and  as  nearly  as 
possible  shall  be  composed  of  ministers  and  laymen  in  equal  numbers. 
The  Eastern  Section  shall  comprehend  British  Methodism  and  affiliated 
Conferences  and  Mission  Fields  ;  and  the  Western  Section  the  United 
States  and  Canadian  Conferences  and  their  Foreign  Work. 

The  Basis  of  the  Conference. — ^The  Conference  shall  be  held  on 
the  same  basis  and  with  the  same  limitations  as  those  adopted  in  the 
two  preceding  Conferences,  viz.  :  It  shall  frankly  recognise  the  differ- 
ences that  exist  among  the  various  Methodist  Churches,  and  it  shall 
exclude  from  discussion  all  points  of  doctrine,  discipline,  and  Church 
government  regarded  as  fundamental  by  any  of  the  Churches,  and  as 
to  which  any  one  of  the  Churches  differ  from  any  of  the  others.  (Eule 
X.) 

RULES    AND    REGULATIONS. 

I. — For  the  convenience  of  organisation,  and  for  the  purposes  of 
equity  and  fraternity,  the  whole  Methodist  community  shall  be  included 
in  four  general  divisions,  as  follows  :  — 

First  Division. — The  British  Wesleyan  Methodist  Churches. 

Second  Division. — Other  British  Methodist  Churches. 

Third  Division. — The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church,  South. 

Fourth  Division. — Other  Methodist  Churches  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada. 

It  is  understood  that  the  several  Churches  described  are  inclusive  of 
their  respective  mission-fields  and  affiliated  Conferences. 

II. — There  shall  be  a  Business  Committee,  consisting  of  twenty  mem- 
bers, six  of  whom  shall  be  elected  from  the  First  Division,  four  from 
the  Second  Division,  five  from  the  Third  Division,  and  five  from  t.he 
Fourth  Division. 

Two  from  each  Division  shall  be,  if  practicable,  laymen.  This  Com- 
mittee shall  be  chosen  by  the  Eastern  and  Western  Sections  of  the 
Executive  Committee,  on  nomination  of  the  members  of  the  said  Execu- 
tive Committee,  representing  respectively  the  several  general  Divisions. 


XXXIV  RULES   AND    REGULATIONS. 

The  first  named  on  the  Business  Committee  by  the  First  Eastern  Divi- 
sion shall  be  the  convener,  but  the  Committee  shall  choose  by  ballot 
its  own  Chairman  and  Secretary.  All  questions,  proposals,  resolutions, 
communications,  or  other  matters  not  included  in  the  regular  pro- 
gramme of  exercises,  which  may  be  presented  to  the  Conference,  shall 
be  passed  to  the  Secretary,  read  by  their  titles  only,  and  referred  with- 
out debate  or  motion  to  the  Business  Committee.  A  period  at  the 
close  of  the  regular  programme  of  the  final  session  of  each  day  shall  be 
set  apart  for  reports  from  the  Business  Committee,  but  the  reports  of 
the  Business  Committee  shall  at  all  times  be  privileged,  and  shall  take 
precedence  of  any  other  matter  which  may  be  before  the  Conference. 

III. — The  Business  Committee  shall  appoint  someone  to  preside  at 
each  (^ay  of  the  Conference,  and  in  the  following  manner — to  wit,  on 
the  first  day  from  the  First  Division  ;  on  the  second  day  from  the  Third 
Division  ;  on  the  third  day  from  the  Second  Division  ;  on  the  fourth 
day  from  the  Fourth  Division  ;  repeating  this  order  during  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  Conference. 

IV. — The  Business  Committee  at  the  opening  of  the  first  regular 
business  session  of  the  Conference  shall  nominate  four  secretaries,  one 
from  each  general  Division,  the  one  named  from  the  First  Division  to 
be  chief  ;  but  if  the  nomination  thus  made  shall  fail  of  confirmation,  in 
whole  or  in  part,  then  the  Conference  shall  proceed  to  fill  the  vacant 
place  or  places  in  such  manner  as  it  may  determine,  provided  that  the 
mode  of  distribution  herein  indicated  shall  be  maintained. 

V. — Every  session  of  the  Conference  shall  be  opened  with  devotional 
exercises,  to  be  conducted  by  some  person  or  persons  selected  by  the 
President  of  the  session. 

VI. — The  first  hour  of  each  forenoon  session,  after  devotional  exer- 
cises and  reading  of  journal,  shall  be  set  apart  for  the  presentation  of 
resolutions  or  other  papers  not  included  in  the  regular  programme. 
Every  resolution  must  be  reduced  to  writing,  and  signed  by  at  least 
two  names.  The  Conference  may,  at  any  time,  close  this  morning  hour 
and  proceed  to  the  regular  order,  but  the  question  must  be  taken  with- 
out debate  or  subsidiary  motion. 

VII. — No  essay  presented  in  the  regular  programme  shall  occupy 
more  than  twenty  minutes  in  the  reading ;  the  appointed  addresses 
shall  be  allowed  ten  minutes  each.  After  the  appointed  addresses, 
whatever  unoccupied  time  remains  of  any  session  shall  be  devoted  to  a 
general  discussion  of  the  topics  under  consideration  ;  but  no  member 
shall  occupy  more  than  five  minutes,  or  speak  more  than  once  on  the 
same  subject. 

The  appointed  addresses  may  not  be  read,  but  notes,  as  aids  to 
memory,  may  be  used. 

VIII. — ^At  the  close  of  the  regular  order,  at  the  final  session  of  ea«h 
day,  the  President  shall  call  for  a  report  from  the  Business  Committee. 
In  debates  on  reports,  whenever  presented,  no  member  shall  occupy 
more  than  ten  minutes,  nor  speak  more  than  once  on  the  same  report, 


RULES    AND    REGULATIONS.  XXXV 

but  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee,  or  some  one  designated  by  him, 
shall  be  allowed  ten  minutes  in  which  to  close  the  debate. 

IX. — ^AU  votes  taken  in  the  Conference  shall  be  by  individual  count, 
without  any  reference  to  the  particular  body  with  whioli  the  voter  is 
connected. 

X. — No  votes  shall  be  taken  on  matters  affecting  the  internal  arrange- 
ments of  any  of  the  several  Methodist  Churches.     (Basis.) 

XI. — Any  alteration  of  or  addition  to  these  regulations  thought  de- 
sirable must  be  sent  to  the  Business  Committee,  and  reported  back  to 
the  Conference,  before  a  final  vote  is  taken,  and  no  rule  shall  be  sus- 
pended except  by  consent  of  three-fourths  of  the  Conference. 

N.B. — The  manuscripts  of  the  essays  read  and  of  addresses  delivered 
being  the  property  of  the  Conference,  shall  be  immediately  passed  over 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Conference  for  publication  in  the  volume  of  the 
proceedings  of  the  Conference,  Compliance  with  this  rule  is  abso- 
lutely indispensable  to  accuracy  in  the  records  of  the  Conference. 


DAILY   PROGRAMME. 


September  4  <o  17,  1901. 


P  aces  assigned  to  Eastern  Section  marked  E. 

Places  assigned  to  Western  Section  marked  W. 


First  Day,  Wednesday,  Septemher  4. 

President:    Rev.  W.  T.   Davison,   M.A.,   D.D.   (Wesleyan  Methodist 

Church). 

FIRST   SESSIOK. 

10.0  A.M.— Opening  Service  Rev.  W.  T.  Davison,  M.A.,  D.D. 

(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 

Sermon Bishop  C.  B.  Galloway,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South). 
Celebration  of  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper. 

SECOND    SESSION. 

2.30  P.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

Election  of  Officers  on  Nomination  of  Business  Committee. 
Rev.  Ebenezer  E.  Jenkins,  LL.D. 
(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 
Rev.  Joseph  Odell 

(Primitive  Methodist  Church). 
Sir  Charles  T.  Skelton,  J.P. 

(Methodist  New  Connexion). 
Bishop  John  F.  Hurst,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 
Rev.  John  Potts,  D.D. 
tatives    of    the    Western  -i  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada). 

Section Bishop  A.  Walters,  D.D. 

j  (African    Methodist    Episcopal    Zion 

V         Church). 
(The   Hon.    W.   C.   Adamson,   Methodist   Protestant  Church,  was  not 

present.) 


Addresses  of  Welcome  by 
Representatives  of  the 
Eastern  Section 


Responses     by     Represen- 


DAILY    PROGRAMME.  XXXVU 

Second  Day,  Thursday,  September  6. 

President  :  Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 

South). 

Tojpic :  (Ecumenical  Methodism. 

FIRST    session. 

10.0  A.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

E.  11.0  A.M. — Essay,  The  Present  Position  of  Methodism  in  the  Eastern 

Section,  Rev.  Edward  Boaden 
(United  Methodist  Free  Churches). 

E.  First  Address Rev.  Joseph  Berry 

(Australasian  Methodist  Church). 

E.  Second  Address Rev.  Wesley  Guard 

(Irish  Methodist  Church). 

SECOND   session. 

2.30  P.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

W.  2.40  P.M. — Essay,  The  Present  Position  of  Methodism  in  the  Western 

Section,  Rev.  John  F.  Goucher,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

W.  First  Address Rev.  J.  D.  Hammond,  D.D. 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South). 

W.  Second  Address Mr.  N.  W.  Rowell- 

(Methodist  Church  of  Canada). 

Third  Day,  Friday,  September  6. 

President:  Rev.  H.  B.  Kendall,  B.A.  (Primitive  Methodist  Church). 

Topic  :  The  Influence  of  Methodism  in  the  Promotion  of 
International  Peace. 

first  session. 

10.0  A.M. — iDevotional  Service,  &c. 

W.  11.0  A.M. — Essay,  The  Influence  of  Methodism  in  the  Promotion  of 

International  Peace,  Rev.  C.  W.  Smith,  D.D.* 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

E.  First  Address Mr.  Robert  W.  Perks,  M.P. 

(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 

W.  Second  Address Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.D.' 

(jMethodist  Episcopal  Church,  South). 


XXXVIU  DAILY    PROGRAMME. 

To])ic  :  Methodism  and  Christian  Unity. 

SECOND   SESSION. 

2.30  P.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

E.  2.40  P.M. — Essay,  The  Relation  of  Methodism  to  the  Evangelical  Free 
Church  Movement,  Rev.  W.  J.  Townsend,  D.D. 
(Methodist  New  Connexion). 
W.  First  Address,  Methodism  and  Christian  Unity, 

Bishop  R.  S.  WiUiams,  D.D. 

(Coloured  Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

E.  Second  Address,  Interdenominational  Felloivship  among  Methodists, 

Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 

Fourth  Day,  Saturday,  September  7. 

President  :  Bishop  B.  W.  Arnbtt,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal 

Church). 

Topic  :  Modern  Biblical  Criticism. 

10.0  A.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

W.   11.0  A.M. — Essay,   Biblical   Criticism   and    the   Christian    Faith, 

Rev.  John  J.  Tigert,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South). 

E.   First  Address,  Recent  Corroborations  of  the  Scripture  Narratives, 

Rev.  Marshall  Randies,  D.D. 

(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 

W.  Second  Address,  The  Appeal  of  the  Old  Testament  to  the  Life  and 

Conscience  of  To-day,  Rev.  Chancellor  D.  S.  Stephens,  D.D. 

(Methodist  Protestant  Church). 

Fifth  Day,  Monday,  September  9. 

President:      Rev.    E.     J.     Watkin,    D.D.    (Australasian    Methodist 

Church). 
Topic  :    Protestantism  versus  Modern  Sacerdotalism. 

FIRST     SESSION. 

10.0  A.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

E.   11.0    A.M. Essay,    Principles    of    Protestantism    versus    Modern 

Sacerdotalism,  Rev.  Frederick  "W.  Bourne 
(Bible  Christian  Church). 

W.  First  Address Rev.  Prof.  Charles  Stewart,  D.D. 

(Methodist  Church  of  Canada). 

E.  Second  Address Rev.  John  Shaw  Banks. 

(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 


DAILY    PROGRAMME.  XXXIX 

Toj}ic  :     Methodism  and  Education. 

SECOND   SESSION. 

2.30  P.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

W.     2.40   P.M. — Essay,    Methodism  cmd  Education   in  the  Tiventieth 

Century,  Eev.  Charles  J.  Little,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

(Essay  read  by  Bishop  J.  H.  Vincent,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church.) 

E.  First  Address Mr.  Thos.  G.  Osborn,  M.A. 

(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 

W.  Second  Address Prof.  H.  T.  Kealing 

(African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 


Sixth  Day,  Tuesday,  September  10. 

Pbesident  :    Bishop    John    H.    Vincent,     D.D.,     LL.D.     (Methodist 
Episcopal  Church). 

Topic :     Christianity  and  Modern  Unbelief. 

FIRST    session. 

10.0  A.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

E.  11.0  A.M. — Essay,  Christianity  and  Modern  Unbelief, 

Rev.  Jos.  Agar  Beet,  D.D. 
•    (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 
W.  First  Address,  Secularism  and  Christianity, 

Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  DD.,  LL.D. 
(Methodist  Ej)iscoj)al  Church). 

E.  Second  Address Rev.  R.  Abercrombie,  M.A. 

(United  Methodist  Free  Churches). 

Topic :    Indifferentism  and  Apathy. 

SECOND    SESSION. 

2.30.  P.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

W.  2.40  P.M.,  Essay,  Modern  Indifferentism, 

Rev.  Prof.  W.  I.  Shaw,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
(Methodist  Church  of  Canada). 

E.  First  Address,  Apathy  vn  the  Chv/rch Rev.  Joseph  Ritson 

(Primitive  Methodist  Church). 
W.  Second  Address,  The  Antidote  for  Apathy  and  Indifference, 

Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Churcli) 


Xl  DAILY    PROGRAMME. 

Seventh  Bay,   Wednesday,  September  11. 

President  :  Rev.  G.  T.  Candlin  (Methodist  New  Connexion). 

Topic :  Methodist  Literature. 

FIRST   session. 

10.0  A.M. — ^Devotional  Service,  Report  of  Statistical  Committee,  &c. 
E.  11.0  A.M. — Essay,  Methodist  Literature, 

Rev.  H.  B.  Kendall,  B.A. 
(Primitive  Methodist  Church). 
W.  First  Address,  The  New  Dema/nds  upon  Methodist  Authorship, 

Rev.  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South). 
E.  Second  Address,  Methodist  Journalism, 

Mr.  William  Brimelow,  J.P. 
(Independent  Methodist  Church). 

Topic :  Methodist  Young  People's  Societies. 

SECOND   session. 

2.30  P.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

W.  2.40  P.M. — Essay,  Methodist  Young  People's  Societies, 

Rev.  W.  Ingraham  Haven,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

E.  First  Address    Rev.  Danzy  Sheen 

(Primitive  Methodist  Church). 

W.  Second  Address Rev.  J.  B.  Colbert,  D.D. 

(African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church). 

Pbesident  :  Rev.  J.  Luke  (Bible  Christian  Church). 

Fraternal  Greetings. 

third  session. 

7.0  P.M. — Address  from  the  National  Council  of  the  Evangelical  Free 

Churches  of  England  and  Wales. 
(  Rev.  J.  Monro  Gibson,  M.A.,  D.D. 
Representatives  ...  J    Rev.  J.  Clifford,  M.A.,  D.D. 
[  Mr.  George  Cadbury. 

Address  from  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland  Representative, 

Rev.  W.  Ross  Taylor,  D.D, 

Address  from  Moravian  Church   Representative,  Rev.  J.  M.  Wilson. 

Address  from  Huguenot  Congregation  of  Canterbury. 
Address  by  Representative  of  Salvation  Army  ...  Commissioner  Coombs. 

Rev.  J.  Luke  (Bible  Christian  Church). 
Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.D.  LL.D. 

Responses  to  Addresses  {       (Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

Rev.    C.   H.   Phillips,  D.D.    (Coloured 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 


DAILY    PROGRAMME.  xli 

Ei(/hfh  Dai/,  TJmrsdaij,  September  12. 

President:  Rev.  Chancellor  N.  Burwash,  D.D.   (Methodist  Church  of 

Canada). 

Topic :  The  Spiritual  Vitality  of  Methodism. 

FIRST   session. 

10.0  A.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

E.  11.0  A.M. — Essay,  Is  Methodism  Retaining  its  Sjnritual  Vitality? 

Rev.  W.  J.  WiUiams. 
(Australasian  Methodist  Church). 

W.  First  Address Rev.  Charles  B.  Mitchell,  Ph.  D.,  D.D. 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

W.  Second  Address Bishop  John  C.  Granbery,  D.D. 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South). 

Topic :  Family  Religion  and  Worship. 

SECOND   session. 

2.30  p.m. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

W.  2.40  P.M.— Essay,   The  Neglect  of  Family  Religion  and  Worship, 

Bishop  G.  W.,  CUnton,  D.D. 
(African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church). 

E.  First  Address Rev.  S.  Barrett  Cawood 

(South  African  Methodist  Church). 

E.  Second  Address Kev.  Thomas  Rider 

(Methodist  New  Connexion). 


tJinth  Bay,  Friday,  September  13. 

President:    Rev.  D.  Brook,   M.A.,   D.C.L.   (United   Methodist  Free 

Churches). 

Topic :  Temperance. 

first  session. 

10.0  A.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

W.  11.0  A.M. — Essay,  Practical  Methods  of  Dealing  tvith  the  Liquor 

Traffic,  Mr.  Daniel  Baker 
(Methodist  Protestant  Church). 

E.  First  Address Mr.  John  H.  Freeborough 

(Wesleyan  Reform  Union). 

W.  Second  Address    Hon.  Thos.  H.  Murray* 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 


xlii  DAILY    PROGRAMME 

Topic :  Gambling. 

SECOND    SESSION. 

2.30  P.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

E.  2.40  p.m. — Essay,  The  Ethics  of  Gmnhling, 

Rev.  F.  Luke  Wiseman,  B.A. 

(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 
W.  First  Address Rev.  J.  P.  Brushingham,D.D.* 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 
E.  Second  Address Mr.  T.  R.  Ferens 

(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 


Tenth  Day,  Saturday,  September  14. 

President  :  Bishop  J.  C.  Hartzell,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 

Church). 

Topic :  The  Perils  of  Wealth. 

10.0  A.M. — Devotional  service,  &c. 

E.  11.0  A.M. — Essay,  Perils  of  Increasing  Wealth  and  Luxury, 

Sir  George  Smith 

(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 
E.  First  Address,  Consecration  of  Wealth Mr.  L.  L.  Morse,  J.P. 

(Primitive  Methodist  Church). 
W.  Second  Address Rev.  Frank  M.  Bristol,  D.D.* 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

The  Rev.  Frank  M.  Bristol,  D.D.,  was  excused  his  address  owing  to  the  lamented 
death  of  President  McKinley,  who  was  a  member  of  his  Church  at  Washington. 


Eleventh  Day,  Monday,  September  16. 

President:  Rev.  F.  T.  Tagg,  D.D.  (Methodist  Protestant  Church). 

Topic :  Pulpit  Effectiveness. 

FIRST  SESSION. 

10.0  A.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

W.  11.0  A.M. — Essay,  The  Elements  of  Pulpit  Effectiveness, 

Bishop  B.  T.  Tanner,  D.D. 
(African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

E.  First  Address Mr.  R.  G.  Rows,  J.P.,  C.C. 

(United  Methodist  Free  Churches). 

W.  Second  Address  Rev.  G.  C.  Rankin,  D.D. 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South). 


DAILY    PROGRAMME.  xliii 

To2nc  :  The  Mobilization  of  the  Church. 

SECOND  SESSION. 

2.30  P.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

E.  2.40  P.M. — Essay,  How  to  Mobilize  the  WJiole  Church, 

Rev.  D.  Brook,  M.A.,  D.C.L. 
njnited  Methodist  Free  Churches). 

W.  First  Address  Rev.  J.  Hay  Young,  Ph.D.,  D.D.* 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South). 

E.  Second  Address Mr.  William  Windsor 

(Primitive  Methodist  Church). 


Twelfth  Day,  Tuesday,  September  17. 

President  :  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 

Church). 

Topic :  Foreign  Missions. 

FIRST    session. 

10  A.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

E.  11.0  A.M. — Essay,  Missions— the  Worh  before  Us, 

Rev.  Frederick  Galpin 
(United  Methodist  Free  Churches). 

W.  First  Address Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D. 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

E.  Second  Address  Mr.  John  B.  M'Cutcheon 

(Irish  Methodist  Church). 

W.  Third  Address Rev.  Young  J.  Allen,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South). 


second  session. 

2.0.  P.M. — Devotional  Service,  &c. 

W.  2.10  P.M.— Essay,  Missions— Our  Resources  for  the  Work, 

Rev.  W.  R.  Lambuth,  M.D.,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South). 

E.  First  Address    Rev.  Frederick  W.  Macdonald 

(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 

W.  Second  Address  Rev.  William  Burt,  D.D. 

(Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 


xliv  DAILY    PROGRAMME. 

Memorial  Service  foe  President  MoKinlby. 

3.30   P.M. — Devotional    Service:    Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,   D.D.,  LL.D. 

(Wesley an  Methodist  Church). 
Eev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.  LL.D. 


Addresses 


(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 
Bishop  J.  H.  Vincent,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 


NoTB.— Those  whose  names  are  designated  by  an  astensk  (*)  in  the  programme  were 
appointed  to  take  the  place  of  others,  whose  names  appeared  in  the  prehminary  programme, 
but  who  were  not  present  at  the  Conference.  The  names  of  those  originally  appointed  are 
mentioned  in  the  Report  of  the  Proceedings. 


For  Sunday  Services,  Becejptions,  Evening  Meetings  cmd  Provincial 
Meetings,  see  Ap;pendix. 


REPORT   OF   THE   PROCEEDINGS 


Third  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference. 


(ECUMENICAL  METHODIST  CONFERENCE. 


FIRST  DAT,  Wednesday,  September  4,  1901. 

FIRST     SESSION. 

rpHE  Third  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference  opened  in  Wesley's 
-^       Chapel,  City  Koad,  London,  on  Wednesday  morning,   Sep- 
tember 4,  at    10  a.m.     Nearly  all   the  500  delegates   were 
present,  and  the  gallery  was  filled  with  visitors. 

The  Rev.  W.  T.  Davison,  M.A.,  D.D.,  President  of  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Conference,  opened  the  service  by  announcing  the  hymn, 
"All  people  that  on  earth  do  dwell,"  wLioh.  was  sung  to  the  tune, 
"Old  Hundredth."  A  simple  Formi  of  Service  had  been  printed, 
including  Scripture  Sentences,  the  Exhortation,  General  Confes- 
sion, a  Collect,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Responsive  Prayers,  Psalm 
cxviii.  (read  alternately  by  Dr.  Davison  and  the  congregation), 
two  Lessons,  the  Te  Deum,  the  Apostles'  Creed,  Prayers  for  the 
Church,  the  King,  and  other  Rulers,  for  Ministers  and  People,  and 
the  Prayer  of  St.  Chiysostom.  The  Lessons  (Isa.  xl.  and  xii., 
Matt.  xiii.  31-33  and  44-52)  were  read  by  the  Rev.  E.  J. 
Watkin,  D.D.,  of  the  Australasian  Methodist  Church.  At  the 
close  of  the  Liturgical  portion  of  the  service  the  hymn,  "  0  for  a 
thousand  tongues  to  sing,"  was  sung,  and  Bishop  J.  C.  Hartzell, 
D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  offered  prayer. 

The  Conference  Sermon  was  preached  by  Bishop  C.  B.  Galloway, 
D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South. 

A  TiMELT  Restatement  op  the  Methodist  Ftindamentals. 

*^That  which  we  have  seen  and  heard  declare  we  unto  you"  (I,  Jolin 

i.  3). 
^For  we  cannot  hut  speak  the  things  which  we  have  seen  and  heard" 

(Acts  iv.  20). 

Here  we  have  two  statements — one  by  St.  John  the  Divine,  the  other 
the  joint  utterance  of  Peter  and  John,  with  Peter  doubtless  as  the 
spokesman.    The  one  speaks  as  a  teacher  and  theologian,  the  other 


4  OPENING    SERVICES. 

as  the  missiunaiy  and  martyr.  Both  are  witnesses  io  eternal  verities- 
one  modestly  affirming  that  he  confines  himself  to  facts  of  personal 
experience,  "That  which  we  have  seen  and  heard"  ;  the  other,  artless 
impetuous,  and  chivalrous,  candidly  acknowledges  thai  he  had  io  talk, 
"  We  cannot  but  speak."  Here  the  characteristics  of  two  natures  appear. 
St.  John  spoke  as  a  wise  and  able  teacher — "  the  quiet  master  of  the 
secrets  of  the  spiritual  life"  ;  the  other  as  the  fearless  missionaiy, 
whose  passionate  love  for  the  Lord  and  ardent  concern  for  "  that  wlilch 
was  lost,"  gave  him  a  divine  impatience  to  speak  in  His  name.  The 
one  wrote  lovingly  and  modestly,  as  if  with  "  a  feather  dropped  from 
an  angel's  wing"  ;  the  other  spoke  with  the  intense  fervour  of  a  soul 
on  fire  with  a  holy  commission.  One  displays  the  calm  confidence  of 
absolute  assurance  ;  the  other  the  unawed  boldness  and  sublime  courage 
of  an  ambassador  charged  with  a  sacred  message  and  mission. 

Here  is  the  confidence  of  personal  knowledge.  They  do  not  repeat 
the  statements  of  others,  but  speak  as  eye  and  ear^witnesses— "  That 
which  we  have  seen  and  heard."  And  the  form  of  speech  employed  is 
assurance  of  perfect  precision — of  absolute  accuracy — in  statement  and 
testimony.  Without  evasion  or  exaggeration,  without  vagueness  or 
inaccuracy,  they  declare,  only,  but  entirely,  what  they  "  have  seen  and 
heard." 

Here,  also,  is  the  irrepressible  in  Christian  life  and  testimony  :  "  We 
cannot  but  speak  the  things  which  we  have  seen  and  heard."  The 
liberated  soul  will  rejoice  in  its  freedom,  and  talk  of  its  redemption  and 
Redeemer.    The  uncaged  bird  cannot  but  soar  and  sing. 

And  here  is  the  positiveness  of  ample  and  accurate  personal  know- 
ledge. "  Know "  is  a  favourite  word  with  St.  John.  Over  and  over 
again  it  is  repeated  in  his  Epistles.  "  And  hereby  we  do  know  that  we 
know  Him."  "We  know  that  we  have  joassed  from  death  unto  life." 
Suggestive  comment  has  been  made  upon  the  fact  that  the  inferential 
"  therefore "  is  not  to  be  found  in  this  Epistle.  His  constant  and 
earnest  insistence  is  that  Christianity  is  the  religion  of  knowledge — 
the  salvation  promised  is  a  conscious  salvation. 

And,  on  the  other  hand,  Christianity  is  a  religion  of  positive  affirma- 
tions. It  is  not  an  empty,  impotent  negation,  but  a  clear  and  authori- 
tative declaration  of  absolute  and  eternal  truth.  It  utters  no  uncertain 
sound,  misleads  no  honest  inquirer,  encourages  no  false  hope.  Christi- 
anity is  a  Divine  dogmatism.  Jesus  says  emphatically,  "  I  am  the 
Truth." 

There  is  the  same  appeal  to  the  senses  of  seeing  and  hearing  in  the 
account  of  Paul's  conversion  and  commission  as  an  apostle — "  For  thou 
shaltbe  His  witness,  unto  all  men,  of  what  thou  hast  seen  and  heard." 
And' yet,  unlike  Peter  and  John,  he  had  never  had  i^hysical  companion- 
ship with  his  Lord,  for  whom  he  was  to  be  an  accredited  and  convincing 
witness,  of  world-wide  and  enduring  fame.  But  neither  of  the  apostles 
had  fuller  or  more  accurate  testimony  to  give  of  what  he  had  seen 
and  heard  than  this  one,  "born  out  of  due  time,"  the  burden  of  whose 
eloquent    preaching    was   the   relation   of  his  miraculous    experience. 


SERMON    OF    BISHOP   GALLOWAY.  e 

The  organs  of  sight  and  liearing  are  used,  therefore,  to  represent  the 
cognitive  and  acquisitive  faculties  of  the  soul  by  which  we  come  into 
immediate  possession  of  the  facts  of  personal  experience.  Into  the 
ears  that  hear  God  speaks  in  tones  clear,  distinct,  unmistakable,  and 
authoritative.  The  eyes  that  are  open  are  obedient  unto  the  heavenly 
vision,  and  behold  "wondrous  things  out  of  Thy  law."  This  is 
consciousness — the  final  source  of  correct  knowledge.  "Behind  con- 
sciousness one  cannot  go  ;  as  far  back  as  consciousness  religion  must 
go,  or  its  work  is  superficial."    It  is  "the  affidavit  of  life  to  life." 

Here,  also,  is  a  declaration  of  the  supreme  value  of  a  personal 
Christian  experience.  Only  what  may  be  seen  and  heard  is  of  absolute 
importance.  This  alone  is  esseiitial;  all  else  is  incidental.  We  may 
speculate  about  a  thousand  thin2;s,  but  only  fundamental  verities  need 
command  our  deepest  concern.  The  doctrines  that  are  transmutable 
into  life  we  are  under  holy  compulsion  to  declare.  This  was  the 
dominant  note  of  the  mighty  movement  that  has  made  possible  the 
great  Conference  met  here  to-day,  with  representatives  from  all  parts 
of  the  world. 

In  1743  Mr.  Wesley  uttered  these  words  :  "  The  distinguishing  marks 
of  a  Methodist  are  not  his  opinions  of  any  sort.  His  assenting  to  this 
or  that  scheme  of  religion,  his  embracing  any  particular  set  of  notions, 
his  espousing  the  judgment  of  one  man  or  another,  are  all  quite  wide 

of  the  point I  make  no  opinion  the  term  of  union  with 

any  man,  I  think  and  let  think.  AVhat  I  want  is  holiness  of  life. 
They  who  have  this  are  my  brother  and  sister  and  mother."  And 
the  declared  mission  of  Methodism  was  only,  and  specifically,  to  spread 
Scriptural  holiness  throughout  its  world-parish. 

As  appropriate,  therefore,  to  this  occasion,  and  suggested  by  the 
text,  I  ask  you  to  consider  with  me  the  subject  of  "  Christian  Expeki- 
ENCE :  Its  Stjpbeme  Value  and  Crowning  Evidence." 

Christianity's  chief  glory  and  assured  triumph  is  its  redemptive 
power.  That  is  its  sublime  and  only  mission — the  spiritual  regenera- 
tion of  the  world.  "It  is  not,"  says  a  great  theologian,  "its  mono- 
theism, or  decalogue,  or  ordinances,  or  priesthood,  or  Sabbaths,  that 
either  constitute  it  a  separate  religion  or  insure  its  dominion  in  the 
future  ;  but  redemption  from  sin  through  Jesus  Christ  is  its  radical 
doctrine,  its  original  starting-point,  and  the  inspiration  of  its  mission 
in  this  world." 

It  is  well  enough  to  exalt  the  ethical  value  of  the  Christian  religion — 
the  excellence  of  its  doctrines,  the  beauty  and  purity  of  its  ordinances, 
the  nobility  of  its  ideals,  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  its  re- 
cords, and  the  power  of  its  inspirations.  But,  above  all,  we  must  have 
personal  experience   of  its  redemptive   efficiency. 

I  do  verily  believe  that  there  is  imperial  demand  for  renewed 
emphasis  to  lie  ]tut  on  this  great  and  gracious  privilege  of  every 
Christian  believer.  If  there  has  been  no  abatement  of  appreciation 
of  this  vital  doctrine,  there  is  urgent  reason  for  special  insistence  upon 
its  absolute  nocossitj\     "  Yc  must  be  born  again"  sliniild  over  be  tli'' 


6  OPENING   SERVICES. 

ringing  message  of  the  Ohurch  of  God.  We  must  adhere  firmly  to  the 
elementary  Christian  graces — the  fundamental  doctrines  verified  and 
intensified  by  spiritual  experience — if  we  are  to  reinflame  the  zeal  of 
the  Church,  and  exult  in  the  restored  joy  of  our  great  salvation. 

The  multiplying  of  Church  activities,  and  the  increasing  demands 
of  ecclesiastical  administration,  may  have  occasioned  some  diversion 
of  our  evangelistic  zeal,  and  some  relaxing  of  insistence  upon  this  pre- 
eminent doctrine  of  the  Gospel. 

And  it  has  also  been  more  or  less  obscured  by  the  prominence  given 
in  modern  discussion,  in  both  pulpit  and  Press,  to  the  mere  ethics  of 
Christianity — to  its  sociological  virtue  and  value.  However  true  and 
important  such  an  aspect  of  religion  may  be,  its  excessive  emphasis 
will  retire  to  a  subordinate  position  the  great  spiritual  doctrine  which 
alone  is  vital — the  doctrine  which  makes  the  Gospel  a  power  in  the 
world's  social  elevation  and  evolution.  - 

It  is  affirmed  that  Christ's  mission  was  social  rather  than  theological. 
That  "  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  the  ethics  of  society  ;  "  that  "  it  is 
a  treatise  on  political  economy — a  system  of  justice,"  and  that  "  indus- 
trial democracy  would  be  the  actual  realisation  of  Christianity."  I 
would  not  under-estimate  the  sociological  power  and  reconstructive 
functions  of  the  Christian  religion.  It  is  a  transcendent  and  trans- 
forming social  energy.  Its  elevating  and  ennobling  influence  marks 
the  progress  of  civilisation  and  determines  the  status  of  nations.  There 
is  a  vital  connection  between  the  spiritual  and  political  faiths  of  all 
people.  And  Christianity  has  demonstrated  itself  to  be  the  universal 
and  only  stimulus  and  panacea  for  the  dying  world  of  heathenism. 

It  is  a- political  force  as  well  as  a  spiritual  influence — a  social  dynamic 
as  well  as  a  celestial  hope.  The  altar  makes  the  throne.  The  cha- 
racter of  the  crozier  measures  the  strength  of  the  sceptre.  Out  of 
religious  doctrines  are  developed  political  principles  ;  and  the  purer 
the  religion  the  broader  the  constitution,  and  the  wiser  the  civil 
polity. 

But  all  these  are  results  rather  than  primary  objects :  consequents, 
and  not  the  supreme  purpose.  Christ's  mission  was  purely  spiritual — 
the  redemption  of  the  soul  from  sin.  And  His  specific  aim  was  not 
to  reach  the  masses  or  the  classes,  but  the  individual,  with  the 
emancipating  power  of  truth. 

Another  fact  which  may  account  for  some  neglect  of  this  paramount 
doctrine  is  the  growth  of  a  mistaken  catholicity — a  sentiment  that 
rather  vaunts  itself  in  disparaging  the  fathers  as  excessively  rigid  in 
their  spiritual  exactions,  and  too  literal  in  their  interpretations  of  the 
Word  of  God.  The  rebound  from  dreaded  harshness  may  lead  us  to 
fatal  laxness.     I  fear  there  is  real  need  for  a  note  of  warning. 

The  days  of  so-called  intolerance  have  been  succeeded  by  a  time 
of  much  indifferentism — a  time  of  lax  faith  and  colourless  convictions 
and  boasted  breadtli  of  view.  The  commiserated  narrowness  of  the 
fathers,  which  made  them  militant  in  spirit  and  intense  in  tlieir 
clean-cut,  unshaken  opinions,   has  largely  ceased  to  characterise   the 


SERMON    OF    BISHOP   GALLOWAY.  •j 

Church  of  to-day.  There  is  an  excess  of  tolerance  that  tends  to  lati- 
tudinarianism.  There  cannot  be  too  much  catholicity  of  spirit,  too 
much  broad  Christian  fraternity  ;  neither  can  there  be  any  relaxing 
of  the  fundamental  verities  of  the  Gospel.  Paul's  sublimest  boast  was 
not  that  he  had  "fought  the  good  fight" — met  and  mastered  his  last 
enemy ;  not  that  he  had  finished  his  course — come  triumphantly  to 
the  end  of  a  long  and  honoured  career,  without  a  blur  on  his  name 
or  a  stain  on  his  shield;  but  that  he  had  "kept  the  faith" — kept  it 
in  its  integrity  and  entirety,  kept  it  without  lowering  its  Divine 
sanctions  or  compromising  its  sacred  imperatives. 

The  peril  of  this  age  is  not  a  God  despised,  but  a  God  displaced ; 
not  a  God  forsaken,  but  a  God  forgotten ;  not  a  God  rejected,  but  a 
God  neglected.  And  this  result  has  been  wrought  by  two  facts  funda- 
mental in  the  Christian  life — an  enfeebled  consciousness  of  sin,  and 
an  obscured  vision  of  the  Saviour.  In  view  of  this  peril,  and  as 
descriptive  of  the  Cliurch  in  consequence.  Bishop  Wilson  has  eloquently 
said,  that  "  the  tremendous  forces  expressed  in  the  person  and  work 
of  the  Son  of  God  are  deemed  wholly  unnecessary,  and  the  Saviour  of 
the  world  is  assigned  an  honourable  place  at  the  head  and  centre  of  a 
social,  intellectual,  and  aesthetic  realm  known  as  the  Church,  which  He 
may  adorn  with  His  presence,  but  must  not  perturb,  distress,  and 
humiliate  by  the  shame  and  horror  of  His  cross." 

And  that  leads  me  to  say  a  word  about  a  doctrine  not  only  basal  to 
this  study,  but  to  the  spiritual  kingdom  of  our  Lord — the  doctrine  of 
sin.  Any  scheme  of  religion  or  system  of  theology  that  minimises 
sin  makes  meaningless  the  mission  of  the  Man  of  Galilee.  Eliminate 
sin  and  you  emasculate  the  Gospel.  Christianity  has  only  a  message 
for  a  world  of  sin.  Its  sublime  mission  is  the  redemption  of  the  human 
race.  According  to  one  school  of  evolutionists,  sin  is  simply  want  of 
conformity  to  environment,  or  "partially  evolved  conduct."  In 
order  to  characterise  at  once  the  absurdity  and  peril  of  such  teaching, 
a  witty  English  minister  has  said :  "  The  evolutionary  man  does  not 
exclaim  with  Paul,  '  0  wretched  man  that  I  am.  Who  shall  deliver 
me  ? '  but  *  O  progressive  man  that  I  am.  Who  shall  help  me  to 
evolve  myself  ? '  " 

And  there  are  certain  religious  writers  who  represent  sin,  not  as 
"the  sting  of  death,"  but  merely  as  a  "pardonable  flaw"  in  hiunan 
nature — an  unfortunate  spiritual  aberration.  So  observant  and  devout 
a  layman  as  Mr.  Gladstone  thus  referred  to  such  teachers :  "  They 
appear  to  have  a  very  low  estimate  both  of  the  quantity  and  quality  of 
sin  ;  of  its  amount,  spread  like  a  deluge  over  the  world,  and  of  the 
subtlety,  intensity,  and  virulence  of  its  nature."  How  sadly  such 
teachers  contrast  with  the  inspired  apostles,  who  wrote  of  the  things 
they  had  seen  and  heard !  St.  John's  estimate  of  sin  and  its  univer- 
sality may  be  discerned  in  these  plain  and  j)o\veiful  words :  " If  wo 
say  that  we  have  no  sin  we  deceive  ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not 
in  us."  St.  Paul  diaracterised  it  us  "the  sting  of  death,"  and,  again, 
"  the  wages  of  sin  is  death,"  and  in  the  agony  of  his  own  awful  con- 


8  OPENING    SERVICES. 

sciousness  of  the  guilt  and  power  of  sin  cried  out,  "  O  wretched  man 
that  I  am  !  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  hody  of  this  death  ?  "  And 
when  the  joy  of  deliverance  came — a  deliverance  he  could  not  doubt — • 
a  deliverance  as  conscious  as  when  he  walked  out  of  the  jail  at 
Philippi — he  answered  his  own  despairing  cry  in  these  jubilant  words  : 
"  I  thank  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  Jerome  has  wisely 
said :  "  He  that  hath  slight  thoughts  of  sin  never  had  great  thoughts 
of  God."  And  he  might  have  added,  no  one  can  have  great  thoughts 
of  God  who  has  had  only  slight  thoughts  of  sin. 

The  Gospel  has  no  effectual  appeal  to  a  soul  that  has  no  conscious- 
ness of  sin.  You  recall  the  answer  the  Duchess  of  Buckingham  made 
to  Lady  Huntingdon,  when  the  latter  invited  her  to  hear  George 
Whitefield  preach.  "  It  is  monstrous,"  she  said,  "  to  be  told  that  you 
have  a  heart  as  sinful  as  the  common  wretches  that  crawl  on  the  earth. 
This  is  highly  offensive  and  insulting."  And  yet  without  such  a  deep 
conviction  of  sin — a  conviction  that  becomes  a  crucifixion — there  can 
be  no  clear  experience  of  the  crisis  of  conversion.  The  Gospel  of 
regeneration  is  first  of  all  a  distinct  statement  of  the  doctrine  of  sin  ; 
and  the  first  regenerative  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  to  convince  the 
world  of  sin  and  of  righteousness  and  of  judgment. 

I.  Itegeneration  a  Conscious  Experience.  The  regeneration  of  the 
soul  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  is  a  conscious 
experience,  and  a  fact  of  certain  knowledge.  The  subject  of  it  becomes 
a  "  new  man  "  with  a  "  new  heart,"  and  out  of  this  new,  transformed 
life  is  able  to  "declare  that  which  he  (we)  hath  seen  and  heard." 

But  just  here  it  may  be  well  to  note  an  important  distinction  sug- 
gested by  Bishop  Foster — that  "there  is  a  difference  between  an 
experience  of  Christianity  and  a  Christian  experience."  The  one  is  an 
observation  of  its  moral,  social,  and  other  effects  upon  individuals, 
peoples,  and  nations,  while  the  other  is  purely  subjective — the  con- 
sciousness of  certain  spiritual  facts,  forces,  and  fruits  in  the  individual 
soul.  One  may,  therefore,  have  an  experience  of  Christianity,  may 
have  extensive  and  even  approving  knowledge  of  its  mighty  objective 
influence  and  results,  and  yet  be  without  a  genuine  Christian  experi- 
ence. 

Another  fact  should  not  be  overlooked — while  the  attitude  of  re- 
generated souls  is  essentially  the  same  toward  God  and  the  great  doc- 
trines of  the  Gospel,  "  every  experience  is  coloured  by  the  subject  of  the 
experience."  Inherited  tendencies,  degrees  of  intelligence,  peculiari- 
ties of  temperament — indeed,  everything  that  differentiates  human 
beings  affect  and  determine  the  expression  of  this  new  life.  Mental 
and  temperamental  characteristics  are  untouched  in  regeneration.  Indi- 
viduality is  perfectly  preserved.  So  in  Christian  experience  "  every 
bird  si/igs  according  to  its  beak."  But  there  are  certain  great  radical 
results  wi ought  in  everyone  who  accepts,  and  with  the  heart  believes, 
the  Gospel  of  the  Lord  Christ.  These  are  facts,  of  consciousness  to 
.which  he  clearly  and  joyfully  testifies. 


SERMON    OF    BISHOP   GAI.LOWAV.  9 

The  snul  (leinandH  absolulo  certainty  in  religion.  It  cannut  rest  on 
a  mere  inference,  or  be  content  with  a  probalMfity,  or  find  I'onifort  in  a 
rational  conclusion.  The  mighty  issues  of  eternity  cannot  be  sus- 
pended on  less  than  "infallible  proofs."  We  must  have  sure  know- 
ledg!?.  And  the  demands  of  the  soul  are  not  met  with  the  proof  of 
Christianity  as  a  system  of  doctrine.  What  man  must  know  is  that  it 
is  the  present,  all-sufScient,  exhaustless  power  of  God,  by  which  He  is 
redeeming  a  world  of  sin. 

The  sure  knowledge  of  God,  and  the  conscious  relief  from  sin,  are 
the  two  great  matters  of  spiritual  concern  about  which  the  soul  demands 
unquestioned  certainty.  And  we  do  know  our  God,  surely,  savingly, 
triumphantly.  As  one  of  our  own  brothers  on  this  side  the  sea  has 
happily  stated  it,  "  We  know  God  transcendent  in  the  Father  Almighty, 
descendent  and  ascendent  in  Jesus  Christ  His  Son,  and  God  also 
immanent,  communicative — a  life-sustaining  breath,  a  cherishing  and 
kindling  fire — in  Him  who  is  called  the  Holy  Spirit." 

And  the  certainty  that  we  may  know  God  is  the  chief  and  mighty 
stimulus  to  faith.  It  becomes  a  sublime  and  ever  increasing  passion 
of  the  soul.  No  other  knowledge  satisfies.  It  may  inspire  ambitions 
to  more  diligent  search  ;  it  may  intensify  desire  after  larger  disclosures 
of  truth,  but  does  not  feed  the  hunger  of  the  soul  and  give  an  untroubled 
peace  to  the  human  heart.  And  this  desire  to  know  God  is  more  than 
"  the  passionate  curiosity  which  we  feel  before  the  mystery  of  the  uni- 
verse." It  is  the  awed  and  reverent  spirit  of  Isaiah,  when  he  saw  the 
throne  high  and  lifted  up,  and  the  train  that  filled  the  temple,  and 
heard  the  tumultuous  praises  of  the  angels  that  shook  its  everlasting 
pillars.  It  is  the  humble  and  ready  obedience  of  Paul,  on  his  way  to 
Damascus,  when  he  pathetically  asked,  "Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have 
me  to  do  ?  " 

Now,  in  response  to  this  demand  for  absolute  certainty,  the  Scrip- 
tures speak  in  terms  and  tones  of  Divine  assurance,  and  the  voices  of 
the  redeemed  in  all  ages  confirm  the  statements  of  Prophet  and  Apostle. 
St.  John,  in  glowing  words,  describes  the  great  change  wrought  'n  the 
soul  by  the  power  of  Christ  through  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  blessed 
assurance  given,  "  Therefore  if  any  man  be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  crea- 
ture ;  old  things  are  passed  away,  behold  all  things  are  become  new. 
And  all  things  are  of  God,  Avho  hath  reconciled  us  to  Himself  by  Jesus 
Christ,  and  hath  given  to  us  the  nainistry  of  reconciliation,  to  wit,  that 
God  was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself,  not  imputing 
their  trespasses  unto  them  ;  and  hath  committed  unto  us  the  word  of 
reconcihation.  Now  then  we  are  ambassadors  for  Christ,  as  though 
God  did  beseech  you  by  us  ;  we  pray  you  in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  recon- 
ciled to  God.  For  He  hath  made  Him  to  be  sin  for  us,  who  knew  no 
sin  ;  that  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  Him  "  (XL  Cor. 

V.  17-21). 

Listen  to  this  loud  acclaim  of  Peter,  which  sounds  like  a  mighty 
anthem  of  some  celestial  choir  :  "  Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father  of  our 
Lord   Jesus    Christ,    which    according  to   His   abundant    mercy    hath 


lO  OPENING   SERVICES. 

begotten  us  again  unto  a  lively  hope  by  the  resiirrectinn  of  Jesus  Christ 
from  the  dead."  And  nothing  could  be  more  confident  and  reassuring 
than  the  majestic  statement  of  St.  Paul :  "  For  I  know  whom  I  have 
believed,  and  am  persuaded  that  He  is  able  to  keep  that  which  I  have 
committed  unto  Him  against  that  day." 

The  apostle  makes  distinction  between  the  fact  of  sonship  and  the 
assurance  of  it — between  the  act  of  justification  and  adoption  and  the 
consciousness  of  it.  "And  because  ye  are  sons  God  hath  sent  forth  the 
Spirit  of  His  Son  into  your  hearts,  crying,  Abba,  Father  "  (Gal.  iv.  6). 
Again,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  he  says:  "For  ye  have  not 
received  the  spirit  of  bondage  again  to  fear  ;  but  ye  have  received  the 
spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we  cry,  Abba,  Father.  The  Spirit  Himself 
beareth  witness  with  our  spirit  that  we  are  the  children  of  God." 

This  mighty  transformation  of  the  whole  spiritual  nature  is  not  a 
matter  of  conjecture  or  uncertainty.  It  is  not  a  logical  inference  from 
historical  facts  and  rational  conclusions,  but  an  immediate,  absolute, 
Divine  assurance.  Here  is  the  realm  of  direct  knowledge,  and  need  not 
admit  the  possibility  of  a  doubt.  A  Divine  certainty  fills  and  thrills 
the  soul.  Like  the  sightless  sinner  healed  by  the  Saviour,  he  says : 
"One  thing  I  know,  that,  whereas  I  was  blind,  now  I  see."  Dr. 
Hodge,  the  great  Presbyterian  theologian  of  America,  states  the  case 
in  these  luminous  sentences :  "  There  is  no  form  of  conviction  more 
intimate  and  irresistible  than  that  which  arises  from  the  inward  teach- 
ing of  the  Holy  Spirit.  All  saving  faith  rests  on  His  testimony  or 
demonstration.  (I.  Cor.  ii.  4.)  This  inward  teaching  produces  a  con- 
viction which  no  sophistries  can  obscurOj  and  no  arguments  can  shake. 
It  is  founded  on  consciousness,  and  you  might  as  well  argue  a  man  out 
of  his  belief  in  his  existence  as  out  of  confidence  that  what  is  thus 
taught  of  God  is  true." 

And  I  cannot  forego,  in  this  immediate  connection,  reproducing  the 
clear,  strong  doctrinal  statement,  found  in  that  ancient  formula  of 
faith,  the  Westminster  Confession  :  "  This  certainty  is  not  a  bare  con- 
viction and  probable  persuasion,  grounded  upon  a  fallible  hope  ;  but  on 
infallible  assurance  of  faith ;  founded  upon  the  Divine  truth  of  the 
promises  of  salvation,  the  inward  evidences  of  those  graces  unto  which 
these  promises  are  made,  the  testimony  of  the  Spirit  witnessing  with 
our  spirits — ^that  we  are  the  children  of  God ;  which  Spirit  is  the 
earnest  of  our  inheritance,  whereby  we  are  sealed  unto  the  day  of 
redemption." 

It  has  been  well  said  that  the  certainty  of  our  knowledge,  in  things 
spiritiial  as  in  things  natural,  is  always  worth  more  to  us  than  the 
completeness  of  our  knowledge.  It  is  better  to  know  some  things 
surely  than  many  things  imperfectly.  Not  long  before  his  wonderful 
conversion  in  1738,  in  a  letter  to  his  mother,  John  Wesley  thus  clearly 
stated  his  view  of  the  possibility  and  necessity  of  a  conscious  salva- 
tion. He  said:  "If  we  dwell  in  Christ  and  Christ  in  us  (which  He 
wiU  not  do  unless  we  are  regenerate)  certainly  we  must  be  sensible 
of  it.    If  we  can  never  have  any  certainty  of  our  being  in  a  state  of 


SERMON   OF   BISHOP   GALLOWAY.  II 

salvaiion,  good  reason  it  is  that  every  moment  should  be  spent,  not  in 
joy,  but  in  fear  and  trembhng,  and  then,  undoubtedly,  we  are  in  this 
life  of  all  men  most  miserable.  God  deliver  us  from  such  a  fearful 
expectation  as  this." 

There  is  a  familiar  hymn  in  one  of  our  hymn-books  which  is  not 
Methodistic.  It  breathes  a  sort  of  Christian  agnosticism.  It  lacks 
the  confident  and  jubilant  tone  that  has  made  Methodism  a  world-wide 
movement : 

"'Tis  a  point  I  long  to  know, 
Oft  it  causes  anxious  thought: 
Do  I  love  the  Lord  or  no? 
Am  I  His,  or  am  I  not  ?  " 

The  sublime  privilege  of  a  regenerated  soul  and  the  clear  note  of 
its  triumphant  assurance  is  happily  expressed  in  the  splendid  lines  of 
Charles  Wesley :  — 

"  My  God  is  reconciled, 

His  pardoning  voice  I  hear. 
He  owns  me  for  His  child, 

I  can  no  longer  fear  ; 
With  confidence  I  now  draw  nigh, 

And  Father,  Abba,  Father,  cry." 

It  may  be  that  some  children  of  the  covenant,  reared  in  an  atmo- 
sphere of  piety,  diligently  and  prayerfully  instructed  in  the  great  facts 
and  verities  of  the  Gospel,  may  enter  so  easily  and  gracefully  into  the 
spiritual  kingdom,  that  conversion  seems  rather  a  process  than  a  crisis. 
Such  cases  possibly  ought  to  be  typical,  and  may  become  universal.  But 
however  noiseless  the  transition,  there  was  a  definite  passage  out  of 
the  old  hfe  into  the  new.  And  the  renovated  will,  the  transformed 
life,  the  purified  and  pacified  conscience,  attest  that  the  great  change 
was  wrought  at  some  time  or  somehow.  We  should  not  insist,  there- 
fore, upon  the  very  place  and  the  exact  moment  when  this  crisis  is 
wrought,  but  I  confess  to  a  singular  satisfaction  and  a  sustaining 
sense  of  unquestioned  certainty,  when  John  Wesley  refers  to  Alders- 
gate  Street  as  the  place,  and  a  "  quarter  to  nine  "  in  the  evening  of 
May  24,  1738,  as  the  time  when  "  I  felt  I  did  trust  in  Christ,  Christ 
alone,  for  salvation,  and  an  assurance  was  given  me  that  He  had  taken 
away  my  sins,  even  mine,  and  saved  me  from  the  law  of  sin  and 
death."  How  vivid  also  was  the  experience  of  Charles  Wesley  the  hour 
he  was  admitted  into  the  kingdom  of  Divine  grace.  To  commemorate 
that  bridal  hour  of  his  soul,  the  Laureate  of  Methodism  wrote  one  of 
his  grandest  hymns.  Feeling  that  one  tongue  was  not  enough  to 
express  what  his  heart  felt,  of  love  to  God  for  His  redeeming  grace,  he 
exclaimed :  — 

"0  for  a  thousand  tongues  to  sing 
My   Great  Redeemer's  praise. 
The  glories  of  my  God  and  King, 
The  triumphs  of  His  graee." 


J  2  OPENING    SERVICES. 

And  with  what  genuine  joy  did  the  distinguif^hed  son  clierigh  the 
fact  that  his  sainted  father  had  auch  a  clear  and  satisfactory^  experi- 
ence!  Samuel  Wesley,  the  venerable  rector  of  Epworth,  died  in  1755. 
His  death  was  triumphant,  and  his  testimony  was  really  jubilant. 
Referring  to  his  father's  experience,  John  Wesley  said:  "  What  he  ex- 
perienced Ijefore  I  know  not,  but  I  know  that  during  his  last  illness, 
which  continued  eight  months,  he  enjoyed  a  clear  sense,  of  his  accept- 
ance with  God.  I  heard  him  express  it  more  than  once,  altliongh 
at  that  time  I  understood  him  not.  'The  inward  witness,  son,  the 
inward  witness,'  said  he  to  me  ;  'This  is  the  proof,  the  strongest  proof 
of  Christianity.'  " 

The  Christian  has  an  infallible  witness:  "He  that  believeth  on  the. 
Son  of  God  hath  the  witness  in  himself."  "  The  Spirit  Himself  beareth 
witness  with  our  spirit  that  Ave  are  the  children  of  God."  There  is  a 
teacher  in  the  heart  "who  has  also  a  chair  in  heaven."  The  ringing, 
exultant  affirmation  of  every  redeemed  disciple  of  our  Lord  was,  "  We 
know  whom  we  have  believed."  The  constant  and  confident  appeal 
in  the  New  Testament  is  to  the  direct  testimony  of  consciousness. 
Every  apostle  seemed  to  have  fire  upon  his  lips  when  he  spoke  of  th':' 
great  and  gracious  redemption  wrought  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  And  with 
the  Apostle  Peter,  every  experimental  Christian  to-day  declares  that 
he  does  not  follow  cunningly-devised  fables  when  he  makes  known  the 
power  and  coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  but  is  an  eye-witness  of 
His  majesty. 

Spiritual  facts  and  verities  are  apprehended  just  as  rationally  as  are 
things  material.  The  same  faculties  are  employed — there  is  only  differ- 
ence in  the  objects  apprehended.  We  reject  and  resent  the  statement 
that  a  proposition  may  be  at  the  same  time  false  in  philosophy  and  true 
in  theology.  That  doctrine  known  as  "  Double-truth  "  has  been  justly 
condemned  as  "  the  fig-leaf  of  a  shame-faced  or  still  half-unconscious 
scepticism."  "Our  Christian  certainty,"  says  a  distinguished  authority 
in  theology,  "  rests  upon  the  synthesis  of  the  religious  impressions  made 
upon  all  our  faculties/'  and  "  the  testing  and  investigation  of  these  im- 
pressions by  the  processes  of  reflective  thought,  acting  in  the  light  and 
by  the  aid  of  the  rational  intuitions." 

11.  The  Irrepressible  in  Christian  Testimony. — This  new  life  has  an 
irrepressible  element.  Its  nature  is  to  reveal  and  not  conceal.  Its 
impulse  is  to  speech  and  not  to  silence.  "  We  cannot  but  speak."  This 
sjnritual  knowledge^ — this  divine  assurance — is  the  "communicative  im- 
pulse "  of  the  redeemed  soul.  There  is  begotten  a  divine  eagerness  to 
make  it  known  to  others.  It  is  the  constraining  love  which  Paul  felt 
and  so  eloquently  acknowledged.  It  was  the  passionate  spirit  of  St. 
John  in  the  rhythmic  sentences  of  his  First  Epistle  :  "  That  which  was 
from  the  beginning,  that  which  we  have  heard,  that  which  we  have 
seen  with  our  eyes,  that  which  we  beheld  and  our  hands  handled  con- 
cerning the  Word  of  Life  (and  the  life  was  manifested,  and  we  have  seen 
and  bear  witness,  and  declare  unto  you  the  Life,  the  Eternal  Life  which 
was  with  the  Father,  and  was  manifested  unto  us),  that  which  we  have 


SERMON    OF    niSIIOP    GALLOWAY.  1 3 

seen  and  heard  declare  m  c  uiilo  you  also,  that  ye  also  may  have  fellow- 
ship with  us  ;  yea,  and  our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father,  and  with 
His  Son  Jesus  Christ."  The  first  impulse  of  :■.  (converted  soul  is  to 
bring  others  to  Christ.  And  the  growth  of  this  spiritual  concern  for 
the  unsaved,  and  the  increase  of  this  divine  desire,  are  the  measure 
of  our  religion.  Solicitude  fur  others  is  the  expression  of  our  love 
to  God. 

The  certitude  of  our  faith  is  the  measure  of  an  aggressive  ministry. 
Shallow  convictions  produce  feeble  service.  Men  of  might  and  majesty 
believe  strongly.  Heroes  stand  for  something.  Faith  is  the  fibre  of  a 
conqueror.  There  is  no  inspiration  in  a  negative.  It  can  neither  ele- 
vate nor  regenerate.  Christianity  must  first  be  an  experience  before  it 
can  be  an  enterprise  ;  it  must  be  a  regeneration  before  it  will  become 
an  inspiration.  Paul's  absolute  faith  and  vivid  experience  gave  him 
the  spirit  of  a  conqueror,  even  when  defeat  and  death  seemed  inevit- 
able. His  confidence  in  the  eternal  principles  of  God's  Kingdom  and 
its  final  triumph  was  never  disturbed.  The  Gospel  that  had  saved  him 
could  redeem  the  world.  After  his  Damascus  experience  he  knew 
neither  doubt  nor  fear.  So,  above  the  clamour  and  clangour  uf  Jie 
mob,  and  amid  the  desertions  of  trusted  friends,  rose  the  clear  bugle 
notes  of  his  sublime,  all-conquering  faith  :  "  Nevertheless,  the  founda- 
tion of  God  standeth  sure."  He  believed  in  a  personal  God,  not  in  a 
"  stream  of  tendency  "  ;  in  a  mighty  and  ever-present  Saviour,  not  in  a 
mere  moral  influence  ;  in  a  guiding  and  attesting  Holy  Spirit,  not  in 
a  vague,  spiritual  impression. 

Such  an  experience  intensifies  the  zeal  of  the  ministry.  "  We  can- 
not but  speak."  It  inspired  the  noble  declaration  of  St.  Paul:  "I  am 
debtor  both  to  the  Greeks  and  to  the  Barbarians,  both  to  the  wise  and 
to  the  unwise."  It  was  this  that  caused  him,  amid  stripes  and  perse- 
cutions, and  the  prospect  of  certain  death,  to  exclaim,  "  None  of  these 
things  move  me."  And  our  Methodist  fathers  had  a  like  apostolic  and 
zealous  spirit.  It  made  John  Wesley  "  the  quiescence  of  turbulence," 
and  gave  seraphic  wing  to  the  lyric  muse  of  his  brother  Charles.  It  in- 
flamed the  ardent  soul  of  Thomas  Coke,  "  the  Foreign  Minister  of 
Methodism,"  and  caused  him,  in  a  moment  of  rhapsody,  to  cry  out,  "  I 
want  the  wings  of  an  eagle  and  the  voice  of  a  trumpet,  that  I  may 
preach  the  Gospel  in  the  East  and  in  the  West,  in  the  North  and  in 
the  South." 

Preaching  has  little  meaning  and  less  power  that  is  not  born  of  a 
living  experience.  It  must  be  a  personal  attestation  of  the  facts  stated 
and  the  truth  expounded.  Otherwise  it  is  a  discussion  and  not  a  pro- 
clamation— a  sacred  rumour  repeated  and  not  a  Divine  verity  attested. 
The  apostle  must  be  a  witness.  The  true  attitude  of  the  minister  has 
thus  been  described  :  One  who  knows,  standing  up  in  the  midst  of  those 
who  know  not,  holding  forth  to  those  who  as  yet  do  not  know  the  mes- 
sage of  salvation  from  the  living  God  and  the  exalted  Christ. 

Tlie  authoritative  command  and  Divine  exliortation  is,  "When  thou 
art  converted  strengthen  thy  brethren."     One  must  have  power  before 


t4  OPENING    SERVICES. 

he  can  impart  strength.  He  must  know  the  way  before  he  can  direct 
"others  aright.  The  Gospel  for  a  world  of  sin  can  only  be  preached 
by  those  who  have  felt  its  need  and  tested  its  redemptive  power.  No 
tongue  of  archangel  could  rightly  proclaim  it.  And  those  preach  it 
most  efficiently  who  know  experimentally  its  saving  and  infinite 
efficacy.  It  is  a  suggestive  fact  that  the  prophet  Ezekiel  had  to  eat 
the  roll  which  was  written  within  and  without,  before  he  could 
preach  it  to  others.  It  had  to  be  assimilated,  become  a  part  of  his  very 
being — ^transmuted  into  his  life's  blood — before  it  became  a  message  ol 
life  and  power  to  the  people. 

The  mission  of  the  ministry  is  to  take  up  Grod's  message  and  carry 
it  to  the  world.  The  angel  flying  through  the  heavens  with  trumpet 
in  hand  had  committed  to  him  the  everlasting  Gospel.  God  ordained 
at  once  the  agent,  the  instrument,  and  the  message.  And  the  other 
mighty  angel  that  John  saw,  with  a  rainbow  on  his  head,  his  face  as 
bright  as  the  sun,  and  feet  glorious  as  pillars  of  fire,  ventured  not 
to  earth  on  his  own  authority,  but  "  he  had  in  his  hand  a  little  book 
open."  And  God  has  never  allowed  any  messenger,  whether  angel  or 
man,  to  construct  or  invent  a  message.  The  scope  and  function  of 
this  ministry  is  clearly  and  fully  defined.  We  are  to  speak  as  the 
Spirit  giveth  utterance. 

Our  mission  is  to  "bear  witness  of  that  light."  It  was  the  Divine 
and  only  commission  of  Patriarch,  Prophet,  and  Apostle.  From  Moses 
to  John  the  Baptist,  and  from  Paul  to  the  present,  men  could  only 
bear  witness.  They  cannot  create — they  can  only  reflect  light.  They 
are  not  that  light— only  reflections  of  its  glorious  and  healing  beams. 

III.  The  Crowning  JEvidence.  The  highest  proof  of  the  power  of 
Christianity  is  in  Qie  reality  of  Christian  experience.  And  the  cer- 
tainty given  by  such  an  experience,  which  is  matter  of  immediate  con- 
sciousness, is  the  highest  attainable  by  human  beings.  I  respect  the 
eminently  wise  caution  of  Eichard  Baxter,  that  "  God's  evidences  must 
not  be  separated,  much  less  must  one  be  pleaded  to  the  neglect  of  th« 
rest,"  but  undoubtedly  the  pre-eminence  must  be  given  to  the  evidence 
of  Christian  experience.  John  Wesley  had  that  view,  as  is  evident 
from  one  of  his  remarkable  letters.  "  If  then,"  he  says,  "  it  were  pas- 
sible (which  I  conceive  it  is  not)  to  shake  the  traditional  evidence  of 
Christianity,  still  he  that  hath  the  internal  evidence  (and  everj^  true 
believer  hath  the  witness  or  evidence  in  himself)  would  stand  firm  and 
unshaken." 

Spiritual  truth  is  not  reached  by  hearsay,  nor  received  at  second- 
hand. We  do  not  hear  God  in  the  shout  of  the  sea,  nor  the  thunder 
of  the  storm,  nor  the  silvery  song  of  the  streamlet.  These  are  only 
the  echoes  of  His  voice  ;  but  He  is  heard  in  the  words  of  His  Son,  for 
"  they  are  Spirit  and  they  are  life,"  and  in  the  attesting  voice  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  which  makes  us  cry  "  Abba,  Father."  God  is  not  seen  in 
the  glorious  light  of  the  sun,  nor  the  soft  gleam  of  the  stars,  nor  the 
gorgeous  tints  of  the  evening  clouds.     But  He  stands  unveiled  before 


SERMON   OF   BISHOP   GALLOWAY.  1$ 

US  in  the  "  Man  Christ  Jesus."  "  He  that  hath  seen  Me  hath  seen 
the  Father."  The  revelation  of  God  to  man  could  not  come  in 
the  records  of  a  book,  nor  in  the  glory  of  the  heavens,  nor  in  all  the 
vast  and  varied  handiwork  of  nature,  but  in  a  real  life.  And  when  He 
has  been  thus  spiritually  apprehended,  and  His  Gospel  experimentally 
tested,  we  have  the  crowning  evidence.  Then  every  voice  is  the  voio 
of  God. 

Without  modification  or  reserve  do  I  accept  the  triumphant  conclu- 
sions of  the  late  Bishop  of  Durham:  "If  it  is  not  by  the  senses,  so 
neither  is  it  by  theological  and  scientific  faculties,  that  we  can  appre- 
hend God,  can  see  the  Father.  These  faculties  may  verify,  may 
explain,  may  systematise,  but  they  cannot  give  the  insight,  cannot 
create  the  belief.  I  doubt  whether  the  most  elaborate  proofs  of  the 
Being  and  Attributes  of  God,  the  most  subtle  expositions  of  the  Evi- 
dences of  Christianity,  have  done  very  much  toward  establishing  even 
an  intellectual  assent.  I  am  quite  sure  that  they  have  been  all  but 
powerless  in  commanding  a  living,  working  belief."  But  to  the  mind 
of  the  consciously  regenerate,  doctrinal  truth  has  luminous  and  larger 
meaning. 

One  with  a  clear  Christian  experience  has  assuring  knowledge  of 
the  Person,  Character,  and  Divinity  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  would  not 
undervalue  the  overwhelming  argument  that  has  vindicated  the  Christ 
of  history,  the  Christ  of  Bethlehem  and  Nazareth,  of  Galilee  and 
Judea,  of  the  Garden  and  the  Cross,  the  Christ  who  died  that  the 
world  might  be  redeemed  ;  but  the  Christ  of  experience,  the  Christ  of 
the  redeemed  soul,  the  Christ  formed  within,  the  hope  of  Glory— is  a 
real,  ever-present,  inspiring  Personality.  To  such  an  one  Jesus  Christ 
is  not  a  history,  but  a  verity  ;  not  a  reminiscence,  but  a  presence  ;  not 
a  theory,  but  a  glorious  reality.  He  is  not  a  God  afar  off,  but  ever 
near.  Paul  had  such  a  knowledge  of  his  Lord  when  he  exclaimed : 
"I  live,  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  Jesus  liveth  in  me."  And  on 
another  occasion  a  subliraer  vision  and  diviner  experience  was  his, 
when  in  the  very  exhaustion  of  spiritual  rhapsody,  he  cried  out—"  For 
to  me  to  live  is  Christ."  The  grjat  Jonathan  Edwards,  referring  to  the 
clear  apprehension  the  consciously  regenerated  have  of  doctrinal  truth, 
and  especially  of  the  Person  and  Christhood  of  Jesus,  made  this 
masterful  deliverance.  "With  respect  to  Christ's  being  the  Son  of 
God  and  the  Saviour  of  the  World,  and  the  great  th:  igs  He  has 
revealed  concerning  Himself,  and  His  Father,  and  another  Avorld,  they 
have  not  only  a  predominating  opinion  that  these  things  are  true,  and 
so  yield  their  assent,  as  they  do  in  many  other  things  of  doubtful 
speculation  ;  but  they  see  that  it  is  really  so  ;  their  eyes  are  opened, 
so  that  they  see  really  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  Living  God." 
The  personality  of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  the  doctrine  of  the  new 
birth  are  not  matters  of  speculation  or  vague  imcertainty  to  those  who 
have  been  the  objects  of  redeeming  power.  They  are  facts  of  glorious 
and  hourly  experience.  Prof.  Austin  Phelps,  in  some  eloquent  and 
pnwerful  passages,  illustrates  these   sublime   doctrines   most  vividly, 


1 6  >  OPENING    SERVICES. 

in  describing  the  conversion  of  St.  Paul :  "  Look  at  it  as  a  fact  in  the 
history  of  mind.  Set  aside  as  irrelevant  to  the  object  before  you  v/hat- 
ever  was  miraculous  in  the  events  of  that  journey  to  Damascus.  Hake 
no  account  of  the  supernatural  light,  the  voice  from  heaven,  the  shock 
of  blindness.  Consider  not  the  means  but  the  manner  of  that  change 
in  the  man.  Mark  its  impetuosity.  Note  the  instantaneousness  oi 
that  arrest  of  passion.  It  is  like  a  torrent  frozen  in  mid-air.  Observe 
the  revulsion  of  feeling — threatening  and  slaughter  give  place  to  con- 
viction of  sin.  Malignity  is  supplanted  by  prayer.  Perceive  the  revolu- 
tion of  character  in  that  instant  trembling  and  astonishment.  Call 
it  regeneration,  conversion,  new  birth,  or  by  titles  more  comely  to 
philosophic  taste  ;  call  it  what  you  will,  it  is  a  change  of  character. 
The  Pharisee  becomes  a  penitent.  The  persecutor  becomes  a  Christian. 
The  murderer  becomes  a  saint.  For  aught  th,at  appears  in  the  narrative, 
the  change  is  almost  like  a  flash  of  lightning.  How  brief  the  colloquy 
which  proclaims  the  whole  of  it !  '  Who  art  Thou,  Lord  V  '  I  am 
Jesus.'  '  Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me  to  do  ? '  We  do  not  know  that 
mind  can  move  more  rapidly  than  this  in  such  a  juncture  of  its  history, 
and  yet  more  intelligently.  Then  put  together  the  two  lives  of  the 
man,  his  life  before  and  his  life  after  this  convulsive  crisis.  Saul  and 
Paul  join  hands  over  this  invisible  gulf  as  over  the  river  of  death,  the 
same  being,  yet  two  different  men.  His  character  has  experienced 
a  change  like  the  transmutation  of  metals.  Take  these  as  facts  of 
sober  mental  history,  and  do  they  not  seem  to  speak  the  presence  of  a 
supernatural  power  ? " 

It  gives  infallible  assurance  of  the  Divine  authority  of  the  W^ord 
of  God.  With  a  clearly  attested  Christian  experience  we  enter  without 
hesitation  upon  the  fullest  and  freest  investigation  of  the  historical 
and  critical  questions  relating  to  the  Holy  Scriptures.  No  canon  of 
criticism  or  test  of  scholarship  can  intimidate  a  faith  that  has  been 
securely  enthroned  in  the  consciousness.  If  there  be  occasion  for  a 
revision  of  opinion  about  the  canonical  authority  of  some  book,  or  the 
credibility  of  certain  passages,  there  is  no  disturbance  of  those  great 
doctrines  that  have  already  been  transmuted  into  personal  life  and 
character.  "  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you  they  are  spirit  and  they 
are  life."  No  question  about  Jonah  and  his  excursion  at  sea  can 
invalidate  the  doctrine  of  the  new  birth,  or  render  indistinct  the  voice 
of  the  Spirit  in  the  regenerated  soul,  bearing  witness  with  our  own 
spirit.  "It  is  such  a  witness,"  says  Dr.  Watts,  "to  the  truth  of  the 
Christian  religion,  as  does  not  depend  upon  the  exact  truth  of  letters 
and  syllables,  nor  on  the  critical  knowledge  of  the  copies  of  the  Bible, 
nor  on  this  old  manuscript,  nor  on  the  other  new  translation."  The 
Pivine  life  implanted  in  the  soul  is  suflficient  assurance  that  the  Gospel 
must  be  from  God  ;  and  on  this  glorious  certainty  the  sincere  Christian 
securely  rests,  thougli  unable  to  prove  the  authority  of  any  of  the 
canonical  writings. 

We  may,  therefore,  give  the  widest  hospitality  to  all  legitimate  inves- 
tigations by  Christian  scholars  in  the  line  of  the  "  Higher  Criticism." 


SERMON    OF    BISHOP    GALLOWAY.  I7 

There  is  no  occasion  for  fear.  Only  advantage  can  come  to  llie  Church 
of  God.  Some  modification  of  our  theories  of  interpretation  and 
inspiration  there  may  be,  but  the  Divine  substance  of  this  redemptive 
Gospel  can  never  be  touched,  and  with  Paul  we  may  triumphantly 
exclaim  "Nevertheless  the  foundation  of  God  standeth  sure." 

Christian  experience  solves  the  mystery  of  the  miraculous.  One 
who  has  this  joyous  experience  of  Christ,  this  conscious  deliverance 
from  sin,  this  miracle  of  grace  in  his  heart,  has  no  difficulty  in  accepting 
and  defending  the  credibility  of  miracles.  Christ  in  the  consciousness 
is  an  unanswerable  argument.  "We  are  again  reminded  that  "  the 
miracle  is  on  its  trial."  And  even  Christian  teachers,  more  or  less 
affected  by  the  arrogance  and  dominance  of  the  scientific  spirit,  "  have 
as  little  to  do  with  the  miracle  as  possible."  They  do  not  yield  belief 
in  it,  but  neglect  to  preach  if.  But  there  is  no  fear  to  those  who 
know  the  miracle  working  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  redemption. 
Every  cleansed  heart  and  renewed  spirit  is  a  creation  of  God,  a  miracle 
of  omnipotent  energy.  "  Born  of  the  Spirit."  And  every  such  miracle 
of  grace  is  a  new  revelation  of  the  power  of  God.  Each  living  Lazarus 
attests  the  fact  that  the  living  Christ  is  still  waking  the  sleep  of  the 
dead.  Dr.  Joseph  Parker  has  aptly  said  that  "  every  devout  experience 
is  a  proof  of  the  possibility  of  inspiration." 

And  this  evidence  becomes  more  convincing  and  triumphant  with 
the  growth"  of  years  and  the  progress  of  the  Church.  If,  as  has  been 
rightly  declared,  "  the  whole  teaching  of  Scripture  is  directed  to  show 
not  what  God  has,  nor  yet  what-  He  is  in  Himself,  but  what  He  is  in 
His  dealings  with  men  ;  or,  in  other  words,  to  make  Him  known  in 
various  ways  through  the  historical  manifestations  of  His  holiness  and 
His  love,"  then  the  whole  liistory  of  the  Church  should  be  a  continued 
revelation.  And  so  it  is.  As  the  years  move  on  there  are  successive 
unfoldings  and  unveilings  of  God's  glory  and  power — a  series  of 
epiphanies  of  the  risen  and  reigning  Lord. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  faithful  and  authoritative  witness 
to  this  experience,  more  than  anything  else,  has  made  Christianity  a 
world-religion.  It  is  the  one  common  ground  on  which  all  humanity 
can  stand,  the  one  thing  that  makes  the  whole  world  kin.  It  is  not 
in  creed  statements,  not  in  formulas  of  faith,  not  in  codes  of  ethics,, 
not  in  sacraments  and  ordinances,  not  in  ecclesiastical  orders,  but  in 
the  soul's  deliverance  from  the  guilt  and  dominion  of  sin.  That  alone 
answers  the  orphan  cry  of  humanity,  and  satisfies  the  hunger  of  the 
universal  human  heart.  That  alone  brings  us  into  sweet  and  Divine 
fellowship— fellowship  with  the  Father  and  His  Son  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord — and  into  the  blessed  brotherhood  of  repentance  and  pardon. 

We  must,  therefore,  be  a  w^itnessing  Church — a  Church  that  has 
seen  and  heard  something  to  declare— and  a  Church  that  cannot  but 
speak  of  what  has  been  seen  and  heard.  This  type  of  religion  is  the 
need  of  every  age.  It  was  the  religion  of  Pentecost  that  made  the 
unpillared  arches  of  heaven  ring  with   praise,    and   of   apostles   and 


1 8  OPENING    SERVICES. 

martyrs  of  whom  the  world  was  not  worthy.  It  was  the  religion  of 
Martin  Luther,  who  shook  Europe  to  its  foundations,  and  of  John 
Wesley,  who  became  the  providential  leader  of  "  the  greatest  fact  in 
modern  times."  And  such  a  spiritual  life  should  gird  the  Church  of 
God  with  greater  power  in  this  opening  year  of  a  new  century. 

The  Church  has  more  to  fear  from  a  "classically  cold  religiosity" 
than  from  the  aggressive  opposition  of  a  bold  and  blatant  scepticism. 
Erasmus,  himself  a  great  scholar,  uttered  these  words  as  the  heart 
appeal  of  one  distressed  at  the  coldness  of  religious  life,  and  the 
distractions  of  metaphysical  theology  :  "  I  could  wish  that  those  frigid 
subtleties  either  were  completelv  cut  off  or  were  not  the  only  things 
that  the  theologians  held  as  certain,  and  that  the  Christ  pure  and 
simple  might  be  implanted  deep  within  the  minds  of  men." 

This  was  the  Divine  mission  of  Methodism,  "the  redeeming  from 
forgetfulness,  the  doctrine  of  necessity  for  spiritual  conversion."  Its 
authoritative  and  constantly  iterated  insistence  was  for  a  renewed  and 
e-learly-attested  inner  life — a  life  consciously  hid  with  Christ  in  God. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Stoughton,  in  his  ''  History  of  Religion  in  England," 
thus  generously  refers  to  our  great  Zion :  "Methodism  grew  out  of 
the  feeling  that  religious  experience,  and  the  truth  which  produces  it, 
take  precedence  of  everytliing  else,  and  that  to  these  primary  objects 
all  which  is  merely  ecclesiastical  must  be  kept  in  strict  and  lasting 
subordination."  And  may  that  subordinate  relation  never  be 
disturbed. 

Dr.  Abel  Stevens,  our  own  great  historian,  states  another  fact 
characteristic  of  the  movement  which  has  made  possible  this 
QEcumenical  Conference :  "  Methodism  reversed  the  usual  policy  of 
religious  sects,  which  seek  to  sustain  their  spiritual  life  by  their 
orthodoxy.  It  has  sustained  its  orthodoxy  by  devoting  its  chief  care 
to  its  spiritual  life."  Our  faith  has  been  kept  pure  by  keeping  it  in 
action.  The  swift  movement  of  our  ministry  has  been  the  secret  of  our 
undisturbed  orthodoxy.  And  as  we  are  facing  a  wonderful  future,  I 
could  ask  no  larger  blessing  for  our  world-wide  Methodism  than  that 
she  inscribe  upon  her  door-posts  the  warning  words  of  a  great  mis- 
sionary:  "The  Church  that  ceases  to  evangelise  will  soon  cease  to  be 
Evangelical." 

The  rapid  spread  of  the  revival  under  the  Wesleys,  Whitefield,  and 
their  coadjutors  was  due  to  the  fact  that  they  insisted  upon  a  present, 
conscious  forgiveness  of  sins,  obtained  by  faith  in  the  promise  of 
Christ.  The  pulpits  of  that  day,  both  in  England  and  America, 
preached  a  religion  of  form  and  service,  without  an  experience  of 
grace  and  peace.  Mr.  Whitefield  said,  on  his  first  visit  to  America, 
that  the  preachers  talked  of  "an  unknown  and  unfelt  Christ,"  and 
that  the  reason  why  the  Churches  were  so  dead  was  l)ecause  they  had 
dead  men  to  preach  to  them.  When  the  Wesleys  and  their  co-labourers 
began  preaching  the  blessed  doi-trine  of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  it 
was  denounced  by  unconverted  clergy  as  a  heresy,  but  was  hailed  by 
the  masses  as  a  new  levelation.     It  was  light  out  of  great  darkness, 


SERMON    OF    BISHOP   GALLOWAY.  IC/ 

an  evangel  of  hope  to  a  jieople  long  used  to  the  dull,  -weary  platitudes 
of  a  comfortless,  purposeless  pulpit.  Religion  was  no  longer  a  dreary 
drudge,  but  a  joyful  experience — a  vital  and  vitalising  power  in  the 
soul.  It  quickened  every  noble  impulse,  ennobled  every  sentiment, 
beautified  every  relation,  transformed  the  Christ  of  history  into  a 
conscious  presence  and  experience,  and  converted  the  heaven  of  vague 
desire  and  dogma  into  a  blessed  reality. 

No  wonder  it  awoke  a  sleeping  nation,  and  shook  the  foundations 
of  a  Christless  Church.  Such  a  message  at  such  a  time  was  like  the 
alarm  peal  of  a  fire-bell  at  midnight  in  a  slumbering  city.  Conscious 
of  their  unsaved  condition  and  spiritual  peril,  having  been  fed  on 
ministrations  that  neither  aroused  fear  nor  satisfied  hope,  they  at 
once  turned  to  those  who  preached  the  comforts  and  joys  of  a  present 
salvation. 

And  that  characteristic  of  Methodist  preaching  has  been  the  glory  of 
its  history.  God  has  made  us  a  great  people  because  we  have  been  a 
witnessing  people.  Our  itinerants,  from  Wesley  to  the  present  day, 
have  preached  doctrines  verified  by  their  own  experiences.  Not  always 
have  they  spoken  in  the  terminology  of  the  schools,  or  with  the  preci- 
sion of  dialecticians,  but  out  of  full  hearts  and  by  the  constraint  of 
Christ's  love.  Theirs  has  been  a  religion  of  knowledge.  Each  could 
say,  "  I  know  whom  I  have  believed."  They  declared  the  truth  with  an 
absolute  confidence  of  tone  and  manner  that  eliminated  the  faintest 
suggestion  of  possible  contingency  or  uncertainty.  And  their  very  posi- 
tiveness  of  speech  was  a  chief  factor  in  their  marvellous  success. 
Nothing  so  readily  disarms  criticism  and  compels  candid  investigation 
as  the  expression  of  entire  and  unutterable  confidence  in  the  truth  and 
value  of  our  teachings.  And  so  the  preaching  of  the  early  Methodists 
was  the  positive  declaration  of  a  blessed  fact,  and  not  the  skilful,  subtle 
proving  of  something  from  a  working  hypothesis.  The  voice  of  the 
piilpit  and  the  pew  was  expressed  in  the  thrilling  lines  of  Charles 
Wesjey : 

"What  we  have  felt  and  seen 
With  confidence  we  tell, 
And  publish  to  the  sons  of  men 
The  signs  infallible." 

And  such  is  the  vocation  of  Methodism  to-day — the  proclar:.ation  of  a 
present,  conscious  forgiveness  of  sins.  What  has  been  the  distinguish- 
ing feature  of  our  success  must  be  our  future  mission.  Ours  has  been  a 
revival  ministry,  hence  the  marvellous  growth  of  Methodism.  What 
we  were  in  the  beginning,  and  through  the  years  of  a  history  scarcely 
less  than  a  perpetual  miracle,  we  should  be  now  and  for  all  time.  We 
must  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God,  both  Law  and  Gospel. 

John  Wesley,  at  the  good  old  age  of  eighty-seven,  in  a  letter  to 
Alexander  Mather,  uttered  these  thrilling  words :  "  Give  me  one  hun- 
dred preachers  who  fear  nothing  but  sin,  and  desire  nothing  but  God, 
and  I  care  not  a  straw  whether  they  be  clergymen  or  laymen,  such 


20  OPENING    SERVICES. 

alone  will  shake  the  gates  of  hell,  and  set  up  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
upon  earth."  Grand  words  these  from  the  old  battle-scarred  veteran, 
whose  sword,  which  so  long  flashed  in  the  forefront  of  conflict,  now 
hung  feebly  by  his  side.  Happy,  thrice  happy,  for  Methodism  if  she 
will  heed  the  parting  counsels  of  her  aged  leader,  and  cling  to  the 
purity  of  faith  and  simplicity  of  life  that  made  her  early  days  heroic. 
As  we  grow  in  numbers,  wealth,  and  influence  we  have  the  greater 
need  for  entire  consecration  to  God.  Ours  must  be  a  spiritual  Church. 
We  have  no  splendid  and  imposing  ritual  to  fascinate  the  taste,  no  pre- 
scriptive dogma  around  which  to  rally  our  prejudices,  nor  long  history 
and  hoary  traditions  to  command  our  veneration.  It  is  ours  to  preach 
and  practise  spiritual  religion.  Should  the  day  ever  come  when 
Methodism  forgets  this,  her  only  mission,  her  downfall  is  secured.  She 
will  have  finished  her  course,  and  ought  to  fall  on  sleep.  But  such,  I 
trust,  may  never  be. 

I  believe  that  we  have  yet  a  great  mission  in  the  world.  Methodism 
has  not  fulfilled  the  Divine  purpose  of  its  creation.  God  has  still  a 
work  for  us  to  do. 

"  Our  flag  on  every  height  unfurled. 
And  morning  drum-beat  round   the  world." 

is  prophecy  of  yet  richer  blessings  and  grander  conquests.  The  past 
has  been  glorious,  but  thrice  glorious  will  be  the  future  if  we  are  true 
to  the  heritage  of  our  fathers.  Let  us  emulate  their  virtues  and  imi- 
tate their  burning  zeal. 

And  now,  dear  brethren,  I  conclude  my  humble  message,  not  with 
the  benediction  of  some  great  father  in  our  own  beloved  Zion,  but  with 
the  prayer  of  the  sainted  Richard  Baxter,  hoping  that  it  may  be  the 
personal  petition  of  each  delegate  in  this  OEcumenical  Conference,  and 
of  every  worshipper  at  the  altars  of  world-wide  Methodism.  "  Thou 
hast  mercifully  given  me  the  witness  in  myself  ;  not  an  unreasonable 
persuasion  in  my  mind,  but  that  renewed  nature,  those  holy  and 
heavenly  desires  and  delights,  that  surely  can  come  from  none  but  Thee. 
And  oh,  how  much  more  have  I  perceived  in  many  of  Thy  servants  than 
in  myself !  Thou  hast  cast  my  lot  among  the  souls  whom  Christ  hath 
healed.  I  have  daily  conversed  with  those  whom  He  hath  raised  from 
the  dead !  "  And  then  to  the  Holy  Spirit  he  prays :  "  Be  in  me  the 
Eesident  Witness  of  my  Lord,  the  Author  of  my  prayers,  the  Spirit  of 
adoption,  the  Seal  of  God,  and  the  Earnest  of  my  inheritance.  Let  not 
my  nights  be  so  long,  and  my  days  so  short,  nor  sin  eclipse  those  beams 
which  have  often  illuminated  my  soul.  Without  Thee,  books  are  sense- 
less scrawls,  studies  are  dreams,  learning  is  a  glow-worm,  and  wit  is 
but  wantonness,  impertinency,  and  folly.  Make  me  the  more  heavenly 
by  how  much  the  faster  I  am  hastening  to  heaven  ;  and  let  my  last 
thoughts,  words  and  works  on  earth  be  likest  to  those  which  shall  be 
my  first  in  the  state  of  glorious  immortaliti\  where  the  Kingdom  is 
delivered  up  to  the  Father,  and  God  will  for  ever  be  all,  and  in  all ;  of 


SERMON    OF    BISHOP   GALLOWAY.  21 

Whom,  and  througli  Whuiii,  and  to  Whom  are  all  things,  to  Whom  be 
glory  for  ever.     Amen.'' 

After  the  sermon  the  hymn,  "For  ever  hero  my  rest  shall  be," 
was  sung,  and  the  Order  of  Service  for  the  Administration  of  the 
Holy  Communion  was  then  read  by  Dr.  Davison.  He  adminis- 
tered the  elements  to  those  who  sat  on  the  platform,  and  they 
were  distributed  to  the  delegates  in  their  pews  by  the  following 
ministers:— The  Revs.  J.  H.  Rigg,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  Bishop  J.  F.  Hurst,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodi&t  Episcopal 
Church),  Joim  Potts,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada),  Bishop 
B.  W.  Arnett,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  G.  T. 
Candlin  (President  of  the  Methodist  New  Connexion),  H.  B. 
Kendall,  B.A.  (President  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church),  and 
David  Brook,  M.A.,  D.C.L.  (President  of  the  United  Methodist  Free 
Churches). 

Dinner  and  tea  were  served  each,  day  at  the  Drill  Hall  of  the 
Ai'moury  of  the  Honourable  Artillery  Company. 

Before  the  Conference  resumed  in  the  afternoon  a  i)]iotographic 
group  of  the  delegates  was  taken  in  front  of  Wesley's  Chapel  by 
Messrs.  Russell  and  Sons, 


SECOND     SESSION. 


rpHE  Second  Session  was  opened  at  2.30  p.m.,  the  Rev.  W.  T. 
-^  Davison,  M.A.,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  occupying 
the  chair.  The  proceedings  commenced  with  the  hymn,  "  Let 
Earth  and  Heaven  agree,"  and  the  Rev.  John  Wakefield,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Church  of  Canada),  offered  prayer. 

The  Rev.  John  Bond  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  read  the  roll 
of  the  Representatives  of  the  Eastern  Section,  the  corrected  list  of 
whom  appears  at  the  beginning  of  the  volume. 

The  Rev.  J.  J.  Tigert,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South),  read  the  list  of  Representatives  of  the  Western  Section,  the 
corrected  list  of  whom  appears  at  the  beginning  of  the  volume. 

The  President  then  announced  that  the  next  business  they 
would  take  would  be  the  report  of  the  Business  Committee  with 
regard  to  the  nomination  of  officers. 

The  report  was  presented  by  the  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  (Secre- 
tary of  the  Committee),  and  the  following  Secretaries  were  elected 
by  the  Conference: — The  Rev.  John  Bond  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  First  Division;    the  Rev.  J.   M.   King,  D.D.    (Methodist 


22  OPENING    SERVICES. 

Episcopal  Church),  Third  Division  ;  Mr.  Thomas  Suape,  J.P.  (United 
Methodist  Free  Churches),  Second  Division ;  the  Rev.  Professor 
W.  I.  Shaw,  D.D.,  LL.D.   (Methodist  Church  of  Canada),  Fourth 

Division.  , 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  then  announced  the  names  ot  tne 

Presidents  who  had  been  appointed  to  preside  over  the  respective 
sessions  for  the  ensuing  three  days. 

The  Rev.  W.  T.  Davison,  M.A.,  D.D.  (President),  in  introducing 
the  appointed  speakers,  gave  the  following  address  of  welcome : 

Fathers  and  brethren,  honoured  and  beloved,  it  falls  to  my  lot  to 
preside  over  this  Conference  on  the  first  day  of  its  meeting,  assuredly 
not  in  consequence  of  any  personal  aptitude  or  qualification  for  such 
important  work,  but  solely  in  virtue  of  the  position  which  I  have  tho 
distinguished   honour   to   occupy   this   year   in   connection   with   the 
British  Wesleyan  Methodist   Church.     The  pleasant  and   honourable 
duty  of  welcoming  to  this  country  and  to  this  Conference  delegates 
from  North  and  South  and  East  and  West,  representing  Churches  in 
almost  all  parts  of  the  world,  has  been  allotted  to  certain  brethren, 
upon  whom  I  will  call  in  a  very  few  moments  ;  and  as  there  are  three 
of  these  to  speak,  and  four  brethren  will  be  called  upon  to  reply  to 
their  words  of  welcome,  I  am  quite  sure  that  your  Business  Committee 
has  been  well  advised  in  not  including  in  the  programme  the  item 
which  is  generally  known  as  the  President's  address.     I  am  not  going 
to   set  the  bad   example   of  disobeying  the  Business   Committee  by 
delivering  a   speech  which   they  have   not   appointed  ;    but  I  do   not 
think  that  I  should  be  discharging  the  duty  of  the  President  for  the 
day  by  acting  as  a  mere  automaton,  and  mechanically  calling  out  the 
names  of  certain  gentlemen  who  are  to  address  you.     For  one  moment 
or  two,  with  your  permission,    before  I   ask   representatives  of  the 
East  to  welcome  representatives  of  the  West,  I  think  we  should,  all 
of  us  together,  as  by  one  act,  offer  our  humble  and  grateful  thanks  to 
Almighty  God  who  has  permitted  us  thus  to  begin  the  Third  (Ecume- 
nical Methodist  Conference.    We  have  already  been  doing  that,  in  some 
sense,  in  our  worship,  and  Bishop  Galloway,  in  that  eloquent,  kindly, 
powerful,  and  most  useful  sermon  to  which  we  listened  this  morning, 
has  been  calling  us  to  a  sense  of  our  duties  and  our  privileges.     But 
I  do  think  that  our   first  act  just   at  this   moment  should   be  with 
one  heart  to  acknowledge  the  presence,   as  we  believe,   of  the  great 
Head  of  that  great  Church  which  includes  all  the  Churches,  and  praise 
Him  that  He  has  permitted  us  to  see  one  another's  faces,  to  hear  one 
another's  voices,  to  take  one  another  by  the  hand,  and  so  help  to  draw 
our  hearts  nearer  to  one  another  and  to  Christ. 

There  have  been  a  great  many  changes  in  the  personnel  of  the 
Conference  since  we  last  met  ten  years  ago.  It  was  my  privilege  to 
attend  both  the  Conferences  that  have  been  held,  to  hear  Bishop 
Simpson's  sermon  and  Dr.  Osborn's  address  at  the  first  Conference, 


ADDRESS    OF    REV.    EBENEZER    K     JENKINS.  23 

and  to  attend  in  Washington  ten  years  ago.  Names  recur  to  our 
memory  which  I  think  .sliould  receive  some  recognition,  if  it  be  only  a 
passing  mention,  at  this  time.  William  Arthur,  whose  eloquent  words 
delighted  and  profiled  us,  although  he  was  not  able  io  speak  to  us  with 
his  own  voice,  is  silent  from  among  us  altogether  now.  General 
Harrison  was  not  a  member  of  our  Conference,  but  in  1891  he  was  the 
President  of  the  United  States  of  America.  He  courteously  visited 
and  addressed  us,  and  received  us  at  the  White  House.  We  remember 
his  name,  and  the  fact  that  he  has  been  called  away  since  last  this 
Conference  met.  Bishop  Newman  also,  whose  memorial  sermon  upon 
the  life  and  influence  of  Wesley  will  not  be  soon  forgotten  by  those 
who  heard  it.  The  "blind  man  eloquent,"  Dr.  Douglas,  of  the 
Methodist  Church  of  Canada ;  William  Moulton,  scholar  and  saint ; 
David  Hill,  saint  and  missionary  from  Far  China,  by  whose  side  1 
sat  for  a  fortnight  in  Washington,  These  names  we  recall, 
and  there  are  many  others  whose  memory  is  fragrant,  although 
their  names  cannot  be  mentioned  in  detail.  We  have  our  tasks  to 
finish ;  they  have  gone  home  to  rest.  We  thank  God  for  their  live^ 
and  their  labours,  for  their  memories  and  for  their  influence,  and  it  is 
as  encompassed  by  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses  that  we  gather  here 
to-day.  We  thank  God  also  for  those  who  are  left.  There  are  vener- 
able men  whose  voices  we  shall  hear  very  shortly,  men 

"In  whom  experience  doth  attain 
To  something  of  prophetic  strain," 

and  there  are  younger  men,  full  of  energy  and  ripening  wisdom,  whom 
God  is  calling  forth  to  do,  perhaps,  better  work  than  the  generation 
that  is  passing  has  done.  And  we  thank  God  that  every  decade  is 
bringing  to  us  new  opportunities  and  new  privileges,  as  it  also  brings 
to  us  new  responsibilities.  Since  last  we  met  the  century  has  changed 
its  name,  and  the  very  name  of  the  twentieth  century  is  a  call  to  us, 
as  we  have  all  been  feeling,  I  am  sure,  to  undertake  new  enterprises. 
in  order  ihat  we  may  have  new  trophies  to  lay  at  the  Master's  feet. 
May  the  United  Methodist  Church  of  the  whole  world  be  ready  to 
respond  to  that.  There  are  three  words  which  are  used  in  the  Book  of 
the  Apocalypse  to  characterise  those  who  follow  the  victorious  Lamb 
whithersoever  He  goes.  They  are  these :  "  Called,  choser,  faithful.  ' 
We  have  been  called  of  God,  in  very  truth,  to  a  great  work.  We  have 
been  chosen  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  May  we  be  faithful  indeed ! 
And  may  it  please  God  to  bless  this  Third  (Ecumenical  Conference  to 
promote  that  high  and  glorious  end  I 

The  Rev.  Ebbnezee  E.  Jenkins,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  gave  the  first  address  of  welcome,  as  follows : 

Honoured  fathers  and  brethren,  I  little  thought  twenty  years  ago, 
when  attending  the  (Ecumenical  Conference  of  1881j  that  I  should  live 
to  see  this  day,  and  take  part  in  the  Conference  of  1901.    Your  Oom- 


24  OPENING    SERVICES. 

mittee  has  done  me  great  honour  in  placing  me  in  this  position,  hut  1 
am  afraid  the  weakness  and  strong  emotion  under  which  I  speak  may 
make  my  address  a  trespass  upon  your  indulgence.  But  that  is  a  grace 
I  can  always  reckon  upon  in  an  audience  of  Methodists.  We  have  lost 
many  eminent  men  since  the  first  Conference  met  in  this  chapel,  and 
even  since  the  Conference  of  1891  there  have  been  heavy  bereavements. 
I  will  mention  one  name,  because  William  Arthur  has  been  recently 
removed  from  us,  and  because  he  occupied  so  distinguished  a  place  in 
the  proceedings  and  councils  of  the  last  Conference.  He  was  closely 
associated  with  American  Methodism,  and  was,  in  fact;  the  common 
property  of  all  the  Methodist  Churches,  and  found  a  home  in  every 
circle  of  evangelistic  and  philanthropic  work.  His  memorj  lives  in 
our  hearts,  and  his  words  will  go  down  with  the  literature  of  the  new 
century. 

Let  me  say,  on  behalf  of  the  Eastern  Section,  how  heartily  we  wel- 
come to  England,  and  to  this  great  Conference,  the  brethren  of  the 
West.  We  welcome  you  for  your  own  sakes  ;  we  welcome  you  for 
what  you  represent.  We  esteem  your  visit  a  distinguished  honour  and 
an  unspeakable  encouragement.  We  want  just  now  such  encourage- 
ment as  your  presence  will  afford.  We  are  fighting  the  fight  of  the 
faith.  The  conflict  is  yours  as  well  as  ours.  You  and  we  are  one  army 
of  the  living  God.  We  fight  with  the  same  weapons  and  under  the 
leadership  of  the  same  Captain.  But  the  area  of  the  fighting  hosts  is  a 
vast  field,  representing  many  classes  of  antagonists,  various  forms  of 
hostility,  and  demanding  a  corresponding  variety  in  our  methods  of 
warfare.  But  there  is  so  much  that  we  have  in  common,  both  in  respect 
of  certain  great  problems  which  the  contest  is  unfolding,  and  in  respect 
also  of  the  consummation  for  which  we  are  contending,  that  the  coming 
together,  as  we  do  now,  from  remote  corners  of  the  field  for  mutual  con- 
sultation and  united  prayer,  must  bring  us,  as  Churches,  infinite  advan- 
tage. A  comparison  of  experiences,  alike  of  success  and  failure,  will 
help  us  to  correct  errors  of  administration,  and  to  render  more  effective 
those  enterprises  of  work  and  government  with  which  v.'e  are  facing  the 
new  century,  and  by  which  we  are  severally  striving  to  fulfil  the  destiny 
of  Methodism  throughout  the  world. 

As  a  great  preaching  Church,  we  have  not  met  to  settle  the  meaning 
of  our  message.  That  has  been  settled  for  us,  not  by  Mr.  Wesley,  but  by 
the  greater  authority  which  framed  for  us  the  faith  and  delivered  it 
once  for  all  unto  the  saints  ;  and  that  our  great  Founder  and  his 
preachers  interpreted  its  main  teaching  as  correctly  as  the  limitations 
of  the  human  understanding  will  permit,  and  that  within  these  restric- 
tions they  were  inspired  by  Him  whom  the  Father  hath  sent  to  guide  us 
into  all  tiie  truth  is  evident  by  the  wonderful  success  which  has  accom- 
panied the  establishment  of  the  Methodist  Churches.  The  doctrines 
we  preach  are  not  fashions  and  modes  of  thought  determined  by  those 
laws  of  intellectual  progress  by  which  knowledge  is  widened  and  new 
resources  of  power  are  laid  open.     As  for  what  is  called  the  develop- 


ADDRESS    OF    REV.    EBENEZER    E.    JENKINS.  25 

ment  of  doctrine,  there  is  in  all  scientific  development  a  permanent 
element.  The  permanent  element  of  the  Christian  faith  is  its  founda- 
tion. This  brings  us  back  at  once  from  the  image  of  a  seed  to  the 
image  of  a  building,  an  image  venerable  for  its  antiquity  and  for  the 
sacredness  of  its  origin.  Our  foundation  is  Christ.  Other  foundation 
can  no  man  lay  at  any  period  of  time  than  that  which  is  laid,  eveir  He 
who  is  the  same  yesterday,  and  to-day,  yea,  and  for  ever.  If  He  is 
Himself  outside  all  change^  He  must  be  the  central  source,  the  Master 
of  change;  The  process  by  which  change  is  evolved  is  His  ordinance  of 
progress,  and  we  can  look  without  dismay — nay,  without  misgiving — 
into  the  future  of  the  unchangeable  Christ,  and  into  the  future  of  the 
faith  by  which  He  is  accomplishing  His  unchangeable  will. 

At  the  same  time  we  are  not  insensible  of  the  dangers  in  front  of 
us.  We  are  not  afraid  of  learning,  we  hail  the  advancement  of 
science  ;  education  when  it  is  ripest  is  always  on  our  side.  The  fear  of 
knowledge  in  any  department  of  inquiry  is  unworthy  of  those  who  are 
called  the  children  of  light,  and  unworthy  of  Him  who  is  "  The 
Truth."  Our  dangers  are  mostly  within  and  not  outside  the  Church. 
There  is  one  special  peril,  which  your  counsels  will  greatly  help  us  to 
meet ;  it  affects  no  particular  form  of  life  ;  it  belongs  to  no  particular 
environment  ;  it  threatens  equally  every  Christian  association  :  it  is 
the  modern  Anti-Christ  of  the  Church.  I  may  call  it  the  spirit 
of  the  world,  but  this  does  not  convey  a  very  precise  impression.  It 
is  the  subtle  renewal  of  that  estrangement  which  first  found  us  away 
from  Christ,  and  seeks  to  bring  us  back  not  to  where  it  found  us  at 
enmity  with  Christ,  but  to  an  impaired  consciousness  of  Christ,  a  dull 
spiritual  sense,  where  the  creed  is  held  and  the  outward  confession 
of  it  maintained,  but  where  there  is  no  life,  or  not  sufficient  life  to 
make  it  real.  I  think  I  may  speak  for  my  brethren  here  when  I 
say  that  there  is  no  danger  of  which  we  have  a  greater  dread  and 
which  we  feel  to  be  so  imminent,  as  the  gradual  waning  of  the 
spiritual  life.  Methodism  is  not  so  much  doctrine  and  form  as  life. 
If  we  differ  from  other  Churches  in  the  vigour  and  activity  of  our  ag- 
gression, in  the  quicker  march  of  our  advancement,  we  owe  it  not 
merely  to  a  living  ministry — and  thank  God  our  pulpits  are  al'ive — but 
to  the  pervasion  of  life  throughout  our  societies,  a  life  which  makes 
every  member  an  evangelist.  Methodism  is  everywhere  a  Church  of 
witnesses,  witnesses  not  made  by  official  appointment  but  by  conver- 
sion. The  Spirit  who  changes  our  hearts  opens  our  lips.  This  in- 
dividual witnessing  following  conversion  was  the  Methodism  of  John 
Wesley,  which  in  a  single  generation  made  England  pass  through,  I 
had  almost  said,  a  new  birth.  It  gave  a  new  morality  to  public  opinion, 
a  new  hope  and  a  new  ambition  to  the  masses  of  the  people  ;  it  began  a 
new  literature,  it  created  new  charities  and  new  institutions  of  social 
lielp,  and,  above  all,  it  passed  like  a  breath  from  God  through  the 
Churches  of  the  land. 

This  was  the  Methodism  which  crossed  the  Atlantic  with  Barbara 
Heck   and   the  illustri(nis  Francis  Aslmry,    and  gathered   and    funned 


26  OPENING    SERVICES. 

those  vast  Churches  north  and  south  which  we  are  bold  enough  to 
accept  as  our  inheritance  as  well  as  yours,  which  have  so  largely  con- 
tributed to  the  strength,  the  wealth,  the  freedom,  and  the  political 
renown  of  the  United  States,  and  which  in  accumulated  force  you  so 
worthily  represent  to-day.  Under  your  ministry,  following  the 
divinely-prompted  initiative  of  your  fathers,  Methodism  has  developed 
into  other  lines,  but  in  aU  the  essential  doctrines  and  inspirations  of  a 
Church  there  is  in  England,  in  America,  in  Canada,  in  Australasia,  and 
throughout  the  world,  only  one  Methodism. 

Tour  presence,  dear  brethren,  is  a  great  joy  to  us.  There  are  difl&- 
culties  peculiar  to  each  of  the  Methodist  Churches  in  the  Eastern  Sec- 
tion, and  some  of  these  are  of  the  gravest  character.  But  you  will 
help  us  to  meet  them.  We  shall  remember  that  you  have  triumphantly 
passed  through  crises  exceptionally  critical,  and  we  shall  take 
courage.  Your  example  in  the  past,  and  your  present  fellowship,  will 
be  an  inspiration  to  us.  In  communion  with  you  we  shall  dwell  upon 
the  larger  view  ;  we  shall  rise  above  the  policy  and  the  organisation 
which  differentiate  us  as  separate  Methodist  Churches,  and  glory  in 
the  fact  that  you  and  we  are  the  leaders  of  great  Methodist  principles 
founded  upon  those  imperishable  doctrines  which  are  the  deposit  of 
the  Methodist  ministry  and  the  heritage  of  the  Methodist  people. 

My  outlook  on  the  future  is  a  very  cheerful  one.  I  belong  not  to 
the  gloomy  prophets.  It  is  true  that  this  is  a  day  of  prevalent  in- 
fidelity, but  the  respect  in  which  it  differs  from  the  older  scepticism 
is  an  encouraging  feature  of  modern  unbehef.  Apart  from  that  world- 
liness  which  is  common  to  every  age,  it  is  more  intelligent,  more 
serious,  more  sincere.  It  does  not  abuse  the  Christian  faith  ;  its 
posture  is  rather  that  of  silence  and  watchfulness  than  loud  resis- 
tance. It  regards  the  Christian  movement  as  a  whole,  determining  its 
character  by  its  best  form,  not  so  much  the  creed  upon  which  it  is 
based  as  the  work  it  is  doing  for  mankind,  its  influence  upon  the 
best  legislation  of  the  world,  the  essential  humanity  of  its  best 
work,  and  the  fruits  of  its  missionary  policy.  It  is  impossible  for 
men  to  bestow  their  thought  upon  the  work  and  irresistible  progress 
of  the  Christian  religion  irrespective  of  Churches  and  creeds,  without 
being  attracted  to  the  great  Founder  of  the  movement.  There  is  an 
increasing  number  of  men  in  the  civilised  communities  of  Europe  and 
America  who  are  drawn  to  the  study  of  the  Christ.  They  never 
meet  with  His  professed  disciples;  the  class  to  which  they  belong  is 
not  tabulated  in  any  Church  returns,  and  yet  not  a  few  of  them  are 
silently  passing  from  admiration  to  reverence,  and  from  reverence  to 
worship.  The  Church  has  largely  forgotten  these  devout  thinkers. 
Much  may  be  said  against  accepting  them  as  Christians  ;  and  because 
they  take  no  initiative  in  the  direction  of  the  Church  they  are  not 
reckoned  among  Christian  inquirers.  Yet  we  must  not  forget  that  our 
Lord  honoured  one  of  this  class  with  a  memorable  notice,  "  I  have 
nut  found  so  great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel."     The  position  of  the  half- 


ADDRESS   OF   REV.   JOSEPH   ODELL.  «7 

believer  is  a  very  critical  intellectual  stage.  It  rests  with  us  in  all 
lands  whether  it  shall  be  advanced  to  faith  or  confirmed  in  unbelief. 
There  is  something  in  Methodism,  as  we  heard  it  defined  this  morning, 
which  invites  the  candour  of  sincere  inquiry.  The  men  and  women 
whose  cause  I  am  pleading,  and  who  are  largely  represented  in 
America,  in  India,  and  in  these  kingdoms,  are  studying  the  Churches, 
not  through  their  creeds,  but  through  the  life  of  their  members,  and 
the  proof  which  will  win  them  is  the  proof  of  a  living  experience  rather 
than  the  logical  deductions  of  a  system  of  theology. 

In  this  untraversed  field  Methodism  has  a  glorious  opportunity.  And 
if,  in  answer  to  many  intercessions,  our  exalted  Master,  who  has 
received  of  his  Father  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  pours  lOut  upon 
this  Conference  the  residue  of  His  power,  Methodism  will  not  only  live 
again,  but  will  more  than  recover  its  old  energies,  and  take  a  new  and 
more  commanding  place  among  the  regenerating  forces  of  the  world. 

The  Rev.  Joseph  Odbll  (Primitive  Methodist  Church)  gave  the 
second  address  of  welcome,  as  follows : 

Brothers  beloved,  welcome  to  you,  welcome  to  you  all.  I  speak  on 
behalf  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church,  a  spiritual  democracy 
among  us  here  and  in  the  Colonies,  a  Church — in  phraseology  that 
our  brethren  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  north  and  south,  will  understand 
when  I  say — ^a  Church  "  of  the  people,  for  the  people,  and  by  the 
people."  We,  as  Primitive  Methodists,  extend  to  you  a  very  hearty 
welcome,  the  people's  welcome.  We  welcome  our  brethren  from  the 
Colonies,  our  brethren  who  represent  here  the  spiritual  work  and  up- 
building of  new  empires.  We  appreciate  here  in  this  homeland  that 
beautiful  and  loyal  spirit  which  has  been  exhibited  in  so  fine  and 
wondrous  a  welcome  to  our  young  people  of  the  Royal  house  of 
England,  as  they  have  passed  from  colony  to  colony  in  the  last  few 
months.  We  welcome  our  friends  who  have  come  from  the  isles  of 
the  sea,  where  heathendom  ha3  been  apparently  impregnable,  but 
where  Jesus  Christ,  introduced  by  you  and  your  missionaries  and 
Churches,  has  now  become  a  helping  and  potent  reality,  and  where 
Christian  homes  and  Christian  fellowships  are  aboundmg  more  and 
more.  We  welcome  our  brethren  from  the  States— the  United  States, 
north  and  south.  We  are  glad  to  see  our  brethren  from  those  fields, 
because  we  know  that  they  represent  the  sovereign  people.  Yours  are 
the  people  in  Methodism— as  many  of  us  know  them,  who  have  visited 
your  side  so  often— yours  are  the  people  in  Methodism  that  are  kings 
and  queens  of  the  coming  time,  and  God  grant  that  they  may  be 
multiplied  in  your  homes  and  through  your  schools  and  churches.  Wc 
welcome  you  all,  and  we  would  say,  brethren,  that  there  is  no  insigni- 
ficant relation  between  the  gathering  here  and  that  first  visit  of 
Christian  faith  and  missionary  heroism  to  these  shores  lung,  long  ago. 

It  was  my  joy  a  few  weeks  ago,  when  conducting  a  Convention  at 
Ramsgate,  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet,  to  visit  again  that  wondrous  monu- 


28  OPENING    SERVICES. 

nient  standing  out  just  on  the  fringe  of  Pegwell  Bay,  with  the  number 
596  upon  it,  that  monument  erected  by  Christian  believers  and  the 
representatives  of  our  Anglican  Church  in  honour,  and  as  the  memo- 
rial, of  the  arrival  of  Augustine  and  his  forty  monks  to  this  British 
land  in  that  old,  old  time.  We  are  related  to  that  in  a  most  majestic 
and  meaningful  view  in  this  gathering  to-day.  It  was  a  joy  to  me  to 
note — and  it  may  be  a  little  fact  of  history  very  interesting  to  many 
of  you  to  know — that  the  nearest  place  of  worship  to  that  monument 
is  a  little  Methodist  chapel — a  Primitive  Methodist  chapel.  And  the 
record  is  truly  apostolic,  for,  for  twenty-five  years  in  succession,  as  the 
Sabbaths  of  the  year  have  come,  that  little  place  of  worship  has  never 
lacked  a  spiritual  service,  or  a  message  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  and 
that  service,  with  very  few  exceptions,  has  been  carried  on  by  that 
loved  element — I  mean  the  lay-preaching  element — which  is  the  glory 
of  Methodism  everywhere.  And  as  I  recall  that  vision  from  the  point 
of  Augustine's  arrival  at  Pegwell  Bay,  and  the  relation  of  that  little 
Methodist  chapel,  the  nearest  place  of  worship  to  that  monument  of 
the  olden  time,  it  seemed  to  me  that  very  arrival  of  those  forty  mis- 
sionaries was  initial,  but  initial  in  the  sense  of  an  immense  and  ever- 
growing prophecy.  It  was  initial,  but  we  are  here  as  the  fruit  of  it  ; 
initial,  but  the  great  massive  magnificent  fabrics,  St.  Paul's,  Westmin- 
ster Abbey,  Durliam,  York,  this  wondrous  building,  so  historic  and 
so  sanctified,  the  John  Street  building  in  the  City  of  New  York,  are 
now  standing,  and  we  have  the  noble  Free  Church  movement,  as  well 
as  the  Anglican  movement  here,  and  in  the  Colonies,  all  the  fruit  of 
that  initial  visit.  And  there  that  monument  stands,  in  a  dead  language 
so  far  as  the  record'is  concerned  ;  but  near  it,  and  side  by  side  with  it, 
there  is  the  representation  of  that  life  which  we  hold,  the  deepest  and 
richest  deposit  and  legacy  that  God  can  give  to  humanity,  a  spiritual 
experience,  a  sanctified  manhood  and  womanhood  by  the  power  of 
Jesus  Christ. 

My  brethren,  as  I  looked  upon  that  monument,  and  recalled  the 
gathering  as  I  imagined  it  would  be  here,  and  saw  a  vision  of  this  time, 
and  your  faces  and  forms  in  this  house,  I  felt  that  we  need  to  ha 
reminded  of  this  fact,  that  the  original  forces  of  Christianity  always 
lie  side  by  side  with  the  original  facts.  Forces  and  facts  must  go 
together  ;  that  has  been  the  truth  in  relation  to  the  best  missionary 
work  of  our  Methodist  Churches. 

May  I  say  just  one  final  word,  as  I  express  to  you  again  this  welcome. 
We  are  gathered  here  representing  Churches  that  hold  that  it  is  ''  Holi- 
ness unto  the  Lord"  that  should  be  the  l)adge  of  our  Christian  life; 
that  it  is  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  that  should  prompt  us,  that 
should  be  the  master-motive  of  our  lives. 

Might  I  venture  to  appeal  to  you  here,  my  brethren,  in  these  closing 
words,  that  tliis  Conference  in  this  new  century  ought  to  be  from  us, 
from  our  hearts,  l)y  our  speeches,  and  by  our  prayers,  the  prophecy  of 
the  ultimate  visit  of  Jesus  Christ  to  tlie  whole  of  the  human  race.     If  it 


ADDRESS    fW    REV.    JOSEPH    ODET.L.  29 

were  possible  in  tlic  oldon  lime — and  we  know  it  was  iiossihle  from  llie 
records  and  from  the  fruit,  as  ydu  represent  it — for  Methodism  fnd  for 
the  Christian  faith  to  disseminate  itself  largely  this  wide  world  round 
by  representatives  that  were  very  few  in  number,  and  ])y  resources  that 
were  veiy  limited,  and,  in  comparison  witli  our  resources,  were  very 
mean  ;  if  in  the  old  time,  with  the  S^jirit  of  God  and  the  sanctified  life, 
humanity  could  thus  be  reached,  and  the  ideal  of  Christ  realised  so  far, 
wo  may  be  assured  that  if  we  are  here  upon  the  altar  of  God,  and  if  we 
are  in  the  hands  of  the  Blessed  Saviour,  and  our  lives  are  enthused  by 
the  Companion,  Counsellor,  Champion,  and  Comforter  of  each  of  our 
lives,  thus  enthused  and  thus  representing  Jesus  Christ,  we  may  realise 
in  this  century — and  nearer  to  this  end  of  it  than  the  other — the  won- 
drous vision  of  Isaiah,  the  Evangelist,  and  of  Micah,  the  Iconoclast : 
"  It  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days  that  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's 
house  shall  be  estabhshed  in  the  top  of  the  mountains  and  shall  be 
exalted  above  the  hills,  and  all  nations  shall  flow  unto  it ;  and  many 
people  shall  go  and  say,  '  Come  ye  and  let  us  go  up  to  the  mountain 
of  the  Lord,  to  the  house  of  the  God  of  Jacob,  and  He  will  teach  us 
of  His  ways  and  we  will  walk  in  His  iiaths.'  " 

Many  nations  are  here  by  representation  to-day.  We  have  more 
than  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  here.  We  have  more  than  the  literature 
that  we  love  in  connection  with  our  own  blessed  Bible  here.  We  have 
the  Hfe  and  relation  of  families,  and  of  nations,  and  of  tribes,  that  now 
hold  Methodism  as  dear  as  we  hold  it.  And  we  may  fondly  hope,  and 
tenderly  and  truly  pray,  that  the  time  shall  be  very  near  when  our 
Lord  and  Saviour  shall  rule  over  all,  and  when  the  institution  we  call 
the  Christian  Church — a  mightier  thing  than  Methodism — shall  domi- 
nate all  other  institutions,  when  military  science  itself — and  God  speed 
the  time — shall  be  a  lost  art,  and  men  everywhere  shall  sit  under 
their  own  vine  and  fig  tree.  Brothers  beloved,  I  extend  to  you,  on 
behalf  of  the  people  of  Primitive  Methodism,  the  Church  of  my  choice, 
and  the  Church  of  my  honoured  father — a  lay  brother  now  triumphant 
in  glory — I  extend  to  you  this  welcome.  In  this  final  word  let  me 
say  how  this  gathering  enlarges  to  my  heart  as  I  look  into  your  faces. 
I  remember,  I  recall,  your  homes  and  your  loved  ones.  There  are  so 
many  others  that  are  here  this  afternoon  than  those  we  see  in  face  and 
form.  You  know  the  mind  can  travel  where  the  feet  cannot  tread. 
This  Wesley's  Chapel,  in  City  Eoad,  this  afternoon — what  a  centre  it 
is !  Tour  loved  ones,  wives,  mothers,  children,  in  different  parts  of 
the  world,  your  churches,  the  precious  children  that  belong  to  you — 
there  is  a  sense  in  which  as  your  hearts  are  here  they  are  here.  Thank 
God  for  hearts  that  hold  true  Christian  homes,  and  hold  a  fellowship 
so  wide  and  broad  ! 

Our  Church  gathers  in  enlargement  here  this  afternoon.  We  wel- 
come you  all  and  your  loved  ones.  We  feel  to-day  as  we  speak  to 
you,  and  as  you  listen  to  us,  that  the  home  is  where  the  heart  can  be, 
and  your  hearts  are  gathered  here,  touched  by  the  message  of  this 
morning,  and  fired  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ.     Your  hearts  are  here,  and 


^5  dPENING   SERVICES. 

with  your  friends  who  think  of  you  we  gather  for  a  moment  around  the 
Mercy  Seat. 

"  There  is  a  spot  where  spirits  blend, 

Where  friend  holds  fellowship  with  friend ; 

Though   sundered  far,  by  faith  they  meet 

Around  one  common  Mercy-seat." 

The  Throne  of  Grace  is  our  home  this  afternoon.  Your  loved  ones  may 
be  there  as  we  are  there.  The  universal  and  bountiful  God  bends  down 
over  us  all,  and  in  His  name,  and  in  the  name  of  our  Churches,  we  bid 
you  welcome — welcome  all. 

Sir  Charles  T.  Skelton  (Methodist  New  Connexion)  also  gave 
an  address  of  welcome,  as  follows  : 

Having  listened  with  supreme  delight  to  the  worthy  mother,  as  she 
has  addressed  us  here  so  eloquently,  and  to  my  younger  sister, 
I  gladly  extend  a  welcome,  not  only  from  the  elder  daughter  of 
Methodism,  but  from  the  Eastern  Section  of  Methodism  to  the  Western 
Section.  I  am  delighted,  Mr.  President,  to  see  here  to-day  such  an 
assembly,  and  to  have  been  deemed  worthy  to  take  even  a  very  humble 
position  in  connection  with  it.  Humble  it  must  be  as  a  layman,  but 
I  would  be  glad  if  the  outcome  of  this  splendid  gathering  should  mean 
something  more  than  an  assembly  of  learned,  eloquent,  and  wealthy 
men. 

I  am  old  enough  to  remember  the  First  Exhibition  held  in  this  large 
city,  when  it  was  said,  after  that,  war  would  be  impossible,  and  th:t 
peace  must  reign  throughout  all  the  world.  To-day  we  are  confronted 
with  a  condition  of  things  which  is  not  creditable  to  us  as  Christians. 
Hell  is  let  loose  in  South  Africa.  I  want  that  the  day  of  destruction 
which  belongs  to  hell  and  its  emissaries  shall  end,  and  that  the  day 
of  construction  which  belongs  to  the  Kingdom  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  shall  obtain  throughout  the  world.  Men  are  brothers,  and  we 
cannot  look  upon  the  destruction  of  men,  of  whatever  kingdom  or 
nation  they  may  be,  with  satisfaction  if  we  have  any  faith  whatever  in 
the  religion  we  are  professing,  and  I  hope  that  this  Conference  will 
make  it  possible  that  war  shall  cease.  It  is,  I  think,  our  mission, 
and  I  cannot  help  feeling  that  if  we  lay  ourselves  out  to  accomplish 
this  great  work,  then  it  will  be  impossible  for  men  who  call  themselves 
Christians  to  pit  one  nation  againsit  another,  that  we  should  have  men 
destroyed  and  property  sacrificed  wholesale.  I  do  not  think  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  can  look  down  upon  such  work  as  this  with  anything 
like  satisfaction,  and  I  hope  this  gathering  of  the  Western  Section  will 
go  back  to  their  people,  and  will  so  preach  the  religion  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  that  men  everywhere  will  feel  it  is  altogether  incompatible 
with  the  position  they  are  occupying  to  sanction  in  any  way  that  which 
means  destruction  and  death. 

I  should  like  to  associate  myself  heartily  with  the  kindly  words 
which,  have  been  expressed,  and  the  eloquent  sentiments  which  have 


ADDRESS   OP   BISHOP   J.    F.    HURST.  Jt 

been  given  utterance  to,  by  ray  predecessors.  I  speak  as  one  who 
represents  those  who  are  not  here — isorae,  I  am  glad  to  say,  of  another 
colour  than  myself.  That  I  know  is  a  vast  advance,  even  among 
Christians  ;  bnt  I  hope  that  the  day  will  come  when  it  shall  no  longer 
be  a  question  of  colour  or  of  nation,  but  it  shall  be  only  one  thing — 
Do  we  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ?  And  we  have  high  warrant  for 
hoping  that  the  day  will  come  when  all  men  everywhere  shall  be  of 
one  faith  so  far  as  His  service  is  concerned,  and  I  hope  that  day  will 
soon  dawn ! 

Bishop  John  Fletcher  Hurst,  D.D,,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  made  the  following  response  to  these  addresses  of  wel- 
come: 

Mr.  Chairman,  these  words  of  welcome,  an  eloquent  trinity  in  voice, 
but  a  beautiful  unity  in  spirit,  warm  and  stir  our  hearts  to  a  quicker 
and  stronger  stroke.  We  had  supposed  that  every  puff  of  the  locomo- 
tive, that  every  plash  and  turn  of  the  steamer's  wheels,  that  every 
coach  and  car  used  on  our  journey  hither,  was  taking  us  farther  and 
farther  away  from  our  homes  ;  but  the  deeprfraternal  love  that  pervades 
these  cordial  greetings  puts  every  pilgrim  from  across  the  seas  to  this 
Mecca  of  modern  evangelism  at  once  and  wholly  at  home  again.  The 
speed  of  travel  and  the  annihilation  of  distance  by  easy  transportation 
are  among  the  greatest  of  latter-day  achievements  with  steam  and 
electricity  ;  but  these  do  not  equal  in  luxury  and  rapidity  the  real  and 
enduring  transports  of  the  spiritual  children  of  one  common  Father, 
who  already  find  themselves  sitting  at  the  family  hearthstone,  looking 
into  countenances  that  at  first  wore  something  of  a  strange  look,  but 
in  a  trice,  through  the  spirit  of  prayer  and  affection,  are  transformed 
into  the  faces  of  kindred.  Truly  and  thankfully  we  may  say,  "  We  are 
brethren,"  and  this  is,  without  exaggeration^  a  "heavenly  place  in 
Christ  Jesus."  May  these  opening  notes  of  faith  and  fraternity  lead 
on  to  a  filling  feast  of  fellowship,  to  a  sweet  foretaste  of  the  final  home- 
coming to  the  Father's  house  and  the  Saviour's  bosom. 

No  marvel  is  it,  however,  that  your  earnest  welcome  should  evoke 
a  prompt  response  of  kindred  feeling  from  our  hearts.  For  the  ties 
that  join  us  are  neither  few  nor  weak.  Blood  that  ran  in  the  veins 
of  a  common  ancestry  still  flows  in  their  descendants — a  current  whose 
tide,  disturbed  by  the  incidental  and  temporary  conditions  of  political 
independence  on  the  part  of  the  colonies,  and  now  and  then  rippled 
by  the  breezes  of  international  and  commercial  differences,  nevertheless 
moves  majestically  on — the  Anglo-Saxon  factor  in  all  modern  civilisa- 
tion both  in  the  Eastern  and  the  Western  hemispheres.  President 
Grant,  our  own  Ulysses,  renowned  as  a  warrior,  and  now  recognised 
as  a  wise  and  far-seeing  statesman,  prior  to  his  world-wide  wanderings, 
in  1877,  said,  "  I  will  not  speak  of  the  English  and  Americans  as  two 
peoples,  because,  in  fact,  they  are  one  people,  with  a  common  destiny  ; 
and  that  destiny  will  be  brilliant  in  proportion  to  the  friendship  and 
co-operation  of  the  brethren  dwelling  on  each  side  of  the  Atlantic." 


32  OPENING    SERVICES. 

Lowell,  in  whom  j'ou  have  special  iiiterestj  whn  liimsi'lf  was  one  of 
the  strong  links  between  the  Old  and  the  New  England,  and  who 
now  has  a  memorial  in  one  of  the  little  windows  in  yuur  great  West- 
minster Abbey,  wrote  of  Raleigh,  who  has  a  similar  honour  :  — 

"  The  New  World's  sons,  from  England's  breast  wc  drew 
Such  milk  as  bids  remember  whence  we  came  ; 
Proud  of  her  Past,  from  which  our  Present  grew. 
This  window  we  erect  in  Raleigh's  name." 

Our  common  heritage  of  liberty  has  been  beautifully  expressed  by 
one  in  whose  Hfe  and  works  were  wonderfully  blended  the  calm  light 
and  peace  of  the  Friend  and  the  stern  and  warlike  spirit  of  the  Puritan, 
and  who  sang,  as  only  Whittier  could  sing,  of  the  brave  and  good 
Milton :  — 

"  The  New  World  honours  him  whose  noble  plea 
For  England's  freedom  made  our  own  more  sure." 

To  the  strength  of  this  bond  of  blood  has  been  added  during  the 
swiftly  flying  years  of  sixteen  decades  the  great  force  of  vital  faith. 
Out  of  the  Epwortli  Rectory,  ruled  by  the  virile  brain  of  the  father, 
and  more  by  the  disciplined,  intelligent,  and  talented  mind  of  the 
mother,  trooped  a  company  of  children — on  two  of  whom  the  seal  of 
heaven  was  set  for  mighty  deeds  and  heroic  leadership  of  God's  people. 
That  rector's  home  was  a  fitting  vestibule  of  the  Holy  Club  of  Oxford^ 
to  which  our  common  ecclesiastical  and  spiritual  ancestry  runs  back. 
In  that  renaissance  of  a  simple,  personal,  and  victorious  trust  in 
Christ  into  which  Charles  and  John  Wesley  were  led  we  all  rejoice, 
and  in  its  benefits  we  all  share.  While  the  streams  of  spiritual  influ- 
ence from  this  source  have  gone  into  all  other  bodies  of  Christians,  and 
are  to-day  contributing  largely  both  in  men  and  in  inspiration  to  their 
efl[iciency,  we  yet  have  increasing  reason  for  a  glad  recognition  of  one 
another's  growth  and  progress  as  compact  and  well-ordered  organisms, 
endeavouring  to  publish,  and  to  a  signal  degree  succeeding  in  making 
known,  a  Gospel  intended  for  all  men,  of  every  rank  and  station,  and 
in  carrying  its  life-giving  message  to  every  creature.  This  solidarity 
of  our  faith  makes  us,  with  all  our  diversities  of  name  and  polity,  a 
unit  of  great  weight  on  all  the  Continents,  and  is  doing  much  to 
prepare  the  way  for  the  future  federation  of  Protestantism  in  works 
of  charity  and  evangelism. 

If  besides  these  bonds  of  blood  and  of  faith  there  be  any  other 
welding  us  together,  it  is  no  venture  of  boldness  to  say  that  it  is  the 
duty  that  rests  upon  both  Englishmen  and  Americans  to  join  in  a 
perpetual  covenant  of  hearts,  voices,  and  hands  to  work  out  for  our- 
selves and,  under  Providence,  for  others,  the  principles  which  miderlie 
our  past,  which  give  significance  to  our  present,  and  which  now  promise 
grander  reaches  for  liberty  and  larger  triumphs  for  truth  in  the  future 
destiny  of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  or,  as  we  now  prefer  to  say,  the  Anglo- 
American.    So  long  as  we  love  and  practise  national  righteousness,  so 


ADDRESS    OF    BISHOP   J.    F.    HURST.  33 

long  as  the  virtues  of  the  Christian  home  are  developed  in  all  their 
purity  and  loveliness,  so  long  as  the  Christian  Sabbath  with  all  its 
train  of  spiritual  and  moral  benefits  is  maintained  as  the  boon  (jf 
heaven  to  solace  and  beautify  lives  otherwise  sodden  with  care  and 
blighted  by  love  of  pelf;  so  long  as  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  two 
lands  are  enlisted  in  the  unceasing  warfare  of  Emmanuel  for  the 
conquest  of  the  world  of  sin  by  the  strength  of  love  and  the  power  of 
the  Cross  ;  so  long  we  may  hope  to  be  able  to  teach  other  peoples, 
both  by  precept  based  on  experience  at  home  and  by  example  shown 
abroad,  that  He  who  was  with  our  fathers  is  with  their  children  still, 
and  that  the  whole  earth  is  one  day  to  feel  itself  of  one  kin  through 
the  Headship  and  oneness  of  Christ. 

A  peculiar  sacredness  pervades  and  marks  the  place  of  our  present 
assembly.  When  the  Old  Foundry,  name  of  blessed  and  inspiring 
memories,  could  no  longer  well  house  the  growing  family  of  his  spiritual 
children,  when  a  whole  generation  and  more  had  come  and  gone  since 
he  began  his  immortal  work,  and  our  now  white-haired  and  white- 
souled  leader  was  about  entering:  on  the  eighth  decade  of  life,  and  the 
fifth  of  his  unparalleled  itinerating,  this  chapel  opened  to  him,  and 
has  ever  since  remained  the  historical  centre  and  shrine  of  our  many- 
named  but  one-souled  Methodism.  What  clouds  of  witnesses  compass 
us  about,  and  of  how  noble  a  record  are  they  all  and  each !  The  roll 
of  our  worthies,  whose  names  are  registered  in  the  hearts  of  millions, 
the  dust  of  some  of  whom  makes  more  sacred  this  consecrated  place, 
and  whose  ministries  of  truth  and  service  in  administration  have  issued 
hence  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  who  shall  call?  Too  long  that  list  of 
names  would  be  for  this  brief  hour.  Other  structures  there  are  in 
England  where  rich  and  varied  religious  associations  cluster  ;  but  not 
one  is  there  that  possesses  the  intense  and  unique  characteristics  of 
this  veritable  cathedral  of  evangelism,  whose  portals  to-day  welcome 
the  glad  home-coming  of  those  who  have  journeyed  from  every  clime, 
and  who  speak  well-nigh  every  tongue  known  to  man.  Amid  all  the 
utterances  and  discussions  of  this  Conference  may  the  unspoken  but 
eloquent  and  mighty  sentiments  of  our  departed  leaders  find  reverent 
recognition,  and  may  our  counsels  and  labours  be  happily  joined  to 
the  bright  record  of  our  fathers,  and  prove  equally  fruitful  of  good  in 
human  history. 

The  meeting  of  the  Third  CEcumenical  Conference  brings  to  mind 
the  First,  which  was  held  twenty  years  ago  in  this  venerable  and  now 
newly-renovated  chapel,  and  the  Second,  convened  in  1891  in  the 
Metropolitan  Church  at  the  American  capital.  About  one-half  of  those 
who  came  to  that  first  great  love-feast  of  world-wide  Methodism  have 
since  gone  to  be  with  the  Lord.  Our  American  Chrysostom,  Matthew 
Simpson,  who  preached  the  opening  sermon  on  that  occasion,  has 
ceased  from  among  us,  but  being  dead  yet  speaketh.  The  Nestor  of 
your  own  Wesleyan  body,  George  Osborn,  who  presided,  and  spoke 
the  welcome  on  the  opening  day  twenty  years  ago,  has  been  called  to 
his  reward,  but  his  works  do  follow  him. 
4 


34  OPENING    SERVICES, 

A  larger  numl^er  of  those  who  composed  the  Second  Conference  still 
survive  to  speak  of  its  golden  days  and  its  inspiring  addresses.  The 
one  who  was  easily  the  first  in  that  great  meeting,  and  whose  opening 
sermon,  read  by  another,  because  of  his  own  lack  of  voice,  but  accom- 
panied by  and  embodying  his  own  personality  through  his  erect  and 
dignified  standing  at  the  side  of  the  reader,  will  never  be  forgotten, 
has  only  a  few  months  ago  gone  over  from  sunny  Cannes  to  the 
sunnier  paradise  of  God.  We  miss  William  Arthur  to-day,  but  his 
"  Tongue  of  Fire  "  is  still  a  lambent  flame  of  light  and  power  among 
all  our  hosts.  John  P.  Newman  and  William  Xavier  Ninde,  who  were 
active  members  of  both  Conferences,  have  also  closed  their  career  on 
earth  with  honour  and  entered  into  rest.  One  who  held  the  highest 
place  within  the  gift  of  his  countrymen  in  the  United  States,  and 
who  endeared  himself  to  all  Christians  by  his  steadfast  adherence  to 
Christian  standards  in  all  his  public  and  private  walks,  and  who 
especially  ingratiated  himself  with  the  members  of  the  Second 
CEcumenical  Conference  by  his  personal  visit  to  the  body,  and  the 
utterance  of  a  few  pregnant  and  hoiieful  sentences  on  the  subject  of 
international  arbitration,  has  been  summoned  to  the  presence  of  his 
Master  and  Sovereign,  and  Benjamin  Harrison  is  mourned  wherever 
he  was  known.  Nor  can  we  forget,  in  this  hour  of  tender  remembrance 
of  those  gone  on  before,  to  voice  the  universal  sorrow  that  visited  all 
lands  touched  by  Christian  civilisation,  when,  in  the  first  glad  weeks 
of  the  new  year  and  the  new  century,  your  Queen,  the  beloved  Victoria, 
after  a  life  of  singular  strength  and  beauty,  and  a  reign  unexampled 
in  its  length  and  its  glory,  went  to  her  second  and  eternal  coronation. 
It  is  cause  of  rejoicing  with  us  that  as  we  return  your  visit  of  ten  years 
ago  to  our  national  capital  it  is  our  privilege  to  know  that  in  the  greeting 
which  to-day  comes  from  the  Occident  to  the  Orient,  we  bring  the 
hearty  good-will  and  fraternal  God-speed  of  one  who  regularly 
worships  in  the  same  church  where  you  then  assembled,  whose  pastor 
is  one  of  our  honoured  delegates  to  this  Conference,  who  himself  .loves 
all  Churches,  and  who  has  for  the  second  time  become  the  popular 
choice  of  the  American  Republic  as  its  chief  magistrate.  President 
William  McKinley. 

Brethren,  one  of  the  happiest  effects,  and  certainly  one  of  the  chief 
objects  lOf  our  two  preceding  Conferences  bearing  the  name  of 
CEcumenical,  has  been  the  enlarging  and  love-crowned  spirit  of  catjho- 
licity  which  has  prevailed  throughout  the  sessions,  and  left  its  sweet 
fruitage  in  the  personal  life  and  consciousness  of  each  and  all  of  the 
delegates.  The  sentiments  thus  nourished  into  new  power  by  these 
addresses  and  by  their  widespread  dissemination  through  the  Press 
have  led  tihe  thoughts  of  the  whole  Church  to  higher  altitudes  and 
stimulated  all  hearts  to  a  broader,  warmer,  more  generous  and  more 
comprehensive  love  for  all  who  bear  the  name  and  desire  to  welcome 
and  obey  the  spirit  of  Christ.  If  the  (Ecumenical  quality  of  our 
meeting  to-day,  as  of  those  of  ten  and  twenty  years  ago,  should  be 
questioned  by  any  who  doubt  the  propriety  of  the  present  application 


ADDRESS    OF    REV.    JOHN    POTTS.  35 

of  the  term,  or  silinukl  be  challenged  by  any  who  eye  with  jealous 
wonder  the  wide-spreading  growth  of  Melhodisin,  (he  best  defence  of 
our  adoptinii  of  this  globe-covering  word  would  be  found,  not  in  the 
statistical  t;ilbles  of  our  growing  communion  in  all  the  habitable  parts 
of  the  planet,  but  rather  in  the  catholic  spirit  of  John  Wesley — the 
most  truly  catholic  man  of  the  eighteenth  century — and  in  the  continu- 
ous and  unfolding  catholicity  of  the  millions  who  have  answered  with 
their  faith  and  love  to  that  apostolic  voice,  example,  and  evangel. 

CEcumenical  is  the  word,  the  right  word,  the  appropriate  Avord  ; 
prophetic  it  may  be  now,  in  part ;  but  it  shall  yet  become  historical. 
Justified  it  is  now  by  the  wide  variety  of  race,  language,  climate,  and 
countries  here  represented  ;  but  more  and  more  will  it  measure  up  to 
its  ideal  fulness  of  meaning  as,  with  its  world-embracing  arms,  it 
embodies  in  its  thought,  its  word,  its  acts,  the  heart-drawing  spirit  of 
him  whose  parish  was  the  world,  and  whose  desire  was,  "  A  league 
offensive  and  defensive  with  every  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ,"  and  thus 
brings  the  Divine  Teacher  of  Olivet  across  the  centuries  into  living 
touch  with  His  disciples  of  to-day,  who  hear  and  with  the  thrill  of  joy 
obey  the  Master's  command,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature." 

The  Rev.  John  Potts,  D.D,  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada), 
resjwnded  to  the  addresses  of  welcom.e,  as  follow^s : 

Mr.  President,  In  common  with  the  great  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  that  has  responded  so  eloquently,  and  with  those  who  shall 
speak,  we  of  Canadian  Methodism  have  substantially  the  same  story 
to  tell,  of  small  beginnings,  of  large  increase,  and  of  many-sided  con- 
solidation in  the  various  departments  of  our  work,  or  rather  of  the 
work  of  the  Lord.  I  rejoice  to  represent  the  united  Methodism  of 
Canada,  and  to  bear  testimony  to  the  beneficial  effects  of  the  union 
that  has  made  all  the  branches  one  Church  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific.  The  union  of  the  Wesleyan,  the  New  Connexion,  the  Epis^ 
copal  Methodist,  the  Primitive,  and  the  Bible  Christian  has  been  a 
great  success  and  blessing.  The  Twentieth  Century  Thanksgiving 
Fund  with  us  in  Canada  found  its  inspiration  and  example  in  British 
Wesleyanism,  and  chiefly  through  an  honoured  layman,  Mr.  R.  W. 
Perks,  M.P.  We  felt  that  if  the  Mother  Methodism  of  the  workl 
would  raise  a  million  guineas  the  Methodism  of  Canada  should  raise 
a  million  dollars.  Our  Church,  with  extraordinary  unanimity,  resolved 
to  raise  a  Thanksgiving  Fund  of  a  million  dollars,  and  the  result  is 
not  far  from  a  milhon  and  a  quarter.  The  Fund  is  practically  closed, 
and  with  special  thanksgiving  to  the  God  of  all  our  mercies.  By  it,  our 
Colleges,  our  Missions,  our  Superannuation  and  Supernumerary  Funds 
have  been  helped,  and  a  large  amount  of  church  debts  have  been  paid. 
The  spiritual  blessing  to  our  Churches  was  very  uplifting.  Mr.  Perks 
may  feel  that  in  suggesting  a  Thanksgiving  Fund  in  British  Wesleyan- 
ism, intentionally  or  otherwise,  he  suggested  the  same  idea  to  all  the 
Methodisms  of  the  world,  and  through  them  to  many  other  sections  of 
the  Christian  Church. 


^6  OPENING  SERVICES. 

We  all  from  every  land  turn  to  this  place  as  the  Mecca  of  the  world's 
Methodism.  We  gratefully,  yea  proudly,  rejoice  in  the  spiritual 
ancestry  that  carries  us  back  to  this  Cathedral  of  Methodism,  Wesley's 
Chapel,  City  Eoad.  It  is  impossible  to  stand  here,  or  wander  around 
this  historic  sanctuary,  without  having  our  hearts  strangely  moved, 
and  without  exclaiming  in  the  words  of  the  text  preached  by  our  vener- 
able founder  when  the  corner-stone  of  this  historic  building  was  laid 
by  him,  "What  hath  God  wrought!"  If  the  glorified  Wesley  could 
revisit  this  chapel  to-day  and  preach  to  us,  who  represent  (Ecumenical 
Methodism,  from  the  same  text,  with  wliat  larger  meaning  and  with 
what  deeper  emphasis  could  he  declare  as  he  thought  of  the  Methodist 
hosts  in  heaven  and  the  many  millions  on  earth,  "  What  hath  Grod 
wrought !  "  I  may  be  pardoned  if  I  say  that,  in  addition  to  all  tliat 
can  be  said  of  grateful  response  from  a  Methodist  standpoint,  we  of 
British  North  America,  including  the  Dominion  of  Canada  and  the 
ancient  colony  of  Newfoundland,  have  a  large  feeling  of  patriotism  in 
our  hearts  to-day.  I  may  also  add  that  the  patriotism  is  largely  tinc- 
tured with  imperialism.  With  you  of  the  British  Isles,  we  sang  for 
sixty  years  and  more,  and  prayed  as  we  sang,  "  God  Save  Our  Gracious 
Queen,"  and  now  with  equal  loyalty  we  sing,  and  pray  as  we  sing, 
"  Grod  iSave  the  King  " — King  Edward  the  Seventh — who  said,  as  he 
ascended  the  mightiest  throne  on  earth,  "  I  will  strive  to  walk  in  the 
footsteps  of  my  mother."  We  of  Canada  and  of  Newfoundland  have  no 
hesitancy  in  declaring  our  renewed  allegiance  and  loyalty  to  the  old 
flag  and  to  the  new  King — the  King  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  and 
of  Britain  beyond  the  seas.  Standing  as  we  do  to-day,  at  the  opening 
of  the  twentieth  century,  there  is  much  for  which  we  may  thank  God, 
and  look  out  with  hope  for  the  future.  We  cannot  as  a  Church  boast 
of  ancient  history,  for  it  is  only  about  one  hundred  and  sixty-three 
years  since  John  Wesley  was  converted,  and  to  that  glorious  event, 
next  in  importance,  I  venture  to  say,  to  the  conversion  of  Saul  of 
Tarsus,  we  owe  perhaps  the  very  existence  of  a  Methodist  Church 
to-day. 

Our  future.  What  shall  it  be  ?  It  shall  be  as  large  and  glorious  as 
our  capacity  and  consecration  choose  to  make  it.  Who  can  measure 
the  vastness  of  our  responsibility  and  the  grandeur  of  our  privileges? 
Methodism  has  had  an  historic  glory,  but  it  has  a  prophetic  glory  that 
excelleth.  We  of  (Ecumenical  Methodism  are  not  partners  in  a  spent 
force,  nor  in  a  decadent  or  decaying  ecclesiastical  form  of  Christianity. 
The  oneness  of  world-wide  Methodism  makes  the  history  of  its  various 
sections  very  similar  in  their  historic  development.  Our  equipment  at 
the  dawn  of  the  century  is  both  large  and  varied.  Whether  we  view 
it  from  A  missionary,  educational,  evangelistic,  pastoral,  or  philan- 
thropic standpoint,  we  are  prepared  to  take  a  large  part  in  the  winning 
and  culturing  of  souls,  and,  therefore,  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  Saviour's 
commission  to  disciple  all  nations.  While  there  is  so  much  to  inspire 
both  g;ratitude  and  hope,  our  very  success  constitutes  a  perilous  temp- 


ADDRESS    OF   REV.    JOHN    POTTS. 


37 


tation  to  cultivate  a  spirit  of  self-satisfaction.  Let  us  never  forget  the 
Fathers,  who  planted  Methodism  here  and  to  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
but  let  us  be  careful  not  to  live  on  the  heroic  traditions  of  the  elders.' 
Let  us  rather  forge  ahead,  and  thus  prove  that  we  are  worthy  sons  of 
worthy  sires.  We  can  never  be  sufficiently  grateful  for  the  heritage 
that  has  come  to  us,  but  come  to  us  as  a  sacred  trust,  to  be  faithfully 
used  by  us,  and  to  be  handed  to  our  successors  unimpaired  in  doctrine 
and,  as  far  as  practicable,  true  to  the  usages  of  the  past,  which  have 
made  Methodism  triumphant  on  every  island  of  the  sea  and  along  the 
far-stretching  continents  of  earth. 

Coming  as  we  do  from  far-off  lands,  and  coming  as  we  do  with  tidings 
of  ever-increasing  prosperity,  we  may  well  ask  the  question,  Why  this 
world-wide  success  attending  the  agencies  of  Methodism  ?  Its  interpre- 
tation of  the  Word  of  God  is  entitled  to  a  prominent  place  in  account- 
ing for  the  universal  success  of  Methodism.  There  is,  perhaps,  one 
solitary  and  nut  very  influential  exception.  I  refer  to  Calvinistic 
Methodism,  of  which  very  little  is  known  outside  of  Wales.  With  that 
exception,  Methodism  is  one  in  its  interpretation  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures. To  my  mind  there  is  nothing  more  precious  in  Methodism  than 
its  theology.  In  that  theology  God  is  recognised  both  in  His 
Sovereignty  and  Fatherhood.  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord  is  seen  in  His 
Deity,  Incarnation,  and  Redemptive  Mission.  The  Holy  Ghost  is 
taught  in  His  Divine  Personality  and  in  His  convicting,  regenerating, 
sanctifying,  comforting,  and  teaching  relations  to  the  children  of  men. 

In  that  theology  man  is  seen  as  created  by  God,  ruined  by  sin,  and 
redeemed  by  Christ.  In  that  theology  the  Bible,  from  its  Alpha  to 
its  Omega,  is  the  supreme  text-book.  All  these  views  of  God  and 
man,  of  sin  and  salvation,  and  of  the  Word  of  God,  have  been  crystal- 
lised into  a  system  of  doctrine,  into  a  theology  which  is  likely  to  stand 
the  strain  of  criticism,  whether  higher  or  lower.  It  is  a  theology 
which  needs  no  repairing.  It  flings  the  inspiration  of  hope  to  every 
unsaved  sinner — it  is  bright  as  the  sunshine  of  God  and  generous  as 
the  heart  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  teaches  a  salvation  that  may  be  felt, 
known,  and  enjoyed.  It  is  a  theology  that  exalts  God,  enthrones 
Christ,  glorifies  the  Spirit,  and  places  the  responsibility  of  salvation 
upon  man,  of  its  acceptance  or  its  rejection.  We  must  be  careful  that 
neither  the  literary  essay,  nor  even  applied  Christianity,  shall  be 
allowed  to  displace  the  fundamental  facts  and  doctrines  of  our  Biblical 
and  inspiring  theology.  In  accounting  for  the  wonderful  growth  of 
Methodism  in  Canada  and  in  other  lands,  we  must  think  of  its  rich 
Evangelical  hymnology.  The  gift  of  sacred  song  is  not  like  apostolic 
gifts  withheld  from  the  Church  of  to-day.  There  have  been,  and  are, 
rare  spirits  endowed  with  poetic  genius  singing  still  for  the  tribes  of 
God's  spiritual  Israel.     Thank  God  for  Frances  Havergal's 

"  Take  my  life  and  let  it  be 
Consecrated,  Lord,  to  Thee  ; 
Take  my  moments  and  my  days. 
Let  them  flow  in  ceaseletss  praise." 


38  OPENING    SERVICES. 

Thank  God  for  Ray  Palmer's 

"  My  faith  looks  up  to  Thee, 
TKou  Lamb  of  Calvary, 

Saviour  Divine. 
Now  hear  me  while  I  pray, 
Take  all  my  sins  away, 
O  let  me  from  this  day 
Be    wholly   Thine." 

Thank  God  for  Lyte's  popular  and  impressive  hymn : 

"  Abide  with  me  !  fast  falls  the  eventide  ! 
The  darkness  deepens  ;  Lord,  with  me  abide ! 
When  other  helpers  fail,   and  comforts  flee, 
Help  of  the  helpless,  O  abide  with  me  !  " 

But  the  staple  of  Methodist  hymnology  has  been  Charles  Wesley's, 
and  that  must  be  so  in  the  days  to  come.  While  we  rejoice  in  the  new 
wine  of  sacred  poetry,  the  old  wine  of  the  Wesleys  is  better.  The 
hymns  of  the  Wesleys  have  in  them  a  sweep  and  grandeur,  a  richness 
of  melody  and  a  beauty  of  Scriptural  exposition  which  make  them  Ihe 
handbook  of  private  devotion,  as  well  as  the  chariot  of  public  worship 
in  praise  and  prayer  and  thanksgiving.  What  the  liturgy  of  the 
Prayer-Book  is  to  a  devout  Episcopalian,  what  the  Psalms  of  David  aie 
to  a  godly  Presbyterian,  the  hymns  of  the  Wesleys  are  to  the  people 
called  Methodists.  Hymns  are  born  and  live  and  die,  but  our  Wes- 
leyan  hymns  seem  to  have  in  them  the  power  of  an  endless  life.  The 
hymns  of  the  Wesleys  have  been  a  potent  agency  in  singing  sinners 
into  the  Kingdom  of  Grace,  and  they  have  cheered  the  pilgrims  of  Zion 
on  the  way  to  the  Kingdom  of  Glory,  till  on  the  wing  of  Song  they  have 
merged  into  the  high  praises  of  the  Church  of  the  Firstborn  in  Heaven. 

The  New  Testament  conception  of  experimental  Christianity  has  had 
much  to  do  with  the  success  of  Methodism  in  Canada  and  elsewhere. 
Like  other  sections  of  the  Christian  Church,  Methodism  has  had  a 
place,  a  well-defined  place,  for  the  doctrinal  and  intellectual  in  religion, 
but  it  has  not  been  satisfied  to  live  in  creeds  and  in  intellectual  appre- 
hension of  the  Gospel  ;  it  has  entered  into  and  dwelt  in  the  holy  of 
holies,  which  is  the  spiritual  experience  of  the  salvation  which  is  in 
Christ  Jesus  the  Lord.  It  quickly  introduces  its  subjects  into  the 
glorious  realm  of  the  eighth  chapter  of  Romans,  as  the  living  room 
in  the  palace  of  New  Testament  experience.  It  lives  in  the  region 
of  definite  and  spiritual  consciousness  that  delights  to  testify  on  the 
Pauline  line  of  knowledge,  "  I  know  whom  I  have  believed,  and  am 
persuaded  that  He  is  able  to  keep  that  which  I  have  committed  unto 
Him  against  that  day."  Blessed  knowledge  for  the  disciples  of  Jesus 
Christ.  Then  hear  another  of  Paul's  "  knows,"  which  includes  all 
believers  with  him.  "  We  know  that  if  our  earthly  house  of  this 
tabernacle  were  dissolved  we  have  a  building  of  God,  an  liouse  not 
made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens." 


ADDRESS    OF    REV.    JOHN    POTTS. 


39 


The  adaptability  of  Methodism  to  universal  man  accounts  to  a  largo 
extent  for  its  success.  Its  philosoiihy,  evangelistic  and  missionary,  is 
found  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  Acts,  and  at  the  eighth  verse,  "  But 
ye  shall  receive  power,  after  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you, 
and  ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  Me  both  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea, 
and  in  Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth."  This  was 
the  plan  of  Apostolic  and  Primitive  Christianity,  and  it  has  been  the 
plan  of  Methodism  wherever  in  the  Providence  of  God  it  has  gone. 
You  perceive  its  order — Jerusalem,  Judea,  Samaria,  and  unto  the  utter- 
most part  of  the  earth.  You  see  its  extent— Jerusalem  and  unto 
the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth.  You  see  the  connection  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  it  all— "  After  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  come 
upon  you."  Methodism  in  the  class  meeting,  in  the  lovefeast,  in 
the  sacramental  service,  in  the  Sunday  School,  in  the  Epworth  League, 
in  the  Sunday  services  of  the  sanctuary,  in  the  revival  services  at  home 
and  in  the  missionary  work  at  home  and  abroad,  has  one  glorious 
article  in  its  creed — it  says,  it  sings,  and  it  prays,  "I  believe  in  the 
Holy  Ghost." 

The  philosophy  of  Methodism  says,  as  the  Lord  Christ  said,  "  Say 
not  ye  there  are  yet  four  months  and  then  cometh  harvest  ;  behold  I 
say  unto  you.  Lift  up  your  eyes  and  look  on  the  fields  ;  for  they  are 
white  already  to  harvest.  And  he  that  reapeth  receiveth  wages  and  gal  lier- 
eth  fruit  unto  life  eternal ;  that  both  he  that  soweth  and  he  that  reapeth 
may  rejoice  together."  That  is  a  text  for  itinerant  Methodism  the 
world  over.  "Methodism  has  aimed  at  results,  and  it  has  achieved  re- 
sults, which  have  astonished  ecclesiastical  historians.  Where  has 
Methodism  failed  ?  On  what  island  of  the  sea,  or  on  what  continent 
of  earth  have  the  missionaries  of  Methodism  had  to  leave,  saying, 
"We  found  a  people  for  whom  we  had  no  Gospel,  no  good  tidings  of 
great  joy"  ?  Methodism  in  its  evangelistic  work  has  proclaimed  a 
Divine  love  that  is  universal  for  the  race.  Did  not  Christ  say,  "  For 
God  so  loved  the  world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son  that  who- 
soever believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish  but  have  everlasting  life'"? 
Methodism  has  a  universal  atonement  for  mankind.  "And  He  is  the 
propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  sins 
of  the  whole  world." 

I  like  Dr.  Guthrie's  exposition  or  paraphrasing  of  that  great  proof 
text  of  the  universality  of  the  atonement.  The  great  Scotch  divine 
said,  "  And  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins."  "  Thank  God  for 
that  !"  said  Guthrie.  "And  not  for  ours  only."  "Thank  God  '"or 
that !  "  said  the  Presbyterian  preacher.  "  But  also  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world."  "'Dangerous  language,'  say  some.  It  is  God's  lan- 
guage, and  perish  the  hand  that  would  narrow  it  a  hair's  breadth,  for  it 
binds  the  world  with  a  zone  of  mercy."  The  Methodism  I  represent, 
whether  in  college  halls,  in  city  pulpits,  in  country  circuits,  in  the 
backwoods,  or  in  Indian  missions,  or  in  distant  Japan  or  China,  is 
true  to  the  doctrines  and  usages  which  have  made  us,  who  were  not  a 
people,  a  people  of  the  Lord. 


40  OPENING    SERVICES. 

We  of  Canadian  Methodism  are  not  without  sentiment,  even  to  the 
extent  of  putting  a  high  value  upon  the  portraits  of  a  glorious  trio  of 
Methodists.  The  Methodist  Social  Union  of  Toronto,  at  considerable 
expense,  and  by  the  work  of  an  eminent  artist,  Mr.  W.  L.  Forster,  of 
Toronto,  have  become  the  possessors  of  three  magnificent  oil  portraits 
of  Susannah  Wesley,  the  mother  of  Methodism,  and  of  her  illustrious 
sons  John  and  Charles  Wesley.  Those  portraits  hang  on  the  walls 
of  the  chapel  of  our  Victoria  University  in  Toronto.  I  think  ours  is 
the  only  Methodism  in  the  world  that  can  lay  claim  to  the  possession 
of  three  such  portraits.  The  unveiling  of  them  was  an  occasion  *■•£ 
deep  interest,  when  British.  Methodism  was  worthily  represented  by 
the  Rev.  Principal  Maggs,  of  our  Wesleyan  Theological  College,  in 
Montreal.  This  is  a  time  and  this  is  a  place  where  in  the  survey  of 
(Ecumenical  Methodism  we  might  take  that  passage  in  the  48th  Psalm 
and  apply  it  to  our  Church.  "  Walk  about  Zion  and  go  round  about 
her  ;  tell  the  towers  thereof,  mark  ye  well  her  bulwarks,  consider  her 
palaces  ;  that  ye  may  tell  it  to  the  generation  following.  For  this 
God  is  our  God  for  ever  and  ever ;  He  will  be  our  guide  even  unto 
death." 

Bishop  A.  Walters,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion 
Church),  gave  the  closing  response  to  the  addresses  of  welcome,  as 
follows : 

Mr.  Chairman  and  brethren,  to  me  has  been  assigned  the  pleasant 
task  of  responding  on  behalf  of  the  African  Methodist  Churches  of  the 
Western  section  to  the  most  eloquent  and  thoughtful  addresses  of 
welcome  to  which  we  have  listened.  On  behalf  of  twenty-seven 
Bishops,  a  large  number  of  presiding  elders,  1,462,304  communicants, 
1,821,468  Sunday  School  scholars,  and  nearly  five  million  adherents 
of  African  Methodism,  I  heartily  thank  you  for  your  cordial  welcome  to 
old  England,  the  cradle  of  Methodism,  with  her  renowned  institutions 
hoary  with  age,  England,  which  has  produced  some  of  the  greatest 
statesmen,  orators,  poets,  and  preachers  the  world  has  ever  known. 
We  greatly  appreciate  the  welcome  to  your  churches,  homes  and  hearts. 

It  is  eminently  fitting  that  at  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century 
all  branches  of  Methodism  should  gather  from  all  parts  of  the  world 
in  a  great  reunion  at  the  shrine  of  its  founder,  to  confer  together,  and 
catch  fresh  inspiration  for  future  service.  It  is  only  those  who  are 
devoid  of  sentiment  and  enthusiasm  who  do  not  believe  in  pilgrimages 
to  famous  shrines.  Who  would  not  consider  it  an  .honour,  as  well 
as  a  privilege,  to  join  the  great  procession  which  was  begun  centuries 
ago  by  the  wise  men  of  the  East,  to  make  a  pilgrimage  to  Bethlehem's 
manger,  there  to  present  gifts  of  contrite  hearts,  sincere  devotion, 
and  genuine  love  to  the  King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords,  and  there 
tarry  until  endued  with  fresh  anointing  from  on  high  1  What  enthusi- 
astic Protestant  would  not  deem  it  an  honour  to  visit  Wittenberg, 
the  birthplace  of  Protestantism  ?  To  stand  upon  the  spot  where 
Luther    nailed     to    the     church    door    his    renowned     theses     against 


ADDRESS    OF    ETSIIOP   A.    WALTERS.  4 1 

Jndulgenres  and  oHior  errors  ?  Or  to  visit  Worms,  where  he  met  'he 
famous  Diet,  and  made  his  noble  defence  before  Charles  the  Fifth 
and  the  legates  of  Rome,  uttering  truths  which  revolutionised  the 
religious  world  ?  American  patriots  delight  to  visit  Bunker  Hill, 
to  learn  lessons  of  true  patriotism  by  recalling  the  noble  deeds  of  her 
heroes.  There  should  be  no  objection  to  the  enthusiastic  Methodist 
family  assembling  at  this  Mecca  of  Methodism  to  thank  the  Lord  for 
John  and  Charles  Wesley,  and  other  founders  of  this  movement, 
which  has  girdled  the  globe,  and  done  more  to  ameliorate  the  condition 
of  mankind  than  any  other  religious  organisation  extant. 

It  is  perfectly  natural,  under  the  circumstances,  for  billows  of 
gratitude  to  sweep  again  and  again  over  our  hearts.  For  my  part, 
I  am  happy  enough  to  indulge  in  an  old-fashioned  Methodist  shout. 
We  are  here  from  all  parts  of  the  world  to  receive  a  re-baptism  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  to  be  strengthened  with  power  from  on  high,  to  ptem 
the  mighty  current  of  sin  which  threatens  to  overwhelm  us.  We  have 
come  to  this  mount  of  inspiration  to  tarry  for  a  few  days,  and  to  look 
into  the  face  of  Him  whose  name  is  Love,  until  our  love  for  sinners 
and  desire  to  save  them  becomes  a  consuming  passion.  We  have  come 
to  gather  strength  to  contend  against  the  rum  traffic  in  all  its  multi- 
tudinous forms,  corruption  in  high  places,  Sabbath  desecration,  and 
race  and  colour  prejudice. 

It  is  not  my  purpose  to  mar  the  harmony  of  this  occasion,  or  em- 
barrass any  of  the  representatives  from  America,  by  injecting  the  colour 
question.  I  have  too  much  respect  for  my  brethren  intentionally  to 
do  such  a  thing.  All  honour  to  the  Bishops  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  represented  here — noble  and  fair-minded  men  they 
are.  The  grand  old  Church  which  they  represent  has  spent  millions  of 
dollars  for  the  uplift  of  the  negroes,  and  given  some  of  her  noblest 
sons  and  daughters  to  prepare  them  for  usefulness  in  life.  Her 
sacrifices  for  our  race  have  been  many,  for  all  of  which  we  are  grateful. 
As  to  the  representatives  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South, 
there  is  not  a  coloured  delegate  in  this  Conference,  or  a  Bishop  or 
minister  left  behind,  who  has  not  the  greatest  regard  for  that  peerless 
orator  of  American  Methodism,  Bishop  Galloway,  to  whom  we  listened 
with  so  much  delight  and  profit  this  morning.  We  admire  and  delight 
to  honour  him.  The  amiable  and  broad-minded  Dr.  Tigert 
has  the  confidence  and  love  of  us  all.  As  much  can  be  truthfullv 
said  of  many  other  representatives  of  that  Church.  We  aie  thankful 
to  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South  for  what  she  has  done  and  is 
now  doing,  financially  and  otherwise,  for  her  daughter,  the  Coloured 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  a  prosperous  branch  of  our  Methodism. 
Hence  what  I  am  about  to  say  cannot  be  construed  as  a  reflection 
upon  any  Church  or  representative  here.  But  since  for  some  time 
systematic  efforts  have  been  made  to  destroy  the  good  opinion  which 
our  English  friends  have  of  us,  we  would  be  untrue  to  ourselves  if 
we  did  not,  while  on  this  side,  take  advantage  of  the  opportunity 
presented  to  vindicate  ourselves,  as  we  may  not  come  this  way  again 
soon. 


42  OPENING   SERVICES. 

We  liave  been  represciifod  as  a  race  of  rapists,  ami  to  my  certain 
knowledge  a  few  on  this  side  of  the  water  believe  the  report  to  be  true. 
Our  delegates  while  here  must  by  -word  and  act  endeavour  to  change 
that  idea.  We  are  not  a  race  of  rapists.  We  liave  criminals  among 
us,  as  have  other  races,  but  I  am  glad  to  inform  you  that  our  preachers 
md  teachers  are  doing  all  in  their  power  to  decrease  the  criminality. 
Of  191  persons  lynched  in  America  last  year,  only  nineteen  were 
accused  of  assaulting  white  women,  and  only  eleven  of  those  nineteen 
were  proven  guilty  of  the  charge.  The  ateurdity  of  accusing  a  whole 
race  of  being  rapists  when  only  eleven  out  of  9,000,000  people  have 
been  proven  guilty  of  the  crime  within  the  space  of  twelve  months ! 
The  English  people  have  always  been  our  friends,  and  we  hope  they 
will  ever  remain  so.  Even  in  the  dark  days  of  slavery,  when  our 
white  brethren  of  America  did  not  respect  us  as  they  do  to-day,  you 
furnished  us  a  refuge  from  the  cruel  master  and  the  fierceness  of  his 
bloodhounds.  We  can  never  forget  your  kindness.  This  is  one  of 
the  reasons  why  we  so  greatly  appreciate  the  welcome  which  you  have 
extended  to  us.  We  trust  you  will  not  allow  any  slanderous  report 
to  destroy  your  confidence  in  us.  We  plead  for  your  continued  friend- 
ship and  encouragement.  If  a  few  mendicants  of  our  race  have  de- 
ceived you,  think  not  that  they  represent  the  best  among  us — ^they 
do  not.  Here  are  our  representatives — men  of  honour,  of  probity,  of 
intelligence — men  who  possess  the  confidence  of  our  brethren  at  home, 
and  are  worthy  of  it  abroad. 

After  an  interval  of  twenty  years  we  have  returned  to  these  shores 
to  report  the  numerical,  spiritual,  and  moral  progress  of  African 
Methodism.  And  more,  to  report  the  intellectual,  financial,  and 
industrial  development  of  the  race.  To  our  trust  were  committed  two 
talents  ;  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  we  have  gained  at  least  two  talents 
more,  and  we  expect  to  hear  from  you  the  "Well  done,  good  and 
Paithful  servant."  We  have  brought  with  us  Presidents  and  Ex-Presi- 
dents of  influential  educational  institutions  in  the  persons  of  Bishops 
Lee,  Harris,  Profs.  Atkins,  Kealing,  Scarborough,  Jackson,  and 
Gilbert.  We  also  have  with  us  authors  in  the  persons  of  Bishops 
Tanner,  Small,  Arnett,  Gaines,  and  others.  And  orators,  such  as 
Bishops  Clinton,  Derrick,  Smith,  Williams,  Drs.  Phillips,  Mason, 
Blackwell,  Caldwell,  Johnson,  and  others.  We  have  one  banker  among 
us,  Dr.  Moreland.  On  a  certain  occasion  the  great  Senator  John  C. 
Calhoun,  of  South  Carolina,  said  that  he  would  never  believe  a  black 
man  was  the  equal  of  a  white  man  until  that  black  man  could  read 
Greek  and  Latin.  We  have  in  our  delegation  to-day  not  only  Greek, 
Latin,  and  Hebrew  scholars,  but  a  man  who  has  written  a  Greek 
grammar  that  is  the  text  book  in  a  number  of  our  schools  and  col- 
leges ;  I  refer  to  Prof.  W.  S.  Scarborough,  of  Wilberforce  University, 
Ohio.  We  are  here  to  report  our  financial  progress,  to  tell  you  that 
we  have  emerged  from  poverty  to  competency.  Our  real  and  personal 
property  is  valued  at  over  700,000,000dols.  We  have  moved  from  the 
log  cabins   to   spacious  homes,  some   of  them   palatial.     We   have   a 


ADDRESS    OF    BISHOP    A.    WALTERS.  43 

number  of  bankers  and  niercluniis  among  ns.  The  coluureil  delegation 
of  twenty  years  ago  was  not  blessed  with  the  presence  of  a  1)anker,  as 
we  are  lo-day.     This  is  surely  an  evidence  of  progress. 

Notwithstanding  the  discouraging  statements  which  have  been  made 
concerning  our  moral  and  religious  progress,  it  is  with  pleasure  I 
inform  you  that  we  are  steadily  improving  in  that  respect.  The 
countenances  of  these  delegates  speak  louder  than  any  words  I  can 
utter  of  the  moral  and  religious  development  of  the  race.  We  have 
made  remarkable  progress  in  our  manner  of  church  worship.  The 
excessively  emotional  worship  which  obtained  in  days  of  yore  is  being 
rapidly  displaced  by  more  intelligent  and  orderly  services.  The 
statistics  of  African  Methodism  will  be  presented  by  Bishop  Arnetl. 
And  now,  may  the  spirits  of  the  great  Wesleys,  of  Clarke,  Coke, 
Benson,  Fletcher,  Arthur,  Asbury,  Simpson,  McTyeire,  Pierce,  Allen, 
Varick,  and  Miles  hover  over  and  inspire  us !  Best  of  all,  may  the 
Spirit  of  the  Christ  who  died  for  us  guide  us  in  all  our  deliberations, 
and  bring  us  at  last  to  the  haven  of  eternal  rest.  Again,  on  behalf 
of  African  Methodism,  I  thank  you  for  your  most  gracious  welcome. 

The  President  announced  that  the  Hon.  W.  C.  Adamson,  of  the 
Methodist  Protestant  Church,  who  was  also  appointed  to  speak,  was 
not  present.  The  Doxology  was  then  sung  and  the  Benediction 
waa  pronounced. 


44  CECUiMENICAL   METHODISM. 


SECOND  DAY,   Wednesday,  Septemher  5,  1901. 


TOPIC : 

(ECUMENICAL    METHODISM. 


FIRST     SESSION. 


The  Conference  resumed  its  sittings  at  10  a.m.,  Bishop  A.  W. 
Wilson,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South),  presiding. 
The  opening  devotional  service  was  conducted  by  the  Rev  J.  C. 
Simmons,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South). 

The  Rev.  John  Bond  (Secretary)  read  the  Daily  Record  for 
Wednesday,  which  was  confirmed.  On  the  motion  of  the  Rev. 
J.  M.  King,  D.D.  (Secretary),  it  wasi  agi-eed  that,  as  in  past  Con- 
ferences, all  degrees  and  honorai-y  titles  be  omitted  from  the  names 
of  delegates  when  reading  the  Record.  It  was  further  agreed  that 
the  morning  sessions  should  close  at  12.45  p.m.  and  the  afternoon 
sessions  at  5  p.m. 

Communications  from  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the 
Bisihop  of  London  conveying  greetings  to  the  Conference  were 
received,  but  as  they  had  apparently  been  received  from  a  weekly 
newspaper  which  had  published  them,  it  was  decided  not  to  deal 
with  them  at  this  stage  of  the  proceedings. 

The  Rev.  Manley  S.  Hard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
suggested  that  it  would  be  eminently  appropriate  that  a  Committee 
should  be  appointed  consisting  of  five  or  seven  members,  which 
should,  at  an  appropriate  time,  make  some  recognition  by  a  brief 
minute  on  the  records  of  the  Conference  of  those  delegates  who 
expected  to  be  present  at  the  Conference,  but  had  died.  The 
matter  was  referred  to  the  Business  Committee. 

The  Rev.  Edward  Boaden  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches) 
then  read  the  following  essay  on  "The  Present  Position  of 
Methodism  in  the  Eastern  Section  "  : 

"  Methodism  in  the  Eastern  Section  ! "  Words  soon  uttered  ;  but 
who  can  set  forth,  or  even  understand,  what  they  import  1  The  eagle 
eye  of  intelligence  and   imagination  can  only  glance  at  it ;   and  the 


ESSAY  OF  REV.   p:dvvari)  boaden.  45 

most  graphic  pen  is  powerless  to  describe  it.  Having  its  root  in  Great 
Britain,  in  the  city  in  which  the  remains  of  John  Wesley  lie  buried, 
and  in  the  very  building  in  which  we  are  now  assembled,  it  spreads  its 
branches  over  a  large  portion  of  the  globe.  On  the  Continent  of 
Europe  ;  in  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  ;  in  rapidly  growing  Australia  ; 
in  New  Zealand,  with  its  enterprise  ;  in  China,  with  its  untold  millions 
of  population  and  its  recent  pathetic  and  heroic  Christian  history  ;  in 
far-oflf  India,  with  its  romance  and  poetry  ;  in  Africa,  East,  West, 
Central,  and  South,  amid  all  the  surging  emotions  which  it  has  recently 
stirred  ;  in  lands  of  varied  climate  and  temperature,  among  people 
speaking  numerous  languages  and  dialects,  its  presence  and  growth  are 
manifest,  and  its  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations. 

Methodism  in  this  section  presents  an  aspect  of  ever-growing  unity. 
At  no  time  in  its  history  has  it  been  so  free  from  strife  as  now.     De- 
nominational divisions  have  not  diminished,  it  is  true  ;    but   organic 
unions  between   portions   of   them  have  happily  been  accomplished. 
Following  the  lead  of  Canada,  to  which  the  place  of  honour  mast  be 
assigned,  most  of  the  Methodists  in  New  Zealand  have  united  as  one 
Church  since  the  (Ecumenical  Conference  of  1891.     The  new  and  im- 
posing Commonwealth  of  Australia  is  in  this   direction,   at,  in  some 
others,  outstripping  brave  and  democratic  New  Zealand  ;   for  all  sec- 
tions of  Methodism  there  now  virtually,  and  will  soon  actually,  form 
one   organic  whole.     In   Great  Britain,   also,    the   principal   scene  of 
fotoier  commotions,   the  Methodist  Churches  are  coming  together,    if 
not  for  organic  union,  yet  for  various  practical  purposes.     The  throb 
of  the  storms  of  years,  now  happily  in  the  far  past,  may  be  felt  and 
noticed  by  some  who  were  in  the  midst  of  them  and  some  others  whose 
fathers  suffered  in  the  tumult ;  but  on  the  whole  peace  reigns,  brother- 
liness  is  manifested,  co-operation  is  rendered ;  the  prosperity  of  one 
Denomination  is  regarded  as  the  prosperity  of  all ;  bitter  and  scornful 
words  are  seldom  hurled  by  the  adherents  of  one  section  of  the  Metho- 
dist Church  against   another,  but  mutual  good-will   is  felt,   words  of 
respect  and  appreciation  are  spoken,  and,  in  spirit,  British  Methodism  is 
one.    The  papers  of  one  Denomination  open  their  columns  to  the  news 
of  the  others  ;  a  Committee  exists  for  "Methodist  Concerted  Action'"  ; 
friendly  messages  are  interchanged  between  the  several  Conferences ; 
and  the  Parent  Body,  now  proceeding  to  prepare  a  new  Hymn  Book, 
has  invited  the  co-operation  of  its  oldest  and  one  of  its  youngest  off- 
shoots, and  asked  them  to  appoint  members  to  sit  on  the  Committee, 
and  the  invitation  has  been  accepted.     To  this  happy  result  the  two 
preceding   (Ecumenical   Methodist   Conferences    have    materially    con- 
tributed ;     and    the    ''  National     Council     of    the    Evangelical    Free 
Churches  "  has  of  late  accelerated  the  movement,  which  Council  in  no 
small  measure  owes  its  own  birth  to  the  spirit  of  charity  and  brother- 
hood which  had  begun  to  work  its  wonders  in  the  Churches,  especially 
in  Methodism. 

The  Methodism  of  to-day  stands  high  in  the  region  of  culture.  In 
the  jjast  Methodists  have  never  been  so  destitute  of  culture  as  their 
foes  have  represented.     Doubtless  there  was  a  time  when   they  had 


46  CECUMENICAL    METHODISM. 

few  oijportunities  of  cultivating  their  minds  in  t\ie  manner  approved 
by  the  schools  ;  and  yet  Methodism,  in  the  worst  of  times,  and  in  cir- 
cumstances of  the  greatest  disadvantage,  has  had  men  among  its  minis- 
ters and  laity  of  great  learning,  literary  taste,  and  cultured  intellect. 
We  are  proud  of  our  past ;  and  we  still  more  heartily  rejoice  in  our 
present.  Primary  and  Secondary  Education  have  true  friends  in  our 
Churches  ;  and  their  people  of  all  grades  have  participated  in  its  bene- 
fits, probably  none  more  than  they.  Many  of  their  young  men,  too, 
iiave    distinguished   themselves   in  University    studies    and   successes. 

The  Methodist  papers  from  time  to  time  set  forth  the  results  of  the 
Matriculation  Examinations  of  the  several  Universities  with  much 
satisfaction.  At  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  London  and  Victoria,  as  well 
as  elsewhere,  the  successes  of  Methodist  undergraduates  and 
students  are  many  and  honourable,  and  some  of  the  highest  honours 
and  most  coveted  degrees  have  been  won,  and  are  worn,  by  Methodist 
ministers  and  laymen.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  in  this  connection  that 
while,  thirty  years  ago,  Wesleyan  ministers  had  academical  degrees 
in  the  proportion  of  one  degree  only  to  fifty-one  ministers,  the  pro- 
portion has  now  risen  to  about  one  in  fifteen.  The  significance,  too, 
of  the  degrees  has  grown  as  much  as  their  number.  These  statements 
refer  particularly  to  the  Mother  Church,  but  her  daughters  are  fast 
following  in  her  wake.  It  is  to  the  honour  of  our  Methodism  that 
one  of  the  most  learned  and  trusted  of  the  company  of  Revisers  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments  was  Dr.  W.  F.  Moulton,  of  the  Wesleyan 
Methodist  Cliurch,  to  whom  more  than  to  any  other  we  are  indebted  for 
the  valuable  marginal  references  printed  in  some  editions  of  the 
Revised  Version. 

What  we  have  stated  is  very  important,  but  in  estimating  the 
culture  of  the  Methodist  people  there  are  other  facts  to  be  noticed  more 
important  still.  All  sections  of  our  Churches  nearly  have  their 
training  colleges  for  ministers.  As  a  rule  they  are  well  equipped  ; 
the  teaching  staffs  stand  high  in  learning,  ability,  and  adaptation 
to  their  work.  Methods  are  undergoing  improvement,  the  curriculum 
is  widening  and  becoming  more  complete,  and  while  the  most  is  made 
of  the  time  and  opportunities  allowed  to  the  students  under  the  present 
system,  there  is  a  demand  for  lengthening  the  period  of  College  life, 
and  it  is  growing  so  loud  and  imperative  that  it  must  be  heard. 
Our  Colleges  must  be  adapted  to  receive  a  larger  number  of  students, 
so  that,  if  needful,  all  ministers  in  future  may  have  the  advantage  of 
a  College  training  ;  and  it  is  generally  felt  and  admitted  that  in  all 
cases  the  collegiate  course  should  be  extended  by  one  year  at  least. 
While  this  is  done  for  the  ministers  the  lay  preachers  are  not  neglected. 
Arrangements  are  made  so  that  they  may  have  a  systematic  course  of 
study,  particularly  in  Theology.  The  most  instructive  and  helpful 
books  are  put  into  their  hands,  and  annual  examinations  in  them  are 
carefully  conducted,  with  very  gratifying  results. 

We  will  say  nothing  here  concerning  authorship  ;  but  in  further 
proof  of  the  advancing  culture  of  our  people  we  may  point  to  schools 
and  colleges  for  higher  education  established  by  nearly  all  sections  of 


ESSAY    OF    REV.    EDWARD    BOADEN.  47 

Methodism  for  the  sons  of  laymen  and  ministers,  aye,  and  for  their 
daughters,  too.  Chief  among  Methodist  schools  must  be  placed  the 
Leys  School  at  Cambridge,  with  which  the  name  of  the  revered  Dr. 
W.  F.  Moulton  must  be  ever  associated,  and  in  which  the  culture  of 
Methodist  youths  is  raised  to  a  high  standard.  It  is  a  joy  to  be  able 
to  say  that  this  advancing  culture  is  turned  to  good  account.  It  is 
true,  no  doubt,  that  "  knowledge  puffeth  up,"  and  there  is  real  danger 
even  in  culture.  To  men  of  refinement  of  thought  and  habit  it  is 
not  pleasant  to  be  brought  into  close  and  frequent  contact  with  the 
vulgar,  uneducated  and,  possibly,  vicious  ;  ana  it  is  not  easy  for  a 
cultured  man  to  realise  his  brotherhood  with  his  fellow  who  is  unwashed 
as  well  as  uneducated.  But  how  stands  the  matter  in  Methodism? 
Perhaps  we  are  not  free  from  those  who  despise  the  vulgar  and  act 
towards  them  as  if  they  were  not  of  the  same  flesh  and  blood.  But 
this  is  by  no  means  common.  Methodism,  indeed,  does  and  must 
minister  to  the  educated.  We  realise  that  means  must  be  adaptad  to 
the  end  aimed  at  ;  and  the  "  World  for  Jesus"  is  still  our  motto.  We 
must  bring  men  of  all  classes  to  His  feet,  and  for  this  i>urpose  the 
cultured  must  have  ministrations  suitable  to  their  requirements. 

Perhaps,  however,  we  have  in  some  past  times  bestowed  a  dispro- 
portionate amount  of  our  thought  and  labour  for  their  benefit  and  that 
of  the  middle  classes  of  society,  and  to  some  extent  it  may  bo  so 
still.  But  it  is  the  proud  position  of  Methodism  to-day  that  the 
ignorant,  the  poor,  the  most  debased  are  cared  for  by  it.  The  Special 
Missions  which  have  been  established  by  our  Denominations  in  our 
large  towns  and  cities,  and  which  are  rapidly  multiplying,  are  intended 
to  reach,  and  do  reach,  the  poorest,  the  mast  depraved,  and  the  most 
miserable,  and  bring  the  Gospel  of  hope,  salvation,  purity,  and  joy 
to  their  knowledge  and  into  their  hearts  and  lives.  Among  the  fio- 
moters  and  agents  of  these  missions  are  the  ablest,  most  cultured, 
and  educated  of  our  ministers  and  people.  To  the  honour  of  the 
Old  Leysians  be  it  said  that  the  love  of  Christ  in  them  is  stronger 
than  the  love  of  refined  ease  and  tasteful  surroundings,  and  they  have 
founded  a  Mission  in  this  metropolis,  with  twenty-eight  branches,  that 
they  may  dwell  among,  minister  to,  and  lead  the  way  to  higher  things 
before,  some  of  the  most  destitute,  wretched,  and  fallen  of  our  fellow- 
men,  and  also  find  a  home  for,  and  train  for  usefulness,  young  men 
coming  hither  to  study  for  the  professions  or  mercantile  pursuits. 

Together  with  this,  we  realise  in  some  degree  the  importance  of  our 
villages  and  our  obligations  to  them.  That  so  many  villages  in  Great 
Britain  are  yet  without  Methodist  and,  indeed,  any  Nonconformist 
Evangelical  preaching  is  a  heavy  sorrow.  Methodism,  comparatively 
weak  in  many  agricultural  districts,  which  have  been  rich  sources  of 
supply  in  the  past,  is  wholly  absent  from  hundreds  if  not  thousands 
of  villages.  That  is  the  position,  and  much  anxiety  is  felt  to  improve 
it ;  and  there  are  those  among  our  most  cultured  ministers  who  seem 
to  be  girding  themselves  for  the  work. 

Meanwhile  our  zeal  for  Foreign  and  Colonial  Missions  does  not  abate  ; 
and  men  of  all  classes  and  acquirements  in  every  section  of  Methodism 


48  CECUMENICAL    METHODISM. 

are  ready  to  supj^ort  such  missions  with  their  money,  their  talents,  and 
their  lives.  Take  an  example.  Recently  one  of  the  Wesleyan  Mis- 
sionary Secretaries  wrote  to  several  University  graduates  asking  them 
whether,  if  called,  they  would  be  willing  to  undertake  work  in 
Sierra  Leone,  one  of  the  deadliest  climates  to  Europeans,  and  seven 
of  them  answered  "Yes."     We  are  a  missionary  people  to-day. 

Methodism  is  distinguishing  itself  in  Social  Work.  It  is  somewhat 
common  not  only  for  strangers,  but  also  for  friends,  to  reproach 
our  fathers  with  having  had  so  much  thought  and  talk  about  con- 
versions and  rapturous  experiences,  and  so  much  concern  about  the 
spiritual  as  to  forget  the  material,  caring  for  men's  souls  while 
neglecting  their  bodies.  But  is  there  ground  for  this  ?  Who  that 
knows  our  history  does  not  know  that  Methodists  in  early  days,  and, 
indeed,  all  along  the  line,  were  and  have  been,  not  only  expected  to  be 
zealous  for  good  works,  works  of  charity  and  beneficence,  but  that  they 
generally  also  performed  them?  The  condition  of  membership  was  and 
is,  "  A  desire  to  be  saved  from  sin,  evinced  in  avoidance  of  evil,  in 
doing  good  to  the  bodies  and  souls  of  all  men,  and  attending  on  the 
ordinances  of  God."  Have  we  not  heard  of  Wesley's  Orphan  Houses? 
Is  it  not  a  fact  that  in  almost  every  society  or  church  in  every 
Methodist  Denomination  a  beneficent  fund  has  been  raised  for  the 
sick  and  the  poor,  and  that  multitudes  of  Methodists,  rich  and  poor, 
have  visited  the  sick,  relieved  the  destitute,  and  aided  the  struggling? 
SjDiritual  ardour  there  was — thank  God  for  it ! — and  there  was  phil- 
anthropy, too. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  those  were  days  of  individualism,  and 
that  the  beneficent  deeds  of  humble  individuals  excited  but  little 
public  attention.  But  combinations  are  now  in  fashion.  The  in- 
dividual counts  for  little  in  most  cases,  though  there  are  remarkable 
exceptions  ;  and  Methodism  is  by  no  means  in  the  rear  in  applying  the 
principle  of  combination  to  social  and  philanthropic  work.  The 
"Children's  Home  and  Orphanage,"  founded  by  Dr.  T.  B.  Stephenson, 
is  one  evidence  ;  and  the  Social  Work  of  Special  Missions  in  London, 
Manchester,  Liverpool,  and  other  places  is  another.  An  extract  from 
a  recent  report  of  the  Manchester  Mission  will  reveal  what  is  doing 
both  by  that  organisation  and  others  in  social  and  philanthropic 
work.  "  It  possesses  three  well-equipped  plants  for  Rescue  Work, 
viz.  : — A  Preventive  and  Rescue  Home,  with  laundry,  for  girls  ;  a 
Rescue  Home  and  Servants'  Home,  with  cafe,  for  women ;  a  Tramps' 
Ward  and  Rescue  Home,  with  labour  yard,  for  men.  For  children 
also  there  are  Sunday  and  Ragged  Schools,  Boys'  Brigades,  Clubs, 
Recreative  and  Educational  Classes,  Bands  of  Hope,  Wesley  Guilds, 
Cripples'  Clubs,  Days  in  the  Parks,  and  Holidays  in  the  country." 

Besides  such  humanitarian  works  and  institutions  as  these,  great 
consideration  is  shown  towards  those  lay  preachers  whose  circumstances 
may  make  them  dependent.  In  the  large  and  flourishing  Local 
Preachers'  Mutual  Aid  Association  and  other  Funds,  the  welfare  and 
support  of  the  needy  among  this  valuable  and  honourable  class  of 
workers  are  provided  for. 


ESSAY    OF    REV.    EDWARD    BOADEN.  4g 

Such  is  Methodism  to-day,  with  its  multiplied  social  agencies  and 
institutions,  among  which  must  be  numbered,  and  with  chastened 
feeling  we  name  it,  "A  Home  for  the  Dying."  By  unity  in  organisa- 
tion and  diversity  of  institutions,  its  hands  are  stretched  forth  to  aid 
and  bless  all  classes  of  needy  persons,  and  it  is  done  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  encourage  and  establish  industry,  self-reliance,  and  independence. 

The  work  of  woman  also  in  our  Churches  is  influential,  and  is 
becoming  increasingly  important.  The  establishment  of  Sisterhoods 
and  the  employment  of  deaconesses  are  facts  of  much  significance. 

The  relation  of  Methodism  to  the  great  Temperance  Movement  must 
not  be  overlooked.  For  many  years  the  various  Churches  have  been 
cordial  in  its  support.  They  all  have  their  Temperance  organisations, 
and,  while  in  general  they  might  do  much  more  in  this  direction,  and 
their  zeal  sadly  needs  quickening,  yet  the  earnest  and  systematic 
Temperance  work  carried  on  in  several  departments,  and  particularly 
in  the  Special  Missions,  is  such  as  to  give  joy  to  the  hearts  of  all 
Temperance  reformers. 

Turning  abruptly  to  another  feature  of  our  present  position,  we 
cannot  but  observe  the  advanced  and  growing  social  and  political 
influence  of  Methodism.  In  Australia  and  New  Zealand  the  absence 
of  a  State  Church  has,  to  some  extent,  though  not  wholly,  removed 
the  barrier  to  position  in  Society  and  in  the  State,  arising  at  home 
from  religious  profession  and  Church  relationships.  Wherefore,  in 
these  portions  of  the  British  Empire,  men  have  been  largely  accepted 
on  the  basis  of  their  own  merits,  and  risen  to  positions  for  which 
they  were  qualified,  irrespective  of  the  Churches  to  which  they 
belonged.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  Methodists  there  have 
occupied,  and  are  now  occupying  high  ofiices  in  the  State.  Methodism 
has  furnished  a  Chief  Justice,  a  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Assembly, 
and  an  Attorney-General.  A  Methodist  who  was  Prime  Minister  in 
South  Australia  before  the  recent  Australian  Federation,  has  been 
elected  the  first  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
Australian  Commonwealth.  In  Great  Britain,  where,  notwithstanding 
the  long  strides  which  have  been  taken  towards  religious  equality,, 
recognised  adhesion  to  the  Established  Church  is  still  a  powerful  engine 
for  a  man's  social  and  civil  advancement,  Methodism  is  a  manifest 
and  an  ever-growing  force.  Most  civil  ofiices  are  open  to  Methodists 
in  common  with  other  Nonconformists,  and  great  is  the  number  of 
our  brethren  who  occupy  them.  They  are  found  on  Boards  of 
Guardians,  School  Boards,  Town,  City,  and  County  Councils  ;  not  a  few 
of  them  have  been,  and  are,  sheriffs  and  mayors  ;  a  still  larger 
number  have  been  placed  on  the  Commission  of  the  Peace  ;  the  Judi- 
cial Bench  has  been  invaded  by  them  ;  several  are  Members  of  Parlia- 
ment, two  of  whom  at  least,  have  been  Ministers  of  the  Crown,  one 
of  them  in  the  Cabinet.  Some,  also,  have  had  knighthoods  and  others 
baronetcies  conferred  upon  them.  All  this  may  seem  to  our  brethren 
of  the  Western  Section  a  small  thing  to  mention,  but  residents  in 
this  country,  especially  the  seniors,  who  remember  so  diflPerent  a  state 


50  CECUMENICAL    METHODISM. 

of  things  in  the  past,  cannot  but  rejoice  in  the  change,  and  thank  God 
for  it. 

Another  indication  of  the  improved  position  of  Methodism  is  found 
in  an  act  performed  and  a  step  taken  a  few  years  ago  by  the  Parent 
Body  in  this  country.  It  boldly  declared  itself — what  it  had  long 
been — Sk  Church.  From  various  causes  the  Denomination  was  known 
legally  as  "The  People  called  Methodists,"  and  popularly  as  the 
Methodist  Societies,  and  although  it  tacitly  claimed  and  wholly 
exercised  the  functions  of  a  Church,  yet  it  did  not  act  under  that 
name.  It,  therefore,  seemed  to  be  in  a  state  of  inferiority  to  the 
Church  established  by  law  and  to  the  Nonconformist  Churches.  This 
was  felt,  and  it  was  asked,  Are  we  not  a  Church  in  living  union  with 
Christ?  Are  not  all  the  powers  and  privileges  of  a  Church  in  our 
possession?  And  is  it  not  right  and  seemly  to  bear  that  name?  These 
questions  were  answered  affirmatively  by  the  Methodist  pastors  and 
people,  and  to-day,  while  inheriting  for  legal  purposes  the  title,  "The 
People  called  Methodists,"  that  great  community  stands  up  and  claims 
its  position  as  a  Church  of  Clu-ist,  as  fully  commissioned  by,  and  as 
truly  in  communion  with,  the  Head  of  the  Church  Universal  as  any 
Church  in  the  world,  authorised  to  ordain  ministers  and  exercise 
discipline,  to  administer  the  Sacraments  and  bear  the  responsibilities 
of  a  Church,  and  to  do  the  work  of  Christ  in  all  its  branches  and 
forms. 

Time  was  when  nearly  all  Methodists  were  poor  in  this  world's  goods. 
This  is  no  longer  so.  In  the  general  prosperity  they  have  always  had 
their  full  share  ;  and  our  present  position  in  these  islands  and  in  the 
colonies  is  that  of  a  wealthy  Church.  The  masses — the  vast  majority  of 
the  members  and  adherents — are,  as  it  is  hoped  they  ever  will  be,  of 
the  industrial  classes  of  various  grades,  but  they  stand  high  in  the 
classes  to  which  they  severally  belong,  and  there  is  a  large  number 
of  other  persons  in  various  stages  of  afBuence,  so  that  the  word  wealthy 
is  applicable  to  Methodism  as  a  whole.  Happily,  the  wealth  is  not 
in  a  few  hands  only,  so  as  to  make  rich  men  necessary  to  us. 
Methodists  are  not  niggards  of  their  wealth.  All  are  givers.  If  any 
of  oiur  brethren  from  the  West,  who  were  here  twenty  years  ago,  and 
who  then  visited  the  provinces,  and  noticed  the  Methodist  churches 
then  erected,  were  to  go  over  the  same  ground  again,  they  would  be 
struck  with  the  improvement  which  has  since  taken  place  in  our  church 
buildings.  Both  in  town  and  country,  the  churches  and  schools  are 
generally  commodious,  convenient,  and  beautiful,  and  millions  of 
money  have  been  expended  on  their  erection,  and  on  this  vastly 
improved  and  extended  church  and  school  property  there  is  far  less 
of  debt  proportionately,  and  perhaps  absolutely,  than  on  the  inferior 
buildings  of  former  times. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  how  much  has  been  laid  out  on  churches, 
schools,  and  manses,  or  what  the  present  value  of  such  property  is, 
but  the  following  facts  Avill  throw  some  light  on  the  subject,  remem- 
bering the  while  that  they  relate  almost  exclusively  to  this  country, 
and  not  to  the  Eastern  Section  as  a  whole.     The  Wesleyan  Methodist 


ESSAY    OF    Ri:V.    EDWARD    nOADEN.  5 1 

Church  has  expended  £10,000,000  since- 1855,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
ex2)enditure  of  preceding  years,  and  the  expenditure  sanctioned  by 
their  Chapel  Committee  during  the  five  years  1896  to  1900  inclusive, 
was  £1,560,975,  or  £312,195  per  year."  £879,560  is  the  estimated 
cost  of  premises  belonging  to  the  Methodist  New  Connexion.  The 
Primitive  Methodists  liave  laid  out  on  their  property  some  £4,000,000  ; 
the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches  £2,248,416  on  theirs  ;  the  Bible 
Christian  Church  possesses  property  of  the  value  of  £523.220  ;  and  the 
Wesleyan  EeTorm  Union,  £129,000.  From  the  Independent 
Methodists  no  returns  have  been  obtained.  These  sums  make 
£17,780,196,  notwithstanding  the  omission  of  the  outlay  in  the 
princii>al  Church  previously  to  1855,  and  the  exclusion  of  nearly  all 
countries  except  our  own,  which  contains  a  population  of  41,453,249. 

The  number  of  sittings  provided  in  this  area  is  shown  in  the 
{oUowing  table :  — 

1901.— Sittings  Provided  :* 

Wesle.van    Methodist    2,112,052 

Methodist  New  Connexion   167,946 

Primitive   Methodist      1,042,325 

United  Methodist  Free  Churches  381,872 

Bible    Christians      153,600 

Wesleyan  Reform  Union      43,834 

Independent  Methodists     33,000 

— ■      3,934,629 

1901.— Population  : 

England  and  Wales  32,525,716 

Scotland     4,470,987 

Ireland       4,456,546 

.     41,453,249 

No.  of  chapels,  etc.,  27,077,  value  at  say  £800  each £21,661,600 

No.  of  chapels,  etc.,  27,077,  value  at  say  £900  each £24,369,300 

In  association  with  this  aspect  of  our  subject  we  camiot  but  name 
the  Twentieth  Century  Funds  raised,  or  to  be  raised,  by  three  sections 
of  Methodism.  There  is  the  Mother  Church,  with  her  Million  Guineas, 
all  of  which  she  will  certainly  raise  ;  there  is  one  of  her  youngest 
daughters,  of  comparatively  small  nuembersliip,  the  United  Methodist 
Free  Churches,  with  her  guaranteed  One  Hundred  Thousand  Guineas  ; 
and  another  Methodist  community,  the  Bible  Christians,  with  its 
£25,000.  In  fact,  the  whoT-e  of  Methodism  is  astir.  In  every  Denomina- 
tion large  and  continuous  supplies  of  means  are  forthcoming  ;  appeals 
made  for  special  funds  meet  with  a  ready  response,  and  thousands  of 
pounds  are  as  easily  obtained  now  as  hundr^eds  were  a  few  years  ago. 

But  what,  amid  all  this,  is  the  position  of  Methodism  in  resjiect 
to  membership  -and  the  extension  of  Christ's  Kingdom?  We  have 
reserved  this  question  till  the  last,  and  we  feel  it  to  be  the  most 
important.  Paul  has  planted,  Apollos  has  watered,  and  God  has  given 
increase.     The  work  done  has  been  effective  and  fruitful.    Losses  liave 


52  CECUMENICAL    METHODISM. 

been  made  good,  vacancies  filled,  and  therie  is  progress  in  every 
department.  You  shall  not  be  troubled  at  this  stage  with  many 
details  ;  they  will  be  presentted  in  the  report  of  the  Statistical  Com- 
mittee. A  few  summaries  must  suffice.  In  the  Eastern  Section, 
according  to  the  last  available  returns,  there  are  now:  — 

Numbers.     Increase  since  1891. 

Ministers     6,276        ...  695 

Lay    Preachers      58,413         ...  10,832- 

Members     1,221,824        ...  97,843 

Sunday   Schools     20.750         ...  2,363 

Sunday  School  Officers  «&  Teachers        273,415        ...  7,763 

Sunday  Scholars   2,175,632        ...        177,616 

Churches,   Halls,   etc 27,077        ...  576 

Adherents   5,487,657        ...        390,784 

These  figures  show  that  our  Sunday  Schools  continue  popular, 
though  of  late  there  has  been  serious  questioning  whether  their  interest 
and  influence  are  not  subsiding.  Foreign  Missions  have  been  sustained 
by  a  growing  income  over  an  extended  area,  and  the  triumphs  of  the 
Cross,  particularly  in  China,  have  been  glorious.  For  the  British 
Army  and  Navy,  and  for  sailors,  fishermen,  and  other  classes  of  our 
population,  a  great  and  expanding  work  is  done,  crowned  with  Divine 
favour  and  blessing.  The  rate  of  increase  in  mem'bership  during  the 
last  ten  years  is  about  nine  per  cent.,  and  the  increase  exceeds  by 
20,875  the  number  of  members  in  what  is  now  the  Eastern  Section 
at  the  time  of  the  death  of  John  Wesley. 

Here  we  pause,  with  profound  thankfulness  to  God  for  the  position 
to  which  He  has  raised  us,  for  the  progress  which  He  has  enabled  us 
to  make,  and  for  the  means  of  further  usefulness  which  He  has  put 
into  our  hands.  But  we  rejoice  with  chastened  feelings  when  we 
remember  how  slow  our  progress  is  in  view  of  the  vasit  increase  of 
population  in  the  countries  covered  by  our  review,  the  sore  need  they 
have  of  the  Gospel  which  we  preach,  the  means  for  saving  men  which 
are  placed  at  our  command,  and  the  promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit  made 
to  us.  Nevertheless,  we  can  say  with  our  founder,  "  The  best  of  all 
is,  God  is  with  us,"  and,  conscious  of  His  presence,  we  renew  our 
work,  firmly  believing  that  we  shall  see  greater  things  in  the  next 
decade  than  we  or  our  fathers  have  known  in  any  century  of  the  past. 

The  Rev.  J.  Berry  (Australasian  Methodist  Church)  gave  the 
firsit  appointed  address,  as  follows: 

The  Eastern  Section  of  Methodism  embraces  the  continents  of 
Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and  Australia,  with  our  splendid  South  Sea 
Missions  thrown  in.  I  am  allowed  ten  minutes  in  which  to  speak 
of  the  present  position  in  four  great  continents,  and  shall,  therefore, 
only  describe  the  most  interesting  feature  of  Methodism  in  the 
continent  to  which  I  belong.  Australia  is  as  large  as  Europe,  and 
wherever  settlement  is,  there  our  Church  is  represented  and  at  work. 
Since  our  last  CEcumenical  Conference  two  remarkable  things  have 
happened.  One  is  the  formation  of  our  Australian  Commonwealth. 
Our  six  States  have  become  one  nation.     For  the  first  and  only  time 


ADDRESS    OP    REV.    J.    BERRY.  53 

in  the  world's  history  we  have  a  whole  continent,  peopled  by  one 
race,  speaking  one  language,  observing  one  law,  loyal  to  one  flag, 
ruled  by  one  King,  worshipping  one  God.  This  union  of  our 
States  has  been  accomplished  after  the  shedding  of  much  ink,  but 
without  the  shedding  of  one  drop  of  blood.  "  This  is  the  Lord's  doing, 
it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes." 

But  another  thing  has  taken  place  which  more  immediately  concerns 
this  Conference.  When  last  we  met  in  Washington  there  were  in 
Australia  four  distinct  and  separate  Methodist  Churches.  Since  then 
in  New  Zealand  all  the  Methodist  Churches  have  united  with  the 
exception  of  the  Primitive  Methodist.  In  three  of  the  six  States  in 
Australia  Methodist  Union  has  been  completed,  and  in  the  remaining 
three  States  there  will  be  complete  union  on  the  first  day  of  January 
next  It  is  practically  accomplished  already.  So  that  in  the  vast 
Australian  Continent  we  have  but  one  Methodism.  John  Wesley  left 
his  followers  in  Great  Britain  a  Unit.  His  followers  in  Australia  are 
a  Unit  once  more.  When  Wesley  died  we  were  not  called  "  Wesleyans  " 
— ^we  were  "the  People  called  Methodists,"  and  Australians  have  gone 
back  to  the  old  name.  There  are  no  "Wesleyans"  there  now,  nor 
Bible  Christians,  nor  Primitives,  nor  United  Free  Churchmen,  all 
belong  to  "The  Methodist  Church  of  Australia."  This,  too,  has  been 
brought  about  without  the  shedding  of  one  drop  of  blood,  or  the  sur- 
render of  one  principle,  or  the  change  of  one  doctrine,  or  relaxing 
one  item  of  our  discipline.  This  also  is  the  Lord's  doing,  and  is  mar- 
vellous in  our  eyes. 

I  stand  here  not  as  an  advocate  of  Methodist  Union  but  as  a  witness. 
As  Editor  of  our  Connexional  organ  in  South  Austraha,  and  as  an 
Ex-President  of  that  Conference,  I  claim  "to  speak  that  which  I 
do  know,  and  to  testify  that  which  I  have  seen."  Just  when  or  how 
the  idea  was  born,  or  the  watchword  "  Unite  '  began  to  be  whispered. 
I  cannot  say.  "  The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest 
the  sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh  and  whither  it 
goeth,"  so  also  is  every  movement  "that  is  born  of  the  Spirit." 
Canada  set  us  the  example,  and  we  gathered  much  encouragement 
from  the  glorious  success  of  the  movement  there.  From  the  first 
we  saw  that  the  olive  branch  must  be  held  out  by  the  larger  and 
richer  Church.     Then  we  began  to  get  closer  to  one  another. 

The  illustration  that  did  duty  in  innumerable  speeches  was  courtship 
before  marriage.  If  we  had  tried  to  bring  together  unprepared 
Churches  the  result  would  have  been  collision,  not  union.  A  black- 
smith cannot  weld  two  pieces  of  iron  by  hammering,  though  he  might 
break  them.  Let  him  first  put  them  into  the  fire  together  until  each 
piece  bends  like  a  lily  on  its  stalk  and  a  few  gentle  taps  will  make 
them  one.  So  we  often  met  for  prayer,  and  became  heated  in  the 
fiie  of  holy  love.  We  made  much  of  our  common  origin.  We  looked 
for  the  best  in  one  another.  We  remembered  that  God  has  not  only 
given  us  eyes,  but  eyelids,  and  that  eyelids,  as  a  httle  girl  put  it,  "  are 
not  to  see  with."  We  frankly  confessed  the  folly  and  the  sin  of 
competition  for   saints— a  sin  which  is  seen  in  its  most   aggravated 


54  CECUMENICAI.    METHODISM. 

form  in  a  country  like  oius,  where  the  prijiulation  is  widely  scattered 
and  tire  towns  and  villages  are  small. 

If  I  had  an  electric  battery  powerful  enuugli,  I  could  send  a  thrill 
through  this  entire  assembly,  but  only  on  one  condition.  We  must  lirst 
clasp  hands.  Two  unwilling  hands  would  be  enougli  to  break  the  current. 
We  clasped  hands  in  brotherly  love,  and  the  rest  was  easy.  There  were 
difficulties,  of  course.  There  always  are  difficulties  in  the  path  of 
duty.  But  we  had  only  to  face  our  difficulties  to  see  them  disappear. 
As  our  feet  touched  the  threatening  sea  it  divided  before  us.  "There 
are  principles  to  keep  us  apart,'"  some  said.  We  examined  them,  and 
found  not  principles,  but  prejudices  and  preferences.  ''Are  there 
not  doctrinal  differences?"  others  asked;  but  the  best  microscopes  of 
the  keenest  theological  experts  could  find  none.  It  was  pleaded  that 
every  division  in  Methodism  had  its  justification,  and  that  Avas 
admitted  ;  but  we  saw  that  this  admission  did  not  warrant  the  per- 
petuation of  these  divisions  until  the  crack  of  doom.  "  But,'  said 
others,  "  Union  will  mean  a  surplus  of  ministers."  All  that  I  need 
to  say  is  that  the  first  United  Conference  in  South  Australia  produced 
a  Station  Sheet  in  which  there  was  a  circuit  for  every  minister  and  a 
minister  for  every  circuit.  It  was  not  necessary  to  ask  the  humblest 
brother  to  stand  up  to  be  shot,  or  to  force  any  man  on  to  ihe  super- 
numerary list,  or  to  send  any  worn-out  preacher  to  the  Zoo.  "  But," 
others  said,  "  financial  difficulties  will  swamp  you.  Debt-rid  ien 
churches  that  you  can  neither  use  nor  sell  will  hang  like  a  millstone 
round  your  neck."  Well,  we  are  united,  and  financial  difficulties  have 
not  swamped  us  yet.  ''  But  Union  will  never  be  complete  ;  some  con- 
gregations and  many  families  Avill  stand  out  "  it  was  feared  by  others, 
but  the  fear  proved  groundless.  Every  congregation  in  each  Denomina- 
tion came  loyally  in,  and  if  a  single  family  took  the  opportunity  of 
Union  to  leave  us  I  have  not  heard  of  that  family. 

"  But  will  there  not  be  strife  and  jealousy  among  the  ministers  ?  will 
not  the  ministers  of  the  wealthier  and  stronger  body  lord  it  over 
the  rest  1"  I  gratefully  bear  witness  that  our  two  Conferences  since 
Union  have  been  among  the  best  I  have  ever  attended.  In  one  of 
these  sixty  cases  of  alteration  and  readjustment  of  circuit  boundaries 
were  dealt  with  in  three  hours  without  an  angry  word.  The  President 
of  the  second  Union  Conference  had  been  a  Bible  Christian  minister, 
and  we  Wesleyans  love  and  honour  him  as  if  he  had  always  been  one 
of  us.  If  one  of  you  came  to  any  of  our  ministers'  meetings,  District 
Synods,  or  Conferences,  it  wovdd  puzzle  you  to  put  the  old  labels  on 
again,  and  to  point  out  who  before  Union  had  be^n  Wesleyan,  or 
Primitive,  or  Bible  Christian  ;  nor  would  you  be  likely  to  hear  a  word 
or  see  a  thing  which  would  remind  you  that  only  two  years  ago  we 
were  apart. 

To  conclude,  we  believe  that  the  blessing  of  God  rests  upon  this 
Union,  and  it  is  certain  that  throughout  the  whole  movement 
Christian  public  opinion,  outside  Methodism,  has  been  with  us.  I 
am  only  a  witness,  and  not  a  prophet,  but  I  think  that  every  member 
of  this   Conference   will    agree  with   me  that  in   a  new  country   like 


AnnRESS    OF    RKV.    WEST.EY    GUARD.  e;5 

ours  unilod  INrelhodisin  will  ho,  inoro  cfl'eclive  lliaii  disunited 
Methodisni.  Wo  can  stalicm  and  employ  our  iniuislers  more  wisely  ; 
forco  that  was  wasted  in  coniijclition  can  be  used  for  aggrcssioji. 
Funds  and  men  that  were  sciuandered  in  propping  up  churches  that 
were  not  needed  can  be  employed  against  our  common  foes,  and  we 
shall  be  better  equijjped  for  spreading  Scriptural  holiness  throughout 
the  land. 

The  members  of  the  Conference,  led  by  the  Canadian  delega- 
tion, spontaneously  rose  and  with  great  heartiness  sang  the  hymn 
commencing, 

"  Slest  be  the  tie  that  binds 
Our  hearts  in  kindred  love." 

The  Rev,  Wesley  Guard  (Irish  Methodist  Church)  gave  the 
second  appointed  address,  as  follows  : 

I  am  an  Irishmanj  and  an  Irish  Methodist  preacher,  but  I  would  say, 
although  it  may  appear  to  be  a  presumption,  that  we  Irish  people 
are  always  in  the  front,  in  agitation  or  otherwise,  in  battling  or  other- 
wise, and  in  every  good  enterprise,  for  we  led  the  way  with  regard 
to  Methodist  Union.  We  rejoice  that  twenty-three  or  twenty-four 
years  ago  there  dropped  from  our  public  papers  and  from  the 
"Minutes"  the  word  "  Wesleyan."  However,  we  honour  John  Wesley, 
and  we  have  been  known  as  the  Methodist  Church  of  Ireland  for  about 
twenty-three  years.  In  order  that  brethren  from  all  parts  of  the  world 
may  know  it,  I  wish  to  tell  them  that,  although  we  are  a  small  people, 
we  are  doing  pioneer  work.  I  am  first  of  all  a  sul)ject  of  this  great 
British  Empire,  and  there  is  no  drop  of  blood  in  me  but  is  loyal  to 
the  Throne  and  to  the  Constitution,  but  I  am  a  Methodist,  and  wide  as 
the  reach  of  the  Methodist  Church,  embracing  as  it  does  five  con- 
tinents, is  the  breadth  of  my  sympathies  and  my  love  and  loyalty  to 
Methodism.  I  rejoice  to  know  that  we  are  gathered  here  to  show  the 
world  that,  whatever  may  be  the  governmental  or  sectional  differencss, 
we  are  one  in  principle,  one  in  policy,  one  in  doctrine,  and  one  in 
our  aim — namely,  in  endeavouring  to  win  the  world  for  Christ  Jesus. 

Ten  minutes  so  quickly  pass  by,  and  that  intolerable  bell  that 
rings  out  the  knell  of  our  retirement  into  private  life  will  be  rung-. 
Let  me  say  that  it  is  an  impossible  task  that  has  been  assigned  to 
my  friend  Mr.  Berry  and  me.  It  is  like  one  of  those  advertisements 
where  you  see  a  bull  in  a  tea-cup.  We  are  allotted  ten  minutes  in 
which  to  say  what  is  the  position  of  Methodism  in  the  Eastern  Section. 
You  might  as  well  put  a  whale  into  a  little  pool  as  try  to  put  that 
great  conception  into  ten  minutes.  Every  Conference  would  demand 
that  time,  every  District  would  demand  it,  every  circuit  would  demand 
it,  and  so  I  will  not  dwell  upon  any  particular  point,  but  I  will  deal 
with  the  larger  question. 

There  is  the  sublime  truth  in  connection  with  Methodism  in  the 
Eastern  and  Western  Sections  that  it  is  one  of  the  greatest  factors  in 
the  history  of  Christendom.     There  is  nothing  like  it  in  all  the  annals 


$b  (ECUMENICAL   METHODISM. 

of  the  progress  and  march  of  Christianity  to  the  conquest  of  the  world. 
At  the  middle  of  the  fourth  century,  when  Constantine  ascended  the 
throne,  there  were  not  as  many  Christians  in  the  Roman  Empire  by 
one  half  as  there  are  Methodists  throughout  the  world  to-day  rejoicing 
in  the  name  of  Methodism.  The  grand  work  that  John  Wesley  has 
done,  and  that  Methodism  has  achieved,  is  one  of  the  sublime  factors 
in  the  uphfting  of  the  world,  and  men  do  not  care  to  pass  it  by. 
Just  as  Martin  Luther  and  the  Reformation  mark  a  great  era,  and 
are  synonyms  of  a  magnificent  movement  in  the  history  of  the  Church, 
so  John  Wesley  and  Methodism  stand  in  these  latter  times  in  the 
very  same  relationship  to  the  magnificent  work  she  is  accomplishing 
for  the  salvation  of  the  world  and  for  the  uplifting  of  humanity.  We 
rejoice  that  we  have  passed  through  the  contempt  with  which  our 
fathers  were  treated,  and  that  the  world  must  and  does  recognise  that 
we  are  doing  magnificent  work  for  the  social  elevation,  for  the  intel- 
lectual enlightenment,  and  for  the  spiritual  salvation  of  mankind. 

But  I  should  not  be  true  to  my  convictions  if  I  did  not  say  that  our 
position  is  one  of  imminent  peril.  The  success  which  we  have 
achieved  is  sufficient  almost  to  make  us  so  proud  that  we  may  be 
quite  satisfied  with  admiring  the  bulwarks  which  we  have  reared,  and 
the  walls  that  we  have  built,  and  as  an  army  of  the  Living  God  mark 
time  instead  of  marching  forward  to  the  salvation  of  the  world.  It  is 
a  condition  of  peril  from  the  very  fact  of  the  position  which  we  have 
attained  and  the  organisation  which  we  possess. 

The  organisation  is  magnificent.  Next  to  that  masterpiece  of  organi- 
sation, the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  Methodism  is  greatest  The  l;ttle 
cell-life  has  blended  together  until  it  has  put  on  an  organisation  second 
to  none  in  all  the  Churches.  Our  classes,  our  societies  in  connection 
with  our  particular  churches,  our  gathering  together  in  those  societies, 
in  our  quarterly  conferences  and  meetings,  our  District  meetings,  our 
Synods  as  they  are  designated  on  this  side  of  the  Channel,  and  our 
Annual  Conferences,  -with  all  that  pertains  to  them,  are  something 
that  will  bear  the  closest  investigation.  It  shows  that  the  living  forces 
of  Christianity  in  Methodism  have  put  on  a  magnificent  structure  and 
an  organisation  that  is  as  flexible  as  it  is  strong,  and  can  adapt  itself 
to  its  circumstances  and  surroundings.  Is  there  not  danger  in  that? 
May  we  not  worship  our  organisation?  May  we  not  look  upon  it 
and  say,  "This  is  what  has  been  achieved,"  and  then,  instead  of 
recognising  in  this  an  organisation  for  sublimer  movement,  be  satis- 
fied °with  admiring  its  stately  proportions  c-nd  its  magnificent  sym- 
metry ? 

Furthermore,  we  are  in  a  position  of  peril  from  the  fact  of  our 
wealth.  Methodism  is  a  respectable  thing  now.  When  I  was  a  lad 
there  was  scarcely  in  Irish  Methodism,  even  among  the  preachers, 
a  boy  whose  name  was  Wesley.  My  own  brother  said  he  used  to  be 
ashamed  to  call  me  Wesley,  but,  thank  God,  not  merely  in  Ireland, 
but  in  the  world,  anything  that  could  make  us  hang  our  heads  at  the 
name  of  Wesley  has  passed  for  ever.  We  are  getting  so  respectable 
that  our  grandfathers  and  our  grandmothers  would  not  know  us.     It 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  57 

is  just  like  the  Irishman  who  saw  a  man  coming  down  the  street,  and 
said,  "  When  I  saw  you  I  thought  it  was  you  ;  and  then,  when  you 
came  nearer,  I  thought  it  was  your  brother  ;  and  now,  when  I  see 
you,  it  is  neither  you  nor  your  brother." 

Wealth  has  its  peril.  Are  you  going  to  be  so  respectable  that 
because  a  man  has  means,  and  not  spirituality,  he  will  be  put  into 
office  in  the  Church,  and  neglect  men  who  have  spirituality  and  not 
means?  Are  we  not  in  danger,  too,  that  the  ministry  should  become 
a  profession  for  which  a  young  fellow  will  be  educated,  rather  than  a 
Divine  calling  for  which  he  is  to  be  prepared?  Brethren,  these  are 
the  points  as  to  danger  and  peril — lack  of  spirituality  consequent  upon 
our  success,  our  organisation,  our  wealth  ;  and  he  will  be  the  best 
friend  of  Methodism  universally  who  will  guard  jealously  against  those 
.perils. 

The  position  of  Methodism  is  one  of  the  sublimest  possibilities  that 
the  most  gifted  imagination  can  picture.  Our  success,  our  position, 
our  wealth,  our  organisation  are  sublime  facts  that  we  can  use  for  the 
accomplishment  of  the  Divine  purpose.  As  I  look  out  upon  what  lies 
before  Methodism  in  this  twentieth  century,  when  I  think  of  Eastern 
Methodism,  with  all  its  sections  throughout  Europe,  Asia,  Australia, 
and  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  organised,  and  looking  with  eager  eyes 
to  the  prospect  that  lies  before  them — ^trusting  that  the  Land  of 
Promise  will  become  the  Land  of  Eealisation — when  I  think  of  all 
that,  and  see  what  Methodism  has  achieved  in  the  past,  the  magnificent 
organisation  which  she  has  at  present,  the  influence  which  she  has 
upon  public  and  private  life,  and  upon  the  intellect  and  education  of 
the  rising  generation  to-day,  when  I  remember  the  position  which  she 
occupies  in  connection  with  the  Churches,  that  her  position  is  recog- 
nised and  her  influence  courted,  and  her  presence  welcomed  as  a  great 
spiritual  force — then,  my  friends,  not  all  the  gorgeous  pictures  that 
ever  painter  has  placed  upon  the  spread  canvas,  not  all  the  bright 
futures  that  can  be  thought  of  until  our  hearts  are  enraptured,  not  the 
most  splendid  vision,  even  of  an  Isaiah,  is  to  be  compared  with  that 
magnificent  future  which  is  within  the  possibilities  of  this  Church,  if 
she  is  only  equal  to  it.  Brethren,  let  us  go  towards  that  accomplish- 
ment for  Christ's  sake. 

The  discussion  on  the  topic  was  opened  by  the  Rev.  William 
A.  Bracken  (Irish  Methodist  Church)  as  follows: 

I  am  one  of  the  representatives  of  United  Ireland,  and  I  regret 
to  say,  as  a  representative  of  United  Irish  Methodism,  that  our  only 
trouble  has  been  from  England.  We  are  thankful,  however,  that  some 
of  our  Irish  friends  recognise  that  one  Methodist  Church  is  abso- 
lutely sufficient  for  the  requirements  of  our  Irish  country,  and  I  am 
grateful  to  the  brethren  of  the  Methodist  New  Connexion  for  the 
overtures  which  they  have  made  for  the  absorption,  if  they  will 
not  object  to  that  word,  of  their  few  and  comparatively  feeble  congre- 
gations in  Ireland  in  the  Irish  Methodist  Church.  We  shall  rejoice 
to  welcome  them  among  us,  and  tliey  shall  not  find  themselves  out- 
casts even  from  home  or  from  God,  wlien  they  become  members  of  the 
Irish  Methodist  Church. 


5?  CECUMENICAL   METHODISM. 

For  twenty-three  years  we  have  stood  one  Cliurch  in  Ireland,  and 
God  has  blessed  our  union  and  blessed  it  very  abundantly.  I  need 
not  say  to  this  audience  that  we  are  forced  to  contend  with  the  diffi- 
culties of  a  rapidly-decreasing  population,  and  yet  at  our  last  census, 
although  we  reported  a  diminution  in  our  population  of  a  quarter  of 
a  million  of  persons,  Irish  Methodism  reported  an  advance  of  10  per 
cent,  upon  its  returns  of  ten  years  before.  We  were  the  only  one  of 
all  the  Churches  in  that  country  whom  God  had  honoured  to  report 
such  a  condition  of  affairs  as  that. 

Then  Jt  may  not  be  a  matter  lacking  in  interest  to  this  great  gather- 
ing to  know  that  Irish  Methodism  is  almost  a  total  abstinence  Church. 
I  am  one  of  the  representatives  of  a  total  abstinence  and  non-smoking 
ministry.  We  are  not  afraid  of  progress  in  the  knowledge  of  affairs, 
whether  a  knowledge  of  affairs  is  to  be  gained  from  the  study  of  the 
men  of  to-day  or  from  the  study  of  the  works  of  men  of  former  years. 
We  have  not  found  that  University  education  has  unfitted 
our  men  for  evangelistic  work.  At  the  present  hour  the  Principal  of 
our  oldest  training  institution  went  almost  direct  from  evangelisation 
in  the  shims  of  the  city  of  Dublin  to  the  presidency  of  that  important 
college,  which  he  now  dignifies  by  his  abilities  and  by  his  administra- 
tion. We  are  thankful  to  God  that  the  meil  who  stand  foremost  in 
our  ministry  to-day  as  men  of  education  and  of  culture  are  also  pro- 
minent among  us  for  their  evangelism  and  evangelistic  fervour.  We 
have  not  found  that  a  University  degree  makes  a  preacher,  and  we 
have  not  found  that  a  University  training  disqualifies  a  man  for  the 
pulpit. 

There  is  another  fact  with  regard  to  our  work  which  possibly  will 
interest  those  who  live  in  great  cities.  We  have  still  the  old  circuit 
which  covers  half  a  county,  or  almost  the  whole  of  a  county.  We 
journey  from  farmliouse  to  farmhouse  still,  and  it  has  been  my  ex- 
perience, as  it  has  been  of  most  of  my  brethren,  to  preach  every  night 
m  the  week  except  Saturday.  We  find  that  by  care  for  the  isolated 
families  in  the  country-side  God  has  enabled  us,  in  spite  of  enormous 
difficulties,  still  to  live  and  to  prosper. 

A  few  years  ago  there  was  a  sad  outcry  in  this  Empire  against 
articles  that  were  made  in  Germany,  and  any  article  that  was  labelled 
with  that  suspicious  mark  was  looked  upon  as  something  of  an  inferior 
character.  We  are  not  ashamed  to  send  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth  men  and  women  bearing  the  label,  ^' Made  in  Irish  Methodism." 
And  it  has  been  our  joy  and  crown  of  rejoicing  that  men  have  come 
to  us  from  the  very  Antipodes  to  say  to  us,  "  The  strength  of  our 
congregation,  the  most  trusted  office-bearers,  and  the  most  loyal  mem- 
bers that  we  have  came  to  us  from  your  Emerald  Isle."  We  thank 
God  that  we  are  able  to  live,  and  that  in  the  face  of  an  opposition 
open  and  covert,  such  as  perhaps  no  other  Methodism  in  the  world 
knows.  He  has  kept  us  in  life,  and  is  blessing  us  with  increase. 

The  Rev.  Prof.  W.  I.  Shaw,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Church  of 
Canada),  said  : 

May  I  be  permitted  to  submit  a  request?  There  is  one  branch  of 
Eastern  Methodism  in  whicli  I  think  that  we  are  all  greatly  interested, 
and  that  is  South  Africa.  We  are  delighted  to-day  to  have  repre- 
sentatives of  South  African  Methodism  here.  I  make  bold  to  request 
that  some  of  those  brethren  would  kindly  give  us  information  con- 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  59 

cerning  that  important  branch  of  Methodism.  There  is  Mr.  Cawood, 
who  has  gone  through  the  siege  of  Ladysmith,  with  bravery,  patience, 
and  heroism  ;  and  there  are  the  ex-Mayor  of  Capetown  and  other 
representatives  of  South  Africa.  I  submit  the  suggestion  that  some 
of  these  brethren  should  kindly  tell  us  about  the  work  there. 

Mr.  T.  E,  DucKLES  (South  African  Methodist  Church)  then  spoke 
as  follows : 

I  have  had  some  intimate  connection  with  South  African  Methodism 
for  twenty-six  years.  There  is  advance  all  along  the  line.  Daring 
the  last  three  years  there  has  been  an  increase  in  the  gross  membership 
of  over  twenty  thousand.  We  have  a  membership  now,  black  and 
white,  in  South  Africa  of  about  107,000,  all  told.  Eighty  years  ago 
the  work  was  only  just  begun.  Our  native  work  there  is  the  largest, 
but  we  have  a  considerable  European  work.  We  have  churches  in  all 
the  principal  towns.  We  have  churches  among  the  rural  population, 
and  it  is  among  them  that  I  work  specially  as  a  local  preacher.  I  take 
the  appointments  pretty  often  every  quarter.  I  may  say  that,  years 
ago,  when  I  read  the  life  of  Peter  Cartwright,  I  got  hints  for  my  own 
work  as  a  local  preacher  in  South  Africa. 

Just  now  a  word  was  said  of  how  work  is  carried  on  in  Ireland  in 
visiting  farmhouses.  Our  country  populations  are  spread  thinly  over 
a  large  area,  and  they  need  a  good  deal  of  visiting,  and  they  are 
getting  it.  Year  by  year  we  are  laying  hold  of  larger  areas  of  this 
scattered  European  population.  The  membership  among  Europeans 
has  not  increased  rapidly  because  of  the  sparsity  of  the  population  ; 
but  the  native  work  is  growing  in  bulk.  The  change  that  I  have  seen 
during  twenty-six  years  with  regard  to  tlie  native  Avork  is  very  great. 
Our  organisation  suits  the  people.  Our  Methodist  life  suits  the  people. 
They  gather  together  in  their  classes  and  their  prayer-meetings  with 
a.  fervour,  a  zeal,  and  a  regularity  which  shame  our  English  people 
here. 

There  are  difficulties  growini;,  and  they  will  grow,  in  the  relationship 
of  the  natives  to  the  Europeans.  At  the  present  day  there  are 
prejudices  and  difficulties,  but  when  the  Conference  was  formed  one 
thing  was  fixed — that  natives  and  Europeans  should  meet  together  in 
the  one  Conference.  In  some  of  the  district  meetings,  too,  they  also 
meet  together.  In  some  districts  they  hold  their  meetings  separately, 
and  it  is  more  convenient.  I  believe  that  if  in  South  Africa 
our  people  earnestly  and  diligently  follow  the  line  of  life  represented 
by  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  these  great  difficulties  which  face  as  in  that 
kind  of  thing  at  the  present  day  will  gradually  fade  away.  There  are 
prejudices,  and  prejudices  are  the  strongest  things  to  contend  against  ; 
but  we  shall  overcome  them. 

This  war  is  bringing  under  English  influence  a  very  large  mass  of 
native  people.  It  is  going  to  jmrify  the  administration  of  native 
affairs  in  South  Africa  ;  and  it  needed  to  be  purified.  Those  of  us  who 
have  had  to  do  with  the  natives  and  have  been  interested  in  the  native 
people  for  some  years  have  felt  the  difficulties  that  have  been  growing. 
Tlie  light  of  British  public  opinion  clarified  is  going  to  l)e  concentrated 
u])on  South  Africa,  and  men  there  will  not  dare  tu  do  -wrong.  They 
will  have  to  account  to  the  English  j)eople  if  they  do.  These  are 
disjointed  remarks.     I  cannot  tell  you  what  is  in  my  mind,  I  can  only 


6o  (ECUMENICAL   METHODISM. 

give  you  some  impressions  ;  but,  there  as  here,  we  need  to  trust  in 
the  Lord,  walk  uprightly,  do  justly,  fear  no  man,  and  preach  the 
Gospel,  trusting  only  in  the  power  of  God.  It  is  not  our  organisation, 
it  is  not  all  the  wealth  we  have  that  is  going  to  do  this  work.  It  is 
the  power  of  the  Lord  with  us,  and  we  must  not  trust  in  any  arm 
of  flesh. 

The  Rev.  Zadock  Robinson  (South  African  Methodist  Church) 
said : 

The  memories  of  my  life  in  South  Africa  make  the  opportunity  of 
Faying  a  word  for  that  country  so  precious  that  I  cannot  resist  the 
temptation.  I  entered  upon  my  work  there  in  1860.  At  that  time  we 
had  four  districts — Capetown,  Grahamstown,  Queenstown,  and  Natal — 
and  the  districts  administered  by  the  Synods  were  very  small  com- 
pared with  what  they  are  now.  If  you  will  allow  me  I  will  give  a 
bird's-eys  view  of  the  country  that  is  now  covered  by  the  influence  of 
South  African  Methodism.  We  will  begin,  say,  at  Port  Elizabeth,  and 
take  a  coast  route  passing  Grahamstown  and  King  Williamstown,  right 
away  on  through  the  whole  of  Pondoland,  through  Natal,  up  to  the 
Tugela  River,  a  distance  of  about  six  hundred  miles.  I  am  glad  to 
say  that  at  this  time  you  need  not  stop  in  your  journey  at  the  Tugela, 
because  the  South  African  Conference  has  recently  made  arrangements 
for  carrying  Methodist  teaching  and  Methodist  influence  into  that 
country.  Then,  starting  from  the  coast-line,  you  move  upwards  from 
Port  Elizabeth  through  Graaf  Reinet,  right  away  on  to  Klerksdorp 
and  Mafeking,  and  through  Mashonaland  and  Matabeleland  on  to  the 
Limpopo,  a  distance  of  nearly  seventeen  hundred  miles.  Accordingly 
you  may  start  from  the  coast-line  at  any  particular  part  of  that  coast- 
line of  nearly  seven  hundred  miles,  and  you  may  proceed  through  the 
Cape  Colony,  and  the  Orange  River  Colony,  and  the  Transvaal  Colony, 
and  through  Mashonaland  right  away  to  the  Limpopo  in  that  direction. 

Let  me  say,  as  an  illustration  of  the  manner  in  which  the  localities 
are  covered,  that  you  may  proceed  from  Port  Elizabeth  through 
Grahamstown  on  to  Zululand,  a  distance  of  over  six  hundred  miles, 
and  you  may  sleep  every  night  at  a  Wesleyan  Mission  station.  When 
we  speak  of  one  of  those  stations  we  mean,  of  course,  a  chapel  very 
often  built  by  native  hands,  with  the  pulpit  occupied  by  a  native 
preacher,  and  the  harmonium  very  often  played  by  a  native  musician  ; 
and  you  will  find  a  school  both  for  day  and  Sabbath  education  and 
also  a  minister's  house. 

To  state  those  facts  just  in  that  bald  and  brief  way  will  not  convey 
perhaps  much  of  an  impression  to  most  people  who  have  been  brought 
up  in  an  atmosphere  saturated  with  the  light  and  influence  of  the 
Gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  but  you  must  recall  the  fact  that  at 
the  beginning  of  the  ministry  of  a  superintendent  of  mine  who  died 
only  about  a  year  and  a  half  ago,  taking  the  whole  of  that  country 
from  Port  Elizabeth  to  Delagoa  Bay,  and  on  to  the  Zambesi,  there  was 
scarcely  a  break  in  the  darkness  of  its  heathenism  and  scarcely  a  voice 
that  disturbed  its  silence.  Now  you  find  that  for  a  coast-line  of  more 
than  one  thousand  miles,  and  inland  for  about  fifteen  hundred  miles, 
you  have  these  centres  of  Methodist  theology  and  of  Methodist  dis- 
cipline and  of  Methodist  class-meeting  life,  making  the  air  sweet  and 
bright,  and  you  liave  hospitality  afforded  to  everyone  that  goes  out 
there. 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  6l 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Champnbss  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church) 
Kpoke  ag  follows  : 

I  want  to  say  just  a  few  words  about  the  philosophy  of  making  use 
of  the  debris  of  humanity.  Before  this  chapel  was  built  they  used  to 
ling  a  hymn  which  we  never  dare  to  give  out  now : 

"  Suffice  that  for  the  season  past, 
Hell's  horrid  language  filled  our  tongues." 

From  those  men  that  used  to  be  swearers  John  Wesley  got  hold  of 
some  powerful  preachers,  and  swearers  who  become  prayer-makers 
to-day  are  mighty  men  of  God.  I  am  here  to  plead  that  Methodism 
should  insist  upon  it  that  her  preachers  should  go  out  and  meet  these 
men  where  they  are  to  be  found.  The  man  in  the  street  has  a  soul 
to  be  saved,  whether  he  is  in  a  country  lane  or  whether  he  is  in  a 
crowded  slum,  and  1  have  seen,  and  know  personally,  men  who  have 
been  won  to  Jesus  Christ  by  efforts  in  the  open  air,  both  in  town 
and  village.  I  am  thinking  now  of  men  who  are  and  have  been  the 
very  best  evangelists  I  have  ever  known  for  the  sort  of  people  they 
have  to  work  for. 

For  instance,  the  best  man  working  in  connection  with  the  "  Joyful 
News  Mission  "  to-day  is  a  man  who  used  to  be  the  champion  ten-mile 
runner  in  Lancashire,  and  a  great  fighting  man  and  wrestler.  That 
njan  was  won  to  Jesus  Christ,  not  by  ministers,  but  by  a  band  of  men, 
headed  by  a  shoemaker,  who  used  to  go  and  stand  opposite  the  public- 
house,  and  wait  till  the  men  came  out  from  the  public-house  in  the 
village,  when  they  were  turned  out  by  law  on  the  Sunday  afternoon. 
They  were  fishermen,  and  they  went  where  the  fish  were.  That  is 
one  way  of  catching  them !  Those  men  sang  and  prayed,  and  the 
result  was  that  some  of  these  wicked  outcasts  of  humanity  gave  them- 
selves to  Jesus  Christ  and  to  Methodism. 

This  man  that  I  am  talking  about  was  a  miner  when  he  was  con- 
verted. The  "  missus  "  said  to  me,  "  I  am  very  much  afraid  that  some 
of  these  days  Moses  will  be  killed  in  the  pit."  I  said,  "  He  shall  not, 
for  I  will  not  let  him  go  any  more,"  and  I  suggested  that  he  should 
come  and  work  for  us.  He  began  his  work  first  of  all  as  a  seller 
of  Bibles.  In  this  country,  whether  you  sell  beer  or  Bibles,  you  have 
to  have  a  licence  from  the  police.  Moses — not  the  Moses  of  the  Bible, 
but  the  Moses  that  will  appear  when  God  publishes  another  Biljle  in 
the  world  to  come — went  to  the  poHce-station,  where  he  had  been 
many  a  time  before,  to  ask  for  a  licence  to  sell  Bibles.  When  he 
presented  himself  before  the  inspector  he  looked  at  him  from  top  to 
bottom,  and  said,  "Have  not  I  seen  you  before?"  "Aye,"  he  said, 
"you  have,  but  then  I  was  always  fetched."  This  man  goes  out  into 
the  streets  in  any  village  or  town  where  he  is  working,  and  goes  to  the 
very  worst  part  of  the  town,  and  asks  for  the  lowest  kind  of  population, 
and  goes  there,  and  talks  to  the  men,  and  says,  "  Will  you  come  and 
hear  me  preach  ?  I  will  promise  you  a  shilling  if  you  can  go  to  sleep 
while  I  am  talking."  Some  of  us  dare  not  say  that.  I  want  to  say 
that  if  you  want  to  have  the  kind  of  man  that  is  to  save  the  thousands 
of  men  and  women  who  at  present  seem  as  if  they  cannot  be  laid 
hold  of,  you  must  go  into  the  streets  and  lanes  and  compel  them  to 
oome  in. 


62  OECUMENICAL    METHODISM. 

The  Kev.  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  ChurcJi), 
said  : 

I  Avant  U>  say  just  n  wurd  regarding  tiio  greal  wurk  that  is  going 
forward  in  Africa.  I  was  charmed  as  I  lieard  the  message  this  morning 
from  those  who  have  heen  tliere  among  those  poorest  of  tlie  poor, 
helping  them  to  Icnow  something  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  I  rejoice  that 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  kStates  has  done  and  is  doing 
a  large  work,  and  an  increasing  work,  for  the  uplifting  and  the  salva- 
tion of  our  brethren  in  Africa.  Somehow  it  seems  that  Almighty  God 
is  going  to  bring  some  good  thing,  after  all,  out  of  the  conditions  that 
obtained  in  America  for  ,some  years.  For  there  has  grown  up  a 
constituency  prepared  in  mind,  in  thought,  and  in  character,  to  join 
with  the  best  men  and  women  of  all  races  to  send  the  light  of  the 
Gospel  to  Africa. 

Out  of  the  schools  that  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  is  main- 
taining and  supporting  in  the  South  have  already  gone  with  our 
magnificent  hero,  Bishoji  Hartzell,  twenty-one  young  negroes,  some  of 
the  best  and  most  thorough  scholars  that  we  have  had  the  privilege 
to  prepare.  Twenty-one  of  them  now  stand  by  his  side  in  the  great 
work  of  helping  Africa  to  know  something  of  Jesus  Christ.  Brethren, 
I  give  you  my  hand  and  my  heart,  those  of  you  who  have  gone  there 
with  the  light  of  the  Gospel.  And  I  speak  for  my  brethren  across 
the  sea.  There  has  come  a  conviction — and  I  believe  that  it  is  a 
conviction  that  has  come  from  God — that  by  racial  affinity,  by  special 
preparation,  and  by  Divine  command,  God  has  laid  upon  the  heart 
of  the  American  negroes  the  command  that  they  must  go  and  help 
somewhat  in  bringing  the  Gospel  to  darkest  Africa.  I  promise  you 
courageous  men  wlio  have  gone  out  to  Africa  that  when  this  constituency 
to  which  I  refer  is  thoroughly  prepared  we  shall  have  in  the  coming 
days  of  the  twentieth  century  the  grandest  movement  for  the  evangelisa- 
tion of  Africa  the  world  has  ever  witnessed. 

Bishop  J.  C.  Hartzell,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  of  Monrovia,  Liberia,  spoke  as  follows  : 

I  was  exceedingly  interested  in  the  statements  made  by  the  brethren 
from  South  Africa.  I  want  to  say  here  that  the  work  of  Wesleyan 
Methodism  in  South  Africa  is  of  a  very  high  and  successful  type.  The 
Wesleyan  Methodists  have  been  there  many  years,  and  they 
have  succeeded  grandly.  They  will  unite  with  me  in  remembrance  of 
that  hero,  William  Taylor,  who  thirty  years  ago  had  one  of  his  wonder- 
ful evangelisation  tours  in  South  Africa.  As  I  went  from  town  to 
town  I  met  men  and  women  who  had  been  converted  under  him,  and 
I  met  many  elderly  native  Christians,  who  said  that  they  were  con- 
verted "when  the  William  Taylor  wind  passed  by;"  The  future  of 
Methodism  in  that  South  Africa  country  is  little  suspected  in  its  magni- 
tude by  "  the  people  called  Methodists "  the  world  over.  Tliere  are 
eight  millions  of  natives  south  of  the  Zambesi  River.  .  There  are  nearly 
a  million  white  people.  In  fifty  years  there  will  be  ten  millions  of 
white  people  and  thirty  millions  of  natives,  and  there  will  be  another 
great  centre  of  Anglo-Saxon  population  under  the  English  flag.  It  is 
the  beginning  of  another  Empire  for  Anglo-Saxon  civilisation  and  for 
Evangelical  Christianity.  The  relations  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  and  of  Wesleyan  Methodism  in  South  Africa  are  of  the  most 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  63 

kindly  and  fraternal  character.  We  are  seeking  not  to  nvorlap  nm- 
work,  and  so  I  have  gone  one  tliousand  miles  farther  north  fnnn  ('ajH- 
Town,  but  I  find  the  same  cordial  co-uperalion  on  the  part  nf  the 
English  people  in  ihe  planting  of  Evangelical  Christianity. 

I  wish  to  emphasise  the  word  concerning  the  native  problem  in 
Africa.  This  war,  this  re-organisation  of  boundary  lines,  the  conten- 
tions between  great  nations  affecting  the  Continent  of  Africa— these  are 
but  little  incidents  in  the  history  of  that  continent.  Africa  is  to  be 
the  home  of  the  black  races  of  the  world.  Of  course  there  will  be  a 
great  population  of  whites  in  the  south,  but  I  look  northward  and 
I  see  in  the  near  future  no*  simply  one  hundred  millions,  but  five  and 
six  hundred  millions  of  negroes.  God  is  to  give  the  sons  of  Ham  their 
final  chance  on  the  Continent  of  Africa.  It  has  been  so  ordered  that 
for  one,  two,  three,  or  five — we  know  not  how  many  thousands  of 
years — the  black  races  have  been  there,  but  they  have  not  published 
a  book  or  painted  a  picture.  They  have  had  their  chance  on  that  line. 
Now,  in  the  Providence  of  God,  this  great  race  is  raised  up  to  extend 
its  authority  and  power  over  the  Continent  of  Africa.  England,  and 
Germany,  and  France  are  the  three  great  nations,  and  England  is  the 
greatest.  The  great  problem  of  the  future  is  the  native  problem.  As 
to  this  brother  who  stood  here,  the  Rev.  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  I  could  see, 
as  you  could  not,  in  the  quiver  of  his  lip,  and  in  the  earnestness  of 
his  words,  what  every  Christian  man  feels  who  travels  in  Africa. 
It  will  not  simply  be  ten  millions  of  negroes  to  eighty  millions  of 
whites,  as  in  America.  It  will  not  simply  be  one  or  two  negroes  in 
the  midst  of  ten  or  twenty  thousand,  or  a  million  people,  as  in  England. 
It  will  be  the  African — one  thousand,  ten  thousand,  twenty  thousand, 
thirty  thousand,  forty  thousand,  a  hundred  thousand,  liundreds  of 
thousands  to  one  white  man,  and  the  Christianity,  and  the  Government, 
and  the  commercial  direction  must  come  from  the  white  man,  for  the 
present,  in  the  Providence  of  God,  to  give  that  race  its  chance. 

So  I  stand  here,  in  the  Providence  of  God,  having  been  sent  out 
by  one  branch  of  Methodism  into  that  work,  to  say  to  you  that,  as 
I  look  into  the  future  of  Africa,  my  heart  goes  out  "to  God,  and  asks 
that  the  nations  of  the  earth  upon  whom  the  responsibility  of  that 
continent  rests— and  America  must  have  her  share  of  responsibility, 
too— may  be  guided  aright,  that  the  mistakes  of  the  past  may  not  be 
repeated,  and  that  there  may  be  unity,  peace,  and  co-operation"  between 
the  races,  and  that  whatever  can  be  done  in  the  way  of  education, 
especially  industrial  education,  and  whatever  can  be  done  in  the  way 
of  establishing  churches,  and  especially  a  good  Government,  may  be 
done,  and  that  there  shall  be  peace  and  harmony  between  the  races. 
That  man  in  Africa,  as  well  as  in  America,  who  says  a  word  to  promote 
discord  between  the  races  is  not  the  friend,  but  is  the  enemy,  of 
humanity.     Africa  is  to  be  redeemed. 

Bishop  C.  S.  Smith,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Clmrch), 
said  : 

For  many  years  I  was  burdened  with  a  desire  to  go  to  Africa.  That 
desire,  in  the  Providence  of  God,  I  was  enabled  to  gratify  in  1895. 
I  made  a  cruise  along  the  west  and  south-west  coast  of  Africa  from 
Sierra  Leone  to  St.  Paul  de  Loanda,  a  distance  of  three  thousand  miles, 
including  the  ascent  of  the  Congo  to  Shire,  where  the  cataracts,  which 
render  the  river  no  longer  possible  for  navigation,  begin.     I  confess  I 


64  CECUMENICAT,    METHODISM. 

was  more  than  agreeably  surprised  with  the  evidences  of  progress  and 
civilisation  which  I  found  here  and  there,  and  of  which  I  had 
not  the  remotest  dream.  Take,  for  instance,  the  celebrated  Mission 
located  on  the  Gold  Coast,  which  has  done  so  much.  You  talk  about 
your  industrial  education— industrial  education  for  the  negro.  There 
is  the  pioneer— the  John  the  Baptist  in  this  regard.  The  results  of 
that  Mission  have  made  all  the  west  and  south-west  coast  of  Africa 
indebted  to  it  for  whatever  skilled  workmen  there  are  to  be  found 
in  that  region  to-day.  You  construct  your  houses  here.  You  prepare 
them  and  send  them  out  in  sections  ;  but  the  man  who  puts  them  up, 
who  joins  them  together,  and  erects  them  so  as  to  form  a  permanent 
habitation  for  the  shelter  of  your  trader  and  your  missionary  is  the 
native.  His  hand  is  trained  to  handicraft  and  skill  in  the  celebrated 
Mission  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa,  in  the  Gold  Coast  Colony,  a 
part  of  your  British  possessions. 

Then  think  of  all  the  positions  which  do  not  require  handicraft. 
In  all  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  there  is  but  one  white  man  m  charge 
of  your  telegraph  system,  and  that  is  the  superintendent.  All  your 
telegraphing  in  west  and  south-west  Africa  is  done  by  natives.  They 
are  in  charge.  And  when  you  go  into  the  port  of  Sierra  Leone — Free- 
town—remember that  every  attache  in  the  Custom  House  is  a  nat.ive. 
Every  attach^  in  your  Post  Office  there  is  a  native.  So  the  African 
has  long  since  demonstrated  his  ability  and  his  capacity,  and  de- 
monstrated that  he  is  not  ordained  to  use  his  muscle  only,  but  that 
he  is  ordained  to  use  his  mind,  because  he  is  capable  where  the  intellect 
alone  dominates  and  prevails.  Remember  that  in  the  empire  of  the 
intellect  no  colour  line  can  be  drawn. 

The  Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
then  spoke.     He  said  : 

It  is  a  great  delight  to  me  that  the  attention  of  this  Conference  is 
beinw  focussed  this  morning  for  a  little  time  on  Africa.  If  there  is 
any  country  in  the  world  that  has  been  more  bhstered  and  peeled 
than  another  by  the  avarice  of  the  white  races  it  is  Africa,  and  if  there 
is  any  part  of  this  sin-ruined  world  that  should  claim  the  sympathy 
and  prayers  of  Christian  people  it  is  Africa.  Bishop  Fowler  said  in 
the  presence  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Conference,  I  think,  when  he 
was  our  fraternal  delegate  to  you  in  this  country,  that  the  Puritans 
when  they  first  landed  in  America  fell  on  to  their  own  knees  and  then 
fell  on  the  aborigines.  I  think  it  may  be  said  with  equal  propriety 
tha,t  the  first  white  people  who  went  to  Africa  in  the  place  of  falhng 
on  their  own  knees  fell  on  the  aborigines.  Africa  has  been  the 
hunting-ground  of  the  slave  dealer  for  thousands  of  years.  Thank 
God  the  time  has  come  when  the  traffic  in  human  flesh  and  blood  from 
Africa  has  come  to  an  end.  When  the  old  century  dawned  pirate 
craft  could  sail  the  waters  of  the  sea  with  the  only  business  of  stealing 
negroes  and  carrying  them  off  to  foreign  countries  for  slaves,  but  with 
the  close  of  the  old  century  a  slaver  on  any  sea  in  this  planet  is  a 
pirate  craft  to  be  sunk. 

The  attention  of  the  civilised  world  is  now  being  turned  to  Africa, 
For  myself,  I  thank  God  for  what  England  is  doing  in  Africa.  I  hope 
the  war  in  Africa  will  soon  come  to  an  end,  but  I  hope  it  will  come 
to  an  end  with  the  Union  Jack  over  all,  for  I  believe  that  where  the 
Union  Jack  floats  in  any  land  there  are  two  things— personal  safety 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  65 

and  religious  liberty.  I  am  not  anxious  that  the  United  .Slates  should 
have  any  territory  in  Africa,  but  I  am  anxious  that  the  United  States 
should  have  a  large  hand  in  the  evangelisation  (if  Afriea. 

IJlshop  Hartzell  was  a  little  too  modest  to  say  anything  about  his 
own  work  in  Africa,  but  I  have  it  in  my  thought  that,  if  God  has  ever 
called  a  man  to  a  work  anywhere,  He  called  the  General  Confer- 
ence of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  to  commission  Bishop  Hartzell 
for  Africa.  His  presence  there  has  given  a  new  impetus  to  our  work. 
Our  Conference  in  Liberia  is  taking  on  new  strength  and  reaching 
out  to  the  native  peoples  beyond  the  borders  of  the  Republic  of  Liberia. 
In  the  province  of  St.  Paul  de  Loanda  there  is  a  great  work  growing 
up  under  his  supervision  that  was  founded  by  Bishop  Taylor,  and  in 
Eastern  Africa,  with  headquarters  at  Umtali,  he  has  planted  another 
important  Mission.  We  are  not  there  for  the  purpose  of  in  any  way 
overlapping  the  work  that  is  being  done  by  our  Wesleyan  brethren, 
yet  the  LTnited  States  has  had  a  good  deal  to  do  with  the  Africans, 
and  not  always  to  the  credit  of  the  United  States,  let  me  say.  At 
the  same  time,  that  very  population  that  so  strangely  was  taken  over 
by  the  United  States  years  ago  is  to  become  a  mighty  power  for  the 
evangelisation  of  Africa.  Dr.  Mason  has  spoken  the  truth  here  this 
morning,  that  a  constituency  is  being  raised  up  in  the  United  States 
for  the  rapid  evangelisation  of  the  Dark  Continent — and  may  God  hasten 
the  day  ! 

TLo  Rev.  Edwin  J.  Watkin  (Australasian  Methodist  Church), 
said : 

Australia  has  been  nobly  represented  this  morning  by  an  English- 
man, for  Joseph  Berry  was  one  of  Britain's  latest  gifts  and  best  gifts 
to  the  Australasian  Wesleyan  Methodist  ministry.  I  am  here  to  refer 
to  the  indebtedness  of  Australasian  Methodism  to  British  Methodism. 
I  have  the  unique  honour  in  this  Conference  of  being  the  one  represen- 
tative from  Australia  who  is  Australian  born.  But  I  was  the  son  of 
an  Englishman,  and  the  son  of  a  missionary  who  has  left  his  mark 
upon  the  world's  history.  My  father,  before  I  was  born,  wrote  that 
appeal,  "  Pity  Poor  Fiji,"  which  led  to  British  Methodism  taking  such 
an  intense  interest  in  the  evangelisation  of  Fiji,  and  there  is  no 
brighter  page  in  the  history  of  modern  Christian  missions  than  that 
which  narrates  the  triumphs  of  Christianity  in  what  was  once  cannibal, 
but  which  to-day  is  Christian  Fiji.  We  owe  very  much  to  British 
Methodism.  Daniel  J.  Draper,  who  died  such  an  heroic  death  under 
the  storm-tossed  waves  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  was  an  Englishman  ; 
and  we  have  had  scores  of  ministers  in  connection  with  our  Church 
who  came  from  this  land  who  would  have  died  an  equally  heroic  death 
under  similar  circumstances. 

But  let  me  here  refer  to  our  indebtedness  in  Australia  to  the  local 
preachers  who  came  from  the  old  land.  I  do  not  think  that  any  his- 
torian of  Methodism,  not  George  Smith,  of  England,  nor  Abel  Stevens, 
of  the  United  States,  has  done  justice  to  the  work  done  for  God  and 
Methodism  by  local  preachers.  Where  would  Metliodism  have  been, 
here  or  in  the  Antipodes,  or  in  America  either,  but  for  the  self-denying 
labours  of  local  preachers  ?  If  I  could  ring  out  this  note  in  the  ear 
of  universal  Methodism,  I  think  it  would  be  an  advantage  :  Do  not 
under-estimate  the  work  of  local  preachers.  If  you  do,  if  the  local 
preacher  as  a  class  degenerates,  sooner  or  later  it  will  have  a  deteriorat- 
ing influence  on  the  itinerant  minister. 


66  CECUMENICAL  METHODISM. 

But  I  wish  to  refer  to  our  indebtedness  in  Australia  to  American 
Methodism-  Britain  owes  the  possession  of  Australia  to  the  fact 
that  she  lost  what  is  now  the  United  States.  It  was  because  England 
had  lost  the  dumping  ground  for  her  criminals  in  the  United  States 
that  she  looked  towards  Australia.  When  I  was  once  boasting  in  my 
father's  presence  that  I  was  the  only  civilised  one  in  his  family,  because 
my  elder  brothers  and  sisters  were  born  in  the  South  Seas  or  in  New 
Zealand,  he  put  me  down  very  effectively  by  saying:  "Young  man, 
when  you  were  born,  the  place  where  you  were  born  was  known  as 
Botany  Bay."  But  England  owes  Australia  to  the  fact  that  she 
lost  the  United  States.  As  a  loyal  Australian,  on  every  Queen's 
Birthday,  for  many  years  past,  I  have  gone  and  made  my  bow  to  the 
Governor  or  to  the  Lieutenant-Governor  as  the  representative  of 
the  grandest  woman  that  ever  sat  upon  the  British  throne  or  on  any 
other  thruue.  On  the  fourth  of  July,  again  and  again,  I  have  gone 
and  shaken  hands  with  the  Consul  for  the  United  States,  because 
I  have  felt  that  in  Australia  we  have  more  of  political  and  religious 
liberty  because  of  that  American  revolt. 

What  do  we  owe  to  American  Methodism  1  We  owe  the  blessed 
work  done  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand  by  that  man  of  God,  known 
to-day  as  Bishop  Taylor,  but  whom  we  knew  as  Californian  Taylor, 
the  grandest  evangelist  who  ever  put  his  foot  upon  Australian  shores. 
In  Australia  we  are  trying  to  be  faithful  to  old  Methodist  doctrines, 
and  to  stand  by  Christian  fellowship.  We  have  not  lost  our  interest 
in  the  work  of  evangelising  the  islands  of  the  sea,  and  only  let  the 
United  States  and  Canada  and  the  Australian  Colonies  join  hand  iu 
hand  with  the  grand  old  Motherland,  and  we  will  help  to  win  the 
world  for  Christ. 

The  Rev.  F.  Langham  (Australasian  Methodist  Church.)  said  a 
few  words  about  Fiji : 

When  I  came  to  London  some  time  ago  I  was  asked  to  address 
an  audience,  and  to  state  why  God  converted  Fiji.  That  was  rather 
a  large  order.  But,  still,  I  thought  I  could  give  one  or  two  very 
good  reasons  why  the  Lord  converted  Fiji,  and  I  said  that  one  reason 
was  that  which  the  Apostle  Paul  gave  for  the  conversion  of  Sard  of 
Tarsus.  When  writing  to  his  son  in  the  Gospel,  Timothy,  he  said : 
"  For  this  cause  I  obtained  mercy,  that  in  me  first  Jesus  Christ  might 
shew  forth  all  long-suffering,  for  a  pattern  to  them  which  should  here- 
after believe  on  Him  to  life  everlasting."  I  regard  Fiji  as  the 
grandest  Mission,  in  one  sense,  of  any  that  has  been  founded  on  the 
face  of  the  earth— not  in  numbers,  of  course ;  we  are  a  few  and  feeble 
folk— but  for  effectively  bringing  in  some  of  the  worst  characters  that 
could  be  found  under  the  sun,  and  who  were  known,  as  Dr.  Watkm 
has  iust  said,  as  cannibal  Fijians. 

I  dare  not  here,  in  this  mixed  audience,  repeat  some  of  the  evidences 
of  the  degradation,  cruelty,  and  vice  of  the  people  of  F131.  But  the 
power  of  God  has  been  felt  among  them,  and  thousands  and  tens  of 
taiousands  of  them  have  been  lifted  out  of  the  deepest^  depths  of 
degradation  and  sin,  have  been  set  free  by  the  power  of  D^e  gr^e 
and  have  become  some  of  the  grandest  evidences  of  the  transforming 
•nower  of  the  Saviour's  work.  .  .        •     , 

^  The  evidence  of  their  conversion  has  been  given  in  various  mstancea 
and  in  various  ways.  They  have  shown  themselves  capable  of  being 
Visionaries.    They  have  gone  boldly  forth,  with  their  lives  m  their 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  67 

hands,  to  other  lands,  and  have  preached  the  Gospel  in  islanda  in 
various  parts  of  the  Soutli  Seas,  and  t.here  they  are  at  the  present 
time.  I  shall  never  forget  going  o)i  board  the  missionary  ship  "John 
AVcsloy"  on  one  occasion  to  see  the  acoommodatioii  provided  for  the 
women  who  were  going  out> — ^the  wives  of  our  teachers.  I  affected 
not  to  know  who  these  women  were  ;  some  of  them  I  did  not  know. 
I  said  to  them,  "What  are  you  women  doing  here?"  They  said, 
"We  are  going  down  to  New  Britain,  sir."  "New  Britain!"  I  s:ud  ; 
"  that  is  where  tliey  have  massacred  two  of  my  friends  and  two  otlier 
teachers  and  native  ministers,  and  eaten  their  Jjodies.  Are  you  going 
down  to  that  place?"  They  said,  "Yes,  sir.  What  was  Fiji  before  you 
missionaries  came?  What  were  we  doing  here  in  this  island  but 
eating  those  who  fell  into  our  hands  in  battle,  or  who  were  taken  as 
captives,  or  who  were  looked  after  by  the  fishermen" — the  fishermen 
were  noted  for  their  cannibalism.  "  We  are  going  with  our  husbands, 
and  are  prepared,  if  necessary,  to  lay  down  our  lives  in  order  that 
we  may  spread  the  knowledge  of  Him  whom  we  have  received  into 
our  hearts,  and  in  Avhose  love  we  are  rejoicing  to-day.''  Who  could 
Avithhold  tears?  They  flowed  at  once  as  soon  as  you  heard  suoh  de- 
clarations as  those  from  those  noble  women. 

Then,  as  evidence  of  the  soundness  of  their  conversion,  I  may  say 
they  are  ready  to  make  sacrifices  of  the  pocket,  and  that  is  one  of  the 
great  evidences,  I  think,  among  a  certain  class  of  people,  that  they 
have  been  really  and  truly  converted  to  God.  A  friend  of  mine,  a 
teacher,  was  asked  hj  the  Governor  of  the  Colony  to  accept  the  posi- 
tion of  magistrate.  He  was  receiving  at  the  time  a  salary  of  about 
£5  or  £8  a  year,  and  he  would  have  received  £12  at  once  from  the 
Governor,  and  in  a  short  time  £24  more.  He  came  to  me  and  asked 
my  advice.  I  told  him  he  was  to  act  upon  his  own  responsibility  ;  I 
could  not  give  him  any  advice.  I  wanted  to  bring  him  out.  He  said, 
"For  twenty  years  I  have  been  preaching  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  I  have  seen  fruit  of  my  ministry.  Souls  have  been 
converted,  and  now  am  I  to  be  deprived  of  that  position,  and  to  become 
a  magistrate?  Why,  any  sort  of  man  will  do  for  a  magistrate,  and 
I  am  not  going  to  give  up  my  work  in  order  to  become  a  magistrate. 
I  will  still  preach  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ." 

The  Rev.  F.  W.  Bourne  (Bible  Christian  Churob)  was  the  last 
speaker.     He  said  : 

I  want  especially  to  thank  the  essayist  of  this  morning  for  the 
clear  and  full  account  he  has  given  us  of  the  state  of  Methodism  in 
the  Eastern  Section,  and  to  thank  Dr.  Berry,  too,  for  that  wonderful 
ten  minutes'  address  that  I  cannot  but  think  will  have  a  --ronderful 
effect  upon  the  future  of  Methodism  in  this  country.  I  think  that 
the  movement  which  resulted  in  Methodist  Union  in  Australia  was 
originated  in  the  Conference  held  at  Washington  ten  years  ago.  I 
remember  well  the  impression  which  was  made  by  an  able  representa- 
tive of  one  of  the  younger  Denominations  (the  Eev.  W.  Kedfern),  when 
he  spoke  in  favour  of  Methodist  Union  ;  and  I  think  to-day  if  there 
is  any  connection  between  that  speech  and  Methodist  Union  m  Aus- 
tralia he  has  already  received  his  full  reward.  I  just  want  to  remind 
this  Conference  that  the  Methodists  throughout  the  world  when  John 
Wesley  opened  this  chapel  numbered  only  44,000  ;  but  to-day  they 
number  at  least  180  or  200  times  as  many.     We  say,  with  a  very  deep 


68  CECUMENICAL    METHODISM. 

emphasis,  and  with  the  strongest  feeling,  "Wliat  hath  God  wrought!" 
This,  my  brethren,  is  the  finger  of  God. 

I  feel  tliat  what  we  especially  want  is  that  mighty  power  which  (Uir 
fathers  possessed  in  such  a  great  measure,  that  every  sermon  we  pri^ach 
and  that  every  word  we  utter  and  that  every  attempt  we  make  shall 
result,  by  God's  blessing,  in  some  saving  fruit.  There  is  not  a  member 
of  this  Conference  but  can  do  better  than  he  has  done.  When  I  began 
this  ministry  no  one  had  a  greater  ditHculty  in  keeping  in  it  than  I 
had,  no  one  had  fewer  friends  to  help  him  and  encourage  him  in  his 
work  than  I  had.  But  in  the  second  circuit  to  which  I  was  appointed 
I  resolved,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  that  I  Avould  preach  in  every  street 
in  the  t-own,  in  every  alley,  in  every  lane,  in  every  square,  and  that, 
as  far  as  possible,  I  would  visit  every  house,  one  after  another,  in  the 
place.  Of  course,  where  there  were  many  families  in  a  house  the 
work  was  more  difficult,  but  I  carried  out  my  resolve  to  the  best  of 
my  ability  while  I  was  in  that  place.  I  can  only  say  that  the  results, 
in  many  instances,  were  very  blessed. 

I  will  just  give  you  one  instance.  I  had  been  spending  four  or  five 
hours  one  afternoon  in  visiting  a  low  part  of  the  town  of  Devonport. 
The  houses  were  large,  and  there  were  several  families  living  in  them. 
I  came  to  the  last  room  in  a  house,  and  I  knocked  at  the  door.  There 
w^as  no  answer.  I  invariably  wait  to  be  invited  to  come  in,  because 
the  poor  man's  room  is  his  castle,  as  much  as  the  nobleman's  mansion. 
No  one  came,  so  I  ventured  to  open  the  door.  I  saw  in  one  corner 
an  old  man  on  a  bed  of  straw,  with  no  one  to  attend  to  him  ;  the 
room  was  bare  and  comfortless.  I  am  telling  this  to  illustrate  the 
power  of  a  living  Christianity.  I  was  surprised  to  see  something  like 
joy  and  hope  beaming  in  that  old  man's  countenance.  I  said  to  the 
old  man,  "Are  you  happy?"  '"Happy!"  he  said,  "I  should  think 
I  am."  Then,  reminding  him  of  the  circumstances  in  which  he  was 
placed,  I  said,  "How  is  it  that  you  can  be  happy?"  "Why,"  he 
replieci,  "my  sins  are  forgiven,  and  my  name  is  written  in  heaven." 
Then  I  had  my  full  reward,  for  it  appears  that  when  a  stripling  of 
twenty-two  years  of  age  the  word  which  I  preached  in  great  fear  and 
trembling  outside  the  dockyard  gates  when  the  men  were  coming  out, 
by  the  blessing  of  the  Eternal  Spirit,  led  that  man  to  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Doxology  was  then  sung,  and  tke  Benediction  pronDunoed  b^' 
Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.D.  (President). 


SECOND     SESSION. 

The  Conference  reassembled  at  2.30  p.m.,  under  the  presidency 
of  Bisihop  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South).  The  devotional  service  was  conducted  by  the  Rev.  C.  W. 
Baldwin,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

The  Rev.  John  F.  Gouchbr,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
then  gave  the  following  essay  on  "The  Present  Position  of 
Methodism  in  the  Western  Section":  — 

Methodism  is  a  spiritual  force  working  through  agencies  and  organi- 
sations for  a  spiritual  purpose.  The  force  and  purpose  are  constants. 
Its  agencies  and  organisations  are  variables. 


ESSAY    OF    REV.    JOHN     F.    GOUCIIER.  69 

At  its  inception  Methodism  did  not  propose  to  affect  any  man's  eccle- 
siastical relations.  Its  one  purpose  was  to  have  established  in  human 
experience  the  consciousness  of  personal  acceptance  with  God.  It  jiro- 
tested  against  subordinating  experience  or  its  expression  to  tradition, 
creed,  or  ritual,  and  insisted  that  "  everyone  must  give  an  account  of 
himself  to  God."  Theoretical  acceptance  of  trutli  and  perfunctory 
service  could  not  satisfy  its  demands.  Its  persistent  inquiry  was, 
"  Have  ye  received  the  Holy  Ghost  since  ye  believed  1 "  It  claimed 
the  logical  results  of  the  doctrines  revealed  by  Christ  and  preached  by 
Paul,  re-stated  in  modern  phrase  the  old  theology,  and  proclaimed 
man  to  be  the  beneficiary  and  objective  of  God's  government.  With 
this  vital  relation  to  God  realised  in  the  human  consciousness  there  I'ad 
to  be  freedom  for  growth  and  variety  of  experience,  the  narration  of 
Avhich  became  the  dominant  subject  of  conversation  with  those  whom 
it  brought  into  fellowship.  Like  the  early  disciples,  they  could  but 
sjieak  the  things  which  they  had  seen  and  heard.  Thus  awakened  and 
thus  related,  a  doctrine  of  Christian  perfection  was  consequential,  and 
striving  for  it  was  a  necessity. 

The  authority  of  American  Methodism  to  teach,  admonish,  and  con- 
sole is  not  derived  from  a  creed  or  polity  formulated  in  some  ecclesias- 
tical Jerusalem  or  sacerdotal  Rome.  An  itinerant  Pentecost  has  burned 
in  our  valleys  and  on  our  mountain  sides,  along  our  frontiers,  and  in 
our  cities,  bringing  conversion  and  the  commission  to  witness  simul- 
taneously to  all  who  accepted  salvation.  The  musty  records  of  Coun- 
cils, embodying  a  theoretical  orthodoxy,  have  never  been  a  procrusrean 
conservator  of  its  spiritual  life  ;  but  its  spiritual  life  has  conserved  its 
orthodoxy,  and  that,  too,  notwithstanding  the  untempered  zeal  and 
untutored  condition  of  many  of  its  evangelists.  "  From  the  effective 
appeal  to  sanctified  heroism  by  lofty  example  came  the  development 
and  perpetuation  of  holy  daring  and  conquering  energy."  Its  chang- 
ing environment  and  its  passion  for  the  largest  usefulness  account  for 
its  varying  forms. 

American  Methodism  was  well  born  ;  its  youth  was  courageously 
spent  in  the  midst  of  persistent  antagonism,  where  it  justified  its  com- 
mission by  consistency  and  helpfulness  ;  and  it  is  a  pleasure  10  report 
in  this  family  gathering  around  the  maternal  hearthstone  that  its 
present  position  honours  its  parentage  and  early  training.  The  free, 
assertive,  aspiring  American  is  hospitable  to  the  doctrines  of  free  wIU, 
free  grace,  full  salvation,  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  and  personal  fellow- 
ship with  Jesus  Christ,  which  it  preaches. 

The  statistics  will  be  elaborated  by  others,  but  note  a  few  facts  cr n- 
cerning  its  actual  and  relative  growth.  Two-thirds  of  all  the  Metho- 
dists in  the  world  are  enrolled  in  the  United  States.  The  Methodist 
Church  of  Canada  has  the  largest  enrolment  of  any  Protestant  Church 
in  the  Dominion,  numbering  two  hundred  and  eighty-five  ihousind. 
with  Church  jnojjerty  valued  at  16,000,000  dollars,  and  an  estimated 
population  of  1,000,000.  In  the  I'ruvince  nf  Ontario  the  Methodists 
are  about  one-third  of  the  total  jjopulation. 

In  the  United  States  during  the  nineteenth  century  tlio  jiojiulation 


7©  CECUMENICAL    METHODISM. 

increased  14.4  times  (it  was  5,305,925  in  1800  and  76,295,220  in  1900). 
The  Methodist  communicants  increased  91.17  times,  or  six  and  one- 
third  times  faster  than  the  population.  They  numbered  in  1800j  64,894, 
and  in  1900,  5,916,348,  or  610,423  more  than  the  entire  population  of  1800. 
They  were  to  the  population  of  1800  as  one  to  eighty-two,  and  in  1900 
as  one  to  thirteen.  Estimating  two  and  one-half  adherents  for  each 
communicant,  the  Methodists  numbered  20,707,218,  or  more  than  27 
per  cent,  of  the  entire  population.  The  Roman  Catholics  numbered 
8,766,083,  or  less  than  11^  per  cent. 

Methodism  is  in  no  sense  a  proselytising  movement,  and  has  given 
many  times  more  converts  to  the  various  Protestant  Churches  than  it 
has  received  from  them,  yet  its  enrolment  includes  more  than  32  per 
cent.,  or  nearly  one-third  of  all  the  evangelical  communicants,  and 
from  1800  to  1900  its  communicants  increased  two  and  two-tenth  times 
faster  than  all  the  other  Evangelical  Churches.  About  one-third  of 
all  the  people  in  the  United  States  look  to  Methodtsm  for  their  reli- 
gious instruction  and  Christian  ministries.  In  divine  relations  the 
necessary  is  co-terminous  with  the  possible,  and  numbers  do  not  gauge 
efficiency.  They  are  only  an  element  of  power,  and  indicate  respon- 
sibility. 

Methodism  is  rich  in  ministries,  both  personal  and  organised.  Ser- 
vice is  its  life  ;  for  this  it  was  born,  by  this  it  is  justified.  It  was  the 
first  Church  in  America  to  commence  the  systematic  publication  of 
religious  literature,  and  one  branch  has  published  more  than  all  other 
Churches  combined.  Its  establishment  and  maintenance  of  Schools 
and  Colleges,  Orphanages,  Homes  for  the  Aged,  Hospitals,  Training 
Schools  and  Homes  for  Deaconesses,  Missions  foreign  and  domestic. 
Boards,  Societies  and  Auxiliaries  for  systematising  its  benevolences, 
Publishing  Houses  and  Periodicals,  Churches  and  Parsonages,  the 
supervision  of  its  preachers,  the  care  of  its  young,  and  the  organised 
co-operation  of  its  laity  have  kept  pace  with  its  numerical  increase, 
and  give  it  a  material  equipment  and  a  completeness  of  organised 
agencies  unexcelled  for  varied  and  efficient  Church  work.  The  per- 
sonal initiative  and  genius  for  invention  of  the  average  American 
suggest  a  tendency  to  over-production  of  machinery  and  a  need  to  guard 
against  sub-divisions  and  the  substitution  of  mechanical  activities  in 
an  institutional  Church  for  the  initiative  energy  of  an  inspirational 
Church.  The  strategic  point  of  society  is  at  the  centre,  not  on  the 
periphery  ;  with  the  individual,  not  with  classes.  Christian  character 
•and  not  organisations  is  the  largest  contribution  any  Church  can  make 
to  the  Kingdom. 

Methodism  in  the  United  States  has  been  asked  to  lay  upon  its 
altars  as  a  twentieth  century  thank-oJBEering  sums  aggregating  25,000,000 
dollars.  More  than  15,000,000  dollars  have  been  pledged,  and  the  pro- 
babilities are  the  offering  will  be  nearer  30,000,000  than  25,000,000 
dollars.  It  is  contributing  about  45,000,000  dollars,  or  £9,000,000, 
each  year  for  the  prosecution  of  its  various  forms  of  Church  work. 
This  is  a  large  sum  in  the  aggregate,  but  is  hardly  six  per  cent,  of  the 
estimated  income  of  its  members,  which  is  800,000,000  dollars  annually. 


ESSAY   OF   REV.    JOHN     F.    GOUCHER.  71 

The  most  serious  problem  in  America  is  not  the  problem  of  production, 
but  how  to  assure  the  generous,  systematic,  helpful  use  of  .vjalth. 
Methodism  is  surrounded  by  temptations  to  luxury,  and  confronted  by 
obligations  to  self-denial  and  sacrifice.  Many  are  the  heroic  illus^^a- 
tions  of  the  latter  ;  seductive  are  the  persuasions  to  the  former.  Its 
continued  efficiency  depends  upon  sound  doctrine  and  the  spirit  of 
Christian  ministry. 

Its  pulpit  is  not  occupied  with  negations,  dissent,  or  novelties.  It  is 
loyal  to,  and,  in  the  main,  preaches  with  apostolic  simplicity,  the  doc- 
trine once  delivered  to  the  saints.  The  siren  songs  of  pleasure,  the 
allurements  of  worldliness,  and  the  pride  of  position  have  taken  the 
place  of  open  antagonism,  controversy,  and  ostracism.  The  days  of 
polemics  and  apologetics  seem  to  have  passed.  The  class  meeting, 
with  its  educative  and  constructive  converse,  is  becoming  cccasional 
where  it  was  universal.  Doctrinal  discourses  are  less  frequent,  and  the 
lines  are  less  sharply  defined  ;  there  is  less  persecution  and  more  fellow- 
ship, less  theology  and  more  religion  ;  liberty  of  conscience  is  t  on- 
ceded,  and  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  is  more  general  ;  but  it  is  a 
serious  question  whether  the  membership^  recruited  largely  from  the 
Sunday  School,  possesses  as  discriminative  and  sturdy  a  faith  as  for- 
merly. It  has  not  been  fully  demonstrated  whether  the  Young  People';? 
organisation  Avill  prove  to  be  a  conserver  of  doctrine  and  discipline,  or 
a  spiritual  dissipation.  The  commendable  desire  to  make  Suniay 
School  and  Cluirch  services  interesting  to  the  young  shows  a  tendency 
to  yield  their  direction  to  the  inexperienced,  and,  in  exceptional  places, 
to  so  modify  music,  sermon,  and  service  as  to  mar  their  simplicity, 
directness,  and  power.  The  personal  attitude  of  some  members  and 
preachers  toward  Sunday  observance  and  amusements  which  tend 
to  frivolity  and  sensuousness  awakens  apprehension  for  their  spiri- 
tual life,  but  the  Churches  generally  are  loyal  to  those  things  which 
make  for  righteousness,  and  the  members  bear  the  like- 
ness of  the  King.  Never  has  there  been  more  thorough  nor  more 
comprehensive  work,  nor  a  more  religious  spirit  in  its  schools  and 
colleges.  Its  students  have  never  shown  greater  interest  in,  nor 
devotion  to,  missionary  work.  It  is  the  only  Church  which  has  a 
surplus  of  young  men  offering  for  its  ministry,  and  its  influence 
through  Bible  exposition,  godly  living,  unselfish  ministries,  unceasing 
effort,  is  diffused,  potential,  cumulative. 

The  conditions  of  the  problem  confronting  Christianity  change  con- 
tinually. At  the  present  time  the  frontiers  of  our  civilisation  are  in 
the  great  cities.  With  the  masses  character  is  largely  a  product  of 
environment,  and  crim'e  a  question  of  opportunity.  The  congested 
tenement  house  is  less  accessible  than  scattered  cabins.  The  pecula- 
tions of  commerce  are  more  destructive  of  the  moral  sense  than  seclu- 
sion. Aggregation  breeds  vice  of  more  subtle  and  more  blatant  forms 
than  isolation.  But  sin,  entrenched  or  deployed,  secret  or  manifest, 
is  enmity  against  God,  from  whicli  the  only  salvation  is  the  all- 
conquering  Love  of  Jesus,  working  through  human  ministries.  John 
Wesley  won  his  victories,  spiritual'  and  social,  amid  worse  conditions 


72  CECUMENICAL    METHODISM. 

than  obtain  in  our  most  homeless  cities.  The  only  power  which  can 
complete  social  regeneration  is  the  Holy  Spirit.  Under  His  guidance 
American  Methodism  is  prosecuting  its  high  calling,  focussing  the 
love  of  the  devout,  the  experience  of  the  spiritual,  the  counsel  of  the 
mature,  the  money  of  the  wealthy,  the  enthusiasm  of  the  young,  the 
heart  power  and  special  gift  of  each,  whatever  it  may  be,  to  safeguard 
the  humblest  in  the  exercise  of  conscience,  intellectual  freedom,  and 
the  development  of  Christian  manhood. 

Canadian  Methodism  has  enriched  the  entire  Church  by  its  impres- 
sive example,  illustrating  how  desirable  it  is  for  brethren  to  live  and 
labour  in  unity.  There  is  some  stirring — ^would  it  were  a  ground  swell 
— of  the  same  spirit  in  the  United  States.  There  are  two  movements 
in  particular  which  many  among  the  wisest  and  most  devout  would 
hail  with  unspeakable  joy.  A  federation  between  the  two  great 
branches  of  Episcopal  Methodism,  substituting  co-operation  for  com- 
petition, would  concentrate  and  economise  energy  and  resource,  in- 
crease efficiency,  hasten  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom,  and  be  to  the 
glory  of  the  God  of  Peace.  The  organic  union  of  the  various  coloured 
Methodists  would  constitute  a  great  Church  of  more  than  1,700,000 
members,  multiply  their  opportunities  and  responsibilities,  which 
make  for  manliness,  command  a  large  increase  of  influence  and  respect, 
and  be  to  the  glory  of  the  God  of  Wisdom.  Methodism  is  spiritual, 
idealistic,  constructive.  Consistency  and  efficiency  require  it  to  bring 
its  variables  into  such  hearty  co-operation  that  they  shall  work  as 
one  for  the  enthronement  of  Christ. 

Mr.  Lecky,  in  his  "  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  says 
''  Methodism  incalculably  increased  the  efficiency  of  every  religious 
body.  It  has  been  more  or  less  felt  in  every  Protestant  community 
speaking  the  English  language."  Dean  Stanley  said,  "The  Methodist 
movement  in  both  branches,  Arminian  and  Calvinistic,  has  moulded 
the  spiritual  character  of  the  English-speaking  Protestantism  of  the 
world."  Mr.  Green  says,  in  his  discriminative  "  History  of  the 
English  People,"  "The  Methodists  themselves  were  the  least  result 
of  the  Methodist  revival.  A  new  ijhilanlhroijy  reformed  our  prisons, 
infused  clemency  and  wisdom  into  our  penal  laws,  abolished  the  slave 
trade,  and  gave  the  first  impulse  to  popular  education." 

So  in  America  the  actinic  rays  of  Methodist  influence  have  worked 
with  subtle  power  beyond  the  general  spectrum  of  the  Methodist 
Church.  The  deep  religious  truths  and  experience  voiced  in  its 
hymns  have  been  sung  into  the  creeds  and  conduct  of  our  Christendom, 
till  in  words  of  ancient  form,  but  used  with  a  modified  meaning,  old 
churches  are  proclaiming  the  Gospel  of  Love  and  Life.  The  doctrines 
it.  protested  against,  such  as  limited  atonement,  and  absolute  or  un- 
avoidable reprobation,  are  no  longer  emphasised,  and  rarely  preached. 
The  truths  it  has  always  kept  to  the  fore,  and  which  were  almost 
universally  attacked,  are  emphasised  in  every  Evangelical  pulpit.  The 
Methodist  conception  of  sanetific:ation,  illustrated  by  a  "Happy  Holi- 
ness and  a  Holy  Happiness,"  has  given  other  Cluuches  their  ideas  of 
saintliness,    and    some    of   them   rival   it    in   their   possession    of   the 


ADDRESS    OF    REV.    J.    D.    HAMMOND. 


73 


experience  and  (heir  in.si.slonce  u{..,n  (!,.•  .luclrine.  Its  l.iy  service 
utilising  woman,  "the  mourner  .-uul  comforter  of  the  race,"  as  well 
as  man,  lias  been  contagious,  and  in  Uliristian  Associations,  Endeavour 
Societies,  Guilds,  and  other  forms  of  lay  Evangelical  work,  is  estab- 
hshed  in  all  the  Churches.  Methodism  has  made  its  way  by  the 
inherent  vitality  of  its  doctrines  and  the  transformed  lives  of  its 
followers  till  "the  despised  is  respected  and  welcomed  by  every 
communion,  sweetening,  modifying,  and  vitalising,  and  mobilisin<^ 
wherever  it  goes."  If  some  of  its  Sister  Churches  were  to  return  the 
ministers  and  converts  who  have  overflowed  into  their  communions  it 
would  seriously  deplete  their  ranks  and  limit  their  activities. 

Standing  for  liberty  without  licence,  purity  without  prudishness, 
conscience  without  persecution,  Methodism  has  been  a  devoted  and 
staunch  friend  of  temperance  and  all  other  social  reforms  from  the 
beginning.  Whether  considered  in  relation  to  the  leaders  it  has 
prepared,  the  doctrines  it  has  promulgated,  or  the  vigorous  adminis- 
tration it  has  maintained,  its  influence  for  morality  and  manhood  has 
been  beyond  computation. 

While  Methodism  is  in  no  sense  a  political  organisation,  its 
numerical  strength  and  the  vital  character  of  its  teachings,  quickening 
the  perceptions  and  conscience  of  its  members,  purifying  morals, 
diffusing  education,  determining  ideals,  and  developing  character,  have 
made  it  the  most  constructive  force  in  our  great  Republic.  The  Chief 
Executive,  President  McKinley,  is  a  communicant  in  the  Methodist 
Church  ;  so  are  many  United  States  Senators  and  Eeprcsentatives,  the 
Governors  of  a  number  of  States,  and  in  some  States  a  majority  of  both 
Houses  of  Assembly.  America  and  Methodism  are  two  developing 
world  powers  so  inter-related  that  to  discuss  either  philosophically 
requires  a  discussion  of  the  other. 

The  present  position  of  Methodism  in  the  Western  Section,  in 
reference  to  life  is  spiritual  and  aggressive,  in  reference  to  doctrine 
loyal  and  witnessing,  in  reference  to  work  organised  and  equipped, 
in  reference  to  science  and  iihilosophy  progressive  and  conservative,  in 
reference  to  society  inspirational  and  constructive.  A  century  and  a 
third  of  Divinely-directed  development  and  discipline  have  made  it 
rich  in  acquirements,  central  to  need,  and  skilful  in  ministry.  It  is 
in  the  van  of  spiritual  progress  and  at  the  heart  of  human  service. 
Its  hope  is  as  "  an  anchor  of  the  soul  both  sure  and  steadfast,  and 
which  entereth  into  that  within  the  veil."  Not  as  tho"gh  it  had 
already  attained,  either  were  alreadj-  perfect,  but  reaching  forth  nito 
those  things  which  are  before,  it  presses  toward  the  mark  for  the  prize 
of  its  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus. 

The  Rev.  J.  D.  Hammond,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
So'uth),  delivered  the  first  address  upon  the  subject  under  discus- 
sion, as  follows  : 

A  full  century  of  strenuous  effort  and  Providential  guidance  has 
brought  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  to  its  present  position 
in  the  great  Western  Section  of  Methodism.  We  stand  to-day  the 
second  largest  body  of  Methodists  in  the  world,  numbering  1,470,520 


74  (ECUMENICAL   METHODISM. 

communicants,  besides  5,521  effective  pastors.  We  have  13,903  Sunday 
Schonls,  with  101,390  teachers  and  853,751  scholars.  Wc  have  also 
14,572  churches  and  4,062  parsonages,  with  a  total  value  of 
28,246,418  dollars.  The  work  is  distributed  over  twenty-three  States 
of  the  Union,  and  divided  into  forty -three  Conferences,  including  296 
Presiding  Elders'  Districts.  We  have,  in  addition,  foreign  missions  in 
China,  Korea,  Japan,  Brazil,  Mexico,  and  Cuba,  in  which  we  exnploy 
192  regular  missionaries,  and  in  which  there  are  100  pastoral  charges 
and  7,685  members.  Since  the  (Ecumenical  Conference  in  Washington 
ten  years  ago  we  are  able  to  show  an  increase  of  267,415  members, 
1,068  travelling  preachers,  1,270  Sunday  Schools,  10,633  Sunday  School 
teachers,  140,121  Sunday  School  scholars,  2,355  churches,  1,224  par- 
sonages, and  of  74,012  dollars  in  our  total  missionary  collections. 

We  have  in  the  United  States  8,000,000  negroes,  nearly  all  living  in 
the  territory  occupied  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Soiith. 
Methodism  began  its  work  among  these  people  in  1808.  In  that  year 
the  South  Carolina  Conference  sent  one  of  its  preachers,  J.  H.  Millard, 
as  a  missionary  to  the  slaves  on  the  Savannah  River  ;  and  another, 
James  E.  Glenn,  on  the  Santee.  When  Stephen  Olin,  a  highly  eau- 
cated  but  sceptical  young  man,  came  South  to  recruit  his  broken  health, 
it  was  Glenn  who  received  him  into  his  home,  secured  him  a  position 
as  teacher  at  Cokesbury,  and  was  instrumental  in  his  conversion  and 
in  shaping  his  future  career. 

The  first  fraternal  delegate  from  American  Methodism  to  the  British 
Wesleyans  was  Dr.  William  Capers,  of  South  Carolina.  In  the 
autumn,  after  his  return  from  England,  he  was  waited  on  by  a  wealthy 
planter  desiring  to  secure  a  Methodist  exhorter  as  an  overseer.  In 
response  to  this  request.  Dr.  Capers  induced  the  South  Carolina  Con- 
ference to  send  one  of  its  ministers  as  missionary  to  this  gentleman's 
plantation.  Thus,  in  1829,  American  Methodism  began  its  organi'^ed 
missionary  work  among  the  slaves.  Ten  years  later  the  ground  occu- 
pied by  the  Missionary  Society  in  this  department  embraced  234  plan- 
tations, where  there  were  ninety-seven  appointments  served  by  seven- 
teen missionaries,  with  three  superintendents.  These  missions  v-ere 
on  the  rice  and  sugar  plantations,  where  few  white  i)eople  lived.  The 
slaves  in  other  sections  were  served  by  the  regular  pastors  and  were 
admitted  to  membership  in  the  white  Churches. 

At  one  time  the  total  negro  membership  of  the  Methodist  Church 
in  the  South  was  207,766.  After  the  division  of  Methodism  in  1844 
this  work  was  carried  on  without  interruption  by  the  Southern  section 
of  the  Church.  At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  in  1865,  78,742  of  thfcse 
people  were  members  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  At 
that  time,  by  their  own  request,  they  were  set  apart  into  a  separate 
organisation,  with  the  title,  "The  Coloured  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  America."  Owing  to  natural  prejudices,  growing  out  of  the  war, 
the  relations  between  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  the 
negro  population  became  strained,  and  the  work  previously  done  for 
them  by  that  Church  could  not  be  continued.  Others  came  in  and 
sought  to  occupy  the  place  thus  made  vacant.     But  recently  we  seem 


ADDRESS    OF    REV.    J.    D.    HAMMOND.  75 

to  be  entering  upon  a  new  era  of  opportunity  and  endeavour  in  tliis 
ii.nsfc  inviting  missionary  Held.  Tlio  restoration  of  conadonco  between 
llie  two  races  in  the  South  is  chioHy  due  lo  a  Virginia  negro,  Booker  T. 
Washington,  wliose  book,  "Up  from  Slavery,  "  is  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable productions  of  recent  times.  By  his  broad,  practical  states- 
manship, his  tireless  energy,  and  his  Christian  character,  Mr.  Washing- 
ton, in  his  place  at  Tuskegee,  is  doing  more,  perhaps,  than  any  living 
man  to  solve  the  race  problem  in  the  South.  With  this  returning 
mutual  confidence  there  are  indications  that  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  will  again  be  enabled  to  do  the  work  which  was  so  well 
begun  by  the  South  Carolina  Conference  in  1808. 

Socially,  while  ministering  to  the  lowly,  we  have  not  been  denied 
admission  to  the  cultured  and  influential.  No  Church  in  the  South 
can  be  said  to  have  a  monopoly  of  the  higher  classes.  In  this  respect 
we  are  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  best.  We  have,  in  fact,  done 
mueh  towards  the  formation  of  the  upper  social  element  by  teaching 
to  one  generation  of  the  poor  those  underlying  principles  which  in  the 
next  generation  have  given  them  wealth  and  influence.  Many  of 
these  have  remained  faithful  to  us,  while  a  few  have  sought  more 
congenial  surroundings  elsewhere. 

Doctrinally,  we  adhere  to  the  cardinal  principles  of  the  fathers. 
To  us  all  truth  is  sacred,  because  all  truth  is  of  God.  We  believe  with 
the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles  that  "  All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration 
of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for 
instruction  in  righteousness ;  that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect, 
thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good  works  "  (2  Tim.  iii.  16,  17).  While 
wo  reverently  cling  to  the  Bible  as  the  one  sacred  Book,  at  tlie  same 
time  we  recognise  as  part  of  the  "  all  Scripture  "  which  is  profitable  to 
"the  man  of  God"  the  Divine  handwriting  in  the  heavens  which 
"declare  His  glory,"  in  the  firmament  which  "showeth  His  handi- 
work," in  the  strata  of  the  earth  and  in  the  historical  records  of  the 
dead  past.  We  see  in  literature  the  inner  life  of  the  past  and  present 
generations  of  men.  Every  honest  truth-seeker  whose  researches  have 
blessed  the  world  has,  or  will  have,  a  place  in  our  calendar.  For 
that  form  of  higher  criticism  which  reduces  the  Bible  to  the  level 
of  folk-lore,  and  treats  it  with  the  irreverence  with  which  it  treats 
Homeric  and  other  myths,  we  have  no  use  ;  but  with  that  which 
reverently  subjects  it  to  those  scientific  laws  by  which  all  literature 
must  be  judged,  and  seeks,  for  religjious  ends,  to  put  it  on  a 
reasonable  evidential  basis,  we  are  in  hearty  sympathy,  and  are 
without  fear  as  to  its  results. 

"  That  the  man  of  God  may  be  thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good 
works,"  we  seek  first  to  produce  him,  in  conversion,  and  then  to 
educate  him.  Early  in  the  last  decade  we  organised  a  General  Board 
of  Education,  to  which  is  committed  the  management  of  our  educa- 
tional work.  We  have  also  a  Commission  whose  duty  it  is  to  prescribe 
the  work  necessary  for  admission  to,  and  graduation  from,  Colleges. 
We  have  one  well-equipped  University,  seventeen  Colleges,  and  110 
Secondary  Schools.     We  have  also  in  our  foreign  fields  one  College 


76  (ECUMENICAL    METHODISM. 

and  about  100  other  schools.  Within  the  last  three  years  the 
attendance  upon  our  institutions  has  mure  than  doubled,  and  there 
has  been  a  marked  increase  in  their  property. 

During  the  decade  there  have  been  two  notable  collections,  which, 
though  not  commensurate  with  our  wealth,  at  the  same  time  show  an 
improvement  in  liberality  aiul  in  unity  of  action.  In  1895  our  General 
Board  of  Missions  was  embarrassed  with  a  debt  of  150,000dols.,  which 
had  been  long  accumulating,  and  which  there  seemed  to  V)e  no  pro- 
bability of  paying  through  the  channel  of  the  regular  collections. 
Dr.  Morrison,  then  Missionary  Secretary,  now  a  Bishop  of  the  Church, 
made  an  appeal  to  the  Church,  and  by  April  1,  1897,  such  was  the 
unanimity  of  the  response,  the  Board  was  enabled  to  declare  the  debt 
paid.  In  1898  the  General  Conference  appealed  to  the  Church  for  a 
Century  Thankotfering  of  l,500,000dols.  for  education.  The  manage- 
ment of  the  collection  was  committed  to  the  General  Board  of  Educa- 
tion. Up  to  the  present  time  l,600,000dols.  has  been  pledged,  mostly 
in  small  sums,  and  the  work  is  still  going  on.  These  and  other 
things  indicate  a  growing  Connexionalism,  from  which  there  must 
come  to  us  a  great  increase  of  power  for  our  work  in  the  new  century. 

Our  relations  with  other  branches  of  Western  Methodism  are  in- 
creasingly cordial.  As  a  result  of  the  Civil  War,  there  was  a  time 
when  the  two  leading  Methodisms  of  the  United  States  were  alienated 
from  each  other  ;  but  as  old  issues  pass  away,  and  new  and  living 
issues  press  upon  us,  we  are  coming  once  more  to  "see  eye  to  eye." 
The  day  will  yet  come  when  we  shall  bring  to  bear  on  the  social 
problems  of  our  country  the  moral  and  religious  force,  if  not  as  it 
was  in  the  beginning,  of  one  great  and  united  Methodism,  at  least  of 
a  Methodism  which  is  so  much  one  in  spirit  and  co-operation  as  to 
show  to  our  opposers  the  baselessness  of  their  reproach  that  we  are 
"  a  house  divided  against  itself." 

Our  faces  are  to  the  future.  The  problem  before  us  is  that  of 
intensive  culture.  We  have  grown  great  in  numbers,  and  have  at- 
tained to  a  social  position  second  to  none.  But  we  have  now  reached 
the  point  at  which  it  becomes  necessary  for  us  to  make  our  people 
Methodists  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name.  Our  class  meetings.  Sabbath 
Schools,  Epworth  Leagues,  Academies  and  Colleges  must  now  be 
made  more  effective.  They  are  the  machinery  by  which,  when  the 
crude  ore  has  been  taken  from  the  mine,  we  carry  it  through  the 
various  processes,  until  it  is  changed  into  the  coin  of  the  Kingdom, 
bearing  the  image  and  superscription  of  Christ. 

In  our  pioneer  period  the  evangelistic  agencies  were  necessarily  pro- 
minent. We  have  stressed  these  until  we  have  gained  the  reputation 
of  being  a  Revival  Church,  and  have  reckoned  our  converts  almost 
by  the  million.  But,  w^hile  we  have  been  so  absorbed  in  this,  we  have 
not  given  equal  attention  to  the  work  of  training  and  development. 
We  have  done  much  in  this  direction,  but  not  enough.  We,  too,  are, 
in  part,  trustees  of  the  great  Methodist  inheritance,  and  charged  with 
the  duty  of  handing  it  on  intact  to  posterity.  It  is  our  duty  to  not 
only  convey  the  inheritance  to  the  heir,  but  also  to  fit  the  heir  for 


ADDRESS    OF    MR.    N.    W.    ROWELL.  77 

the  inheritance.  Fcir  what  will  it  avail  to  transmit  fine  pictures  and 
music  to  the  blind  and  deaf,  or  high  thoughts  to  dull  souls?  When 
a  father  bequeaths  a  great  art  treasure  to  his  infant  son,  the  act  carries 
with  it  the  obligation  on  the  part  of  the  trustees  and  guardians  to  so 
train  the  powers  of  the  child's  nature  that  he  will  bo  able  in  due  time 
to  appreciate  the  priceless  treasure  left  him.  So  we^  as  a  Church,  are 
now  endeavouring,  not  only  to  hand  on  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
fathers,  but  also  to  give  that  training — physical,  intellectual,  and 
moral — that  Avill  enable  those  who  shall  come  after  us  to  appreciate 
their  inheritance,  and  use  it  to  the  glory  of  God. 

Mr.  N.  W.  RowBLL  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada.)  gave  the  second 
appointed  address.     He  said  : 

I  understand  that  I  am  at  liberty  to  limit  my  remarks  to  the  present 
position  of  Canadian  Methodism,  for,  with  the  exception  of  vork 
carried  on  among  our  coloured  brethren  by  various  branches  of  the 
Coloured  Methodist  Churches  in  the  United  States,  Methodism  in 
Canada  is  one.  Born,  under  God,  of  the  faith,  the  heroism,  and  tlie 
self-sacrifice  of  both  English  and  American  Methodism,  and  embracing 
within  her  communion  the  former  Wesleyan  Methodist,  Bible  Chris- 
tian, Primitive  Methodist,  New  Connexion,  and  Episcopal  Methodist 
Churches,  she  has  an  ancestry  of  which  she  may  be  justly  pruud  ;  and 
all  that  is  good  and  great  in  the  past  of  all  those  Mother  Churches  r.he 
claims  as  her  heritage.  This  afternoon,  in  the  Mother  church  of 
Methodism,  and  speaking  to  all  the  Mother  Churches  of  Metho.lism 
from  which  the  Canadian  Methodist  Church  has  sprung,  I  think  we 
Canadians  may  truly  say  we  feel  "as  children  in  our  mother's  house, 
though  mistress  in  our  own." 

The  Canadian  Methodist  Church  is  one.  We  have  in  Canada  in  that 
Church  a  membership  as  stated  by  the  Eev.  Dr.  Goucher.  We  ct-m- 
menced  the  last  century  with  less  than  twenty  Methodist  ministers, 
and  we  closed  the  century  with  more  than  one  hundred  ministers  for 
every  one  that  we  commenced  with.  We  commenced  the  century  with 
a  little  over  2,800  members.  We  closed  the  century  with  more  than 
one  hundred  members  for  every  one  we  commenced  it  with.  Since  the 
union  of  the  various  bodies  of  Methodism  in  1884  the  membership  of 
the  Church  has  increased  about  68  per  cent.,  and  all  the  departments 
of  Church  work  have  shown  a  corresponding  advance. 

It  was  stated  by  our  friend,  the  representative  of  Irish  Methodism, 
this  morning,  that  Irish  Methodism  was  the  first  to  lead  the  way  along 
the  line  of  Methodist  Union.  Well,  Canada  is  a  young  and  lusty 
country,  and  with  the  ambition  of  youth  she  desires  to  claim  pre- 
eminence. Whether  it  be  in  the  realms  of  peace,  or  on  the  field  of 
war,  whether  it  be  in  the  Union  of  the  Methodist  Churches  or  in  the 
front  of  the  battle  line  at  Paardeberg,  Canada  claims  to  be  in  the  fiist 
place.  For  the  branches  of  the  P]ngli.^h  and  the  American  Methodist 
Churches  in  Canada  united  in  1883,  tlie  Wesleyan  ISfothodist  Oiiu'ch 
and  the  New  Connexion  Church  in  Canada  united  in  1872,  ?nd  llie 
remaining  bodies  came  together  in  the  year  1884.     By  the  union  vt  the 


78  CECUMENICAL    METHODISM. 

various  colonies  and  provinces  which  now  comprise  the  Dominion  of 
Canada,  Canada  led  the  way  in  the  consolidation  and  confederation  of 
British-speaking  colonies  within  the  Empire.  Australasia  has  now  fol- 
lowed her  example,  and  we  hope  in  the  near  future  that  South  Africa 
will  join  in  a  like  confederation.  Canada  led  the  way  in  the  union  of 
the  Methodist  Churches,  and  was  followed  by  Australasia.  We  are  now 
hopeful  that  the  Mother  Churches,  both  in  England  and  America,  rray 
follow  the  example  of  these  Colonies.  We  feel  we  owe  such  a  debt  of 
gratitude  to  you  that  it  is  but  fitting  we  should  lend  you  some  help 
and  assistance. 

While  I  claim  this  pre-eminence  for  Canada  over  Ireland,  it  is  only 
fair  for  me  to  say  that  perhaps  we  are  largely  indebted  to  Ireland  for 
the  pre-eminence  which  we  have  so  attained,  for,  while  Susannah 
Wesley  might  be  called  the  mother  of  Universal  Methodism,  Barbara 
Heck  is  truly  the  mother  of  Canadian  Methodism,  as  also  of  American 
Methodism,  and  we  have  this  honour,  that  her  sepulchre  is  with  us 
to  this  day.  I  need  but  mention  the  distinguished  representatives  of 
Canadian  Methodism  at  this  Conference  that  Ireland  has  given  us  in 
Dr.  Briggs  and  Dr.  Potts  to  show  how  greatly  Ireland  has  contributed 
to  the  success  of  Canadian  Methodism. 

Then  I  think  our  home-field  is  the  largest  field  occupied  by  any 
branch  of  the  Methodist  Church.  Our  home-field  comprises  the 
Dominion  of  Canada  and  the  Islands  of  Newfoundland  and  Bermuda. 
Now,  large  as  is  the  Continent  of  Europe,  the  Dominion  of  Canada  is 
a  little  larger.  Large  as  is  the  United  States  of  America,  apart  fiom 
Alaska,  the  Dominion  of  Canada  is  a  little  larger.  It  consists  of  a 
series  of  provinces  extending  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  you 
can  board  the  train  at  Cape  Breton  and  travel  for  4,000  miles  we.stward 
with  only  one  change  of  cars,  and  all  the  time  within  Canada,  under 
the  British  flag  and  settlement  along  the  whole  line  of  railway.  So 
you  see  our  field  of  operations  is  very  large. 

The  extent  and  richness  of  our  resources  the  most  sanguine  Canadian 
has  hardly  yet  realised  or  conceived.  A  distinguished  American  has 
said  that  two-thirds  of  the  total  wheat-growing  area  of  the  North 
American  Continent  lies  within  the  bounds  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada, 
and  that  is  not  the  greatest  of  our  national  assets  when  you  take  into 
consideration  our  other  great  natural  resources.  We  have  a  dimate 
invigorating  and  bracing.     It  is  true  a  man  cannot 

"  Sit  and  sing  himself  away 
To  everlasting  bliss'' 

in  our  climate,  and  hope  to  maintain  a  decent  living,  but  it  is  a  climate 
which  breeds  a  strong  and  vigorous  and  all-conquering  race.  Men  of 
the  North  are  we.  I  would  say,  as  was  suggested  by  Bishop  HartzoU, 
in  reference  to  Africa,  that  the  people  have  hardly  yet  realised  the  great 
future  which  lies  before  this  British  Colony,  for  a  conservative  estimate 
of  the  future  possibilities  would  be  that  before  the  close  of  half  a 
century  we  shall  have  an  English-speaking  population  under  the  British 
flag  at  least  as  large  as  the  total  population  of  the  British  Isles  to-day, 


ADDRESS  OF   MR.   N.    W.    ROWELL.  79 

and  before  the  century  closes  there  will  be  in  that  northern  country 
a  population  as  large  as  the  present  population  in  the  United  States. 
When  I  state  those  simple  facts,  then,  the  tremendous  importance  of 
the  type  of  Christianity  which  shall  be  dominant  in  Canada  in  the  ctn- 
tury  to  come  becomes  self-evident.  For  if  that  be  the  future  of  Canada, 
her  influence  within  the  Empire,  and  through  the  Empire  upon  the 
world,  is  not  diflScult  to  estimate. 

How  is  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada,  then,  measuring  up  to  her 
responsibilities  and  opportunities  ?  She  realises  the  tremendous  power 
and  influence  which  education  gives,  and  so  in  the  great  centres  of 
population,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  she  has  planted  her  insti- 
tutions of  learning — at  St.  John's,  Newfoundland  ;  at  Sackville,  New 
Brunswick  ;  at  Montreal,  Quebec  ;  at  Toronto,  Ontario  ;  at  Winnipeg, 
Manitoba  ;  and  at  New  Westminster,  British  Columbia,  she  has  large 
and  flourishing  institutions  of  learning,  influencing  the  intellectual  and 
spiritual  life  of  these  great  and  growing  provinces.  She  has  estab- 
lished her  Book  Concerns,  realising  the  power  of  literature  to  influence 
the  mind  and  shape  the  character  ;  and  to-day  she  has  the  largest  Pub- 
lishing House  in  the  Dominion. 

Year  by  year  thousands  of  new  settlers  are  coming  into  that  country 
and  taking  up  hitherto  unoccupied  territory.  The  days  of  the  old 
saddle-bag  minister  have  not  passed  away  in  Canada.  The  day  of  the 
pioneer  is  still  with  us,  and  so  into  these  Northern  and  Western  dis- 
tricts year  by  year,  hitherto  unoccupied  by  Engl'sh-speaking  or  civilised 
peoples,  the  Methodist  missionary  goes  with  the  settler,  and  wherever 
the  settler  goes  there  he  goes  with  the  Word  of  Life.  She  is  supplement- 
ing the  work  of  her  pulpit  by  her  class  meetings,  Sunday  Schools,  and 
Epworth  Leagues.  We  have  passed  the  stage  when  we  consider  it 
necessary  for  a  child  born  in  a  Christian  home  to  have  the  same  ex- 
perience of  conversion  as  a  hardened  sinner.  We  believe  it  is  the  privi- 
lege of  the  child  to  grow  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord, 
and  once  in  the  Church  to  "go  no  more  out  for  ever."  As  a  conse- 
quence, more  thought  and  attention  are  being  paid,  not  only  to  the 
teaching  and  training  of  our  scholars  in  the  Sunday  Schools,  but  to  the 
teaching  and  training  of  our  teachers,  that  they  may  rightly  teach. 
The  result  is  greatly  increased  interest  and  efficiency,  and  the  Lord  is 
adding  to  the  Church  daily  such  as  are  being  saved  in  our  Sunday 
Schools. 

On  all  questions  of  moral  reform  the  Methodist  Church  in  Canada  is 
at  the  front.  It  is  the  largest  and  most  aggressive  temperance  organi- 
sation in  Canada.  With  a  ministry  of  over  2,000,  all  total  abstainers, 
and  a  membership  following  in  their  steps,  she  stands  for  total  al^stin- 
ence  for  the  individual  and  total  prohibition  for  the  State,  and  'o  this 
end  she  unceasingly  labours. 

In  theology  she  is  conservative,  but  her  face  is  always  towards  the 
sunlight.  She  welcomes  all  truth,  from  whatsoever  source  it  comes, 
believing  that  all  truth  is  of  God.  In  spirit  she  is  essentially  Evangeli- 
cal. She  reahses  that,  no  matter  how  much  we  may  boast  of  spiritual 
life  or  spiritual  power,  no  matter  how  strict  we  may  be  in  the  oljserv- 


So  CECUMENICAI,   METHODISM. 

ance  of  the  forms  and  ceremonies  handed  down  to  us  Toy  the  fathers, 
unless  we  "  have  the  Spirit  of  Christ  we  are  none  of  His,"  and  above 
the  voice  of  the  preacher,  who  prescribes  certain  rules,  and  says,  "  He 
that  keepeth  these  shall  live,  while  he  that  keepeth  them  not  shall 
die,"  is  heard  the  voice  of  the  prophet  declaring,  "What  doth  the  3  ord 
require  of  thee  ?  But  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk 
humbly  with  thy  God  ? " 

In  Canada  we  have  no  State  Church,  thanks  in  no  small  measure  to 
the  work  of  the  Methodists  of  the  early  days.  All  Denominations  are 
equal  before  the  law.  We  have  no  Methodist  chapels  in  Canada  ;  they 
are  all  churches.  Methodism,  while  the  largest  Protestant  Denomina- 
tion, claims  no  special  rights  or  privileges  because  of  her  strength  ;  and 
towards  all  other  Denominations  her  attitude  is  one  of  cordial  tiater- 
nity  and  co-operation.  May  Canadian  Methodism,  sprung  from  the 
loins  of  both  English  and  American  Methodism,  living  in  the  racst 
neighbourly  relations  with  our  American  brethren,  and  bound  by  ties 
of  national  feeling  and  sentiment  to  the  Motherland,  be  one  of  the 
bonds  which  shall  bind  together  the  two  great  branches  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race — one  in  religion,  one  in  laws,  one  in  language,  one  in  hope, 
and  one  in  Providential  design  and  purpose  for  the  world's  evangelisa- 
tion. If  God  shall  so  ordain,  then  may  both  English  and  American 
Methodism  sing:  — 

"  Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds 
Our  hearts  in  Christian  love." 

The  Rev.  J.  C.   Simmons,   D.D.    (Methodist   Episcopal  Church, 
»  South),  opened  the  discussion.     He  said : 

I  come  from  California,  the  garden  of  the  world,  and  feel  it  is 
fitting,  as  the  only  representative  of  our  Church  from  the  Pacific 
Coast,  that  I  should  say  something.  I  am  just  now,  within  a  month, 
finishing  the  fifty-third  year  of  my  itinerant  ministry,  and  fifty  years 
of  that  labour  have  been  expended  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  When  I  was 
baptised  in  the  old  Methodist  way  by  one  of  the  greatest  men  of  the 
South,  as  he  handed  me  back  to  my  mother,  I  am  told  that  he  said, 
"  My  sister,  the  trees  are  now  growing  that  will  be  framed  into  a 
ship  to  bear  this  child  as  a  missionary."  Prophetic  words  !  For  when 
I  went  to  California  it  was  as  a  missionary.  When  the  Sj)irit  of 
God  was  wrestling  with  my  heart  as  a  call  to  the  missionary  work,  I 
remember  saying  to  my  pastor,  who  laid  the  matter  clearly  before  me, 
"  If  it  is  God's  will  that  I  should  preach  His  Gospel  I  am  willing 
to  go  to  Africa,  or  to  the  ends  of  the  earth."  I  feel  glad  to  say  the 
first  seeds  of  the  Gospel  were  planted  by  me  in  the  heart  of  one  of 
the  Bishops  of  the  African  race,  Bishop  Gaines.  When  he  was  but 
six  years  of  age  he  heard  me  preach,  and  then  was  conviction  sent 
home  to  his  heart,  and  he  is  here  to-day  as  a  specimen  of  my  mis- 
sionary work. 

As  to  the  work  in  California,  the  two  Churches  are  there  working 
side  by  side  in  great  harmony,  and  there  is  room  and  work  enough  for 
us  all.  When  I  went  to  California  tlie  Churches  were  organised  into  a 
Conference.  It  was  uiy  pleasure  to  assist  in  the  organisation  of  the 
Pacific  Annual  Conference,  and  I  am  the  only  surviving  member  of 
those  at  the  organisation.     When  we  went  to  California  we  had  to  go 


GENliRAL    REMARKS.  8l 

into  bar-rooms,  and  .nsk  the  privilege  of  i)reachiiig  there  ;  and  many 
a  time  have  I  stood  beliind  a  counter,  with  whisky  barrels  and  bottles 
all  about  me,  and  told  of  tlie  .Spirit  of  the  Living  God  that  was  able 
to  elevate  men  and  show  them  the  way  to  glory. 

But  we  have  difficulties  to  contend  with  there  that  you  know 
nothing  about,  perhaps.  Our  gold  excitement  brought  to  our  shores 
people  from  every  land.  They  came  with  their  wickedness,  their  Sab- 
bath-dtsecrating  propensities,  their  infidelity,  their  Romanism,  with 
everything  that  was  against  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  and  His  reli- 
gion ;  and  we  lir.ve  been  put  on  that  picket  line  alone,  lighting  the 
battles  of  our  Master.  We  feel  that  it  is  a  blessed  thing  to-day°that 
we  can  appeal  to  you,  as  the  Methodisms  of  the  world,  to  send  your 
prayers  to  the  God  of  all  grace  that  Ave  may  stand  firm  and  be  faithful 
unto  the  end.  We  want  to  Avin  this  bright  spot  for  Christ.  We  want 
our  churhes  that  are  now  rising  everywhere  over  that  land,  to  dot  it 
from  one  end  to  the  other,  and  to  bring  all  that  people  into  the  fold 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Rev.  John  Handley,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Cliurch), 
spoke  as  follows : 

I  represent  one  of  the  smallest  States  in  the  Union  (New  Jersey)  but 
one  of  the  greatest  in  Methodism — the  New  Jersey  Conference  num- 
bering over  54,000  Christian  members,  and  over  300  ministers.  We  are 
trying  within  our  Conference  to  solve  several  problems.  First,  the 
problem  of  temperance.  We  have  three  cities,  Vineland,  Maryville, 
and  Bridgetown,  numbering  10,000,  12,000,  and  13,000  inhabitants 
respectively,  where  children  have  grown  into  manhood  and  womanhood 
who  have  never  seen  a  saloon  or  a  liquor  bar,  or  a  hotel  Avhere  liquor 
has  been  sold.  The  influence  of  Methodism  and  of  consecrated  Chris- 
tian women  in  our^'State  has  made  this  state  of  affairs  possible. 

We  have  within  the  boundary  of  our  Conference  an  Annual  CEcume- 
nical  Conference  of  Methodism  called  Ocean  Grove,  where  there  is  an 
auditorium  that  seats  10,000  people,  and  three  times  on  the  SaT)bath 
and  many  times  throughout  the  week  for  ten  or  fifteen  days  in 
August  that  auditorium  is  packed,  with  people  standing  on  the  out- 
side, to  hear  the  old-fashioned  Gospel  of  Jesus  and  His  love  from 
Methodist  preachers  from  our  country,  from  Canada  and  from  Great 
Britain. 

We  have  also  monuments  to  the  men  who  have  made  Methodism  ; 
on  one  side  of  Ocean  Grove  is  Fletcher  Lake,  and  on  the  other  side 
is  Wesley  Lake,  and  beyond  Wesley  Lake  is  Asbury  Park.  They  are 
the  great  monuments.  The  park  covers  an  enormous  stretch  of  ground, 
and  there  are  thousands  of  lots  let  upon  a  clause  that  the  ground 
shall  be  perpetually  dedicated  to  total  abstinence,  and  that  the  sale  of 
liquor  shall  never  be  permitted  in  Asbury  Park.  The  man  who  has 
held  the  sceptre  for  temperance  and  local  option  for  a  quarter  of  a 
centuiy  is  now  visiting  this  city,  the  Hon.  J.  M.  Bradley,  of  the 
State  of  New  Jersey,  and  I  hope  you  will  make  him  an  honoured 
member  of  this  body. 

We  have  also  within  our  city  an  opportunity  that  enables  us  to 
stand  for  Christian  education,  for  Cliri.stian  culture,  and  for  the 
orthodoxy  represented  by  our  forefathers.  We  have  Hemington's  Semi- 
nary, the  fame  of  whicli  has  spread  from  Africa  into  China  and  Japan, 
where  your  missionaries  have  gone,  and  two-thirds  of  our  converts 
have  gi'adaated  from  those  classical  halls.     There  is  another  seminary 


82  CECUMENICAL   METHODISM. 

at  Hobarts  Town.  Then  we  have  a  theological  seminary  in  the  State 
of  New  Jersey  pre-eminent  in  scholarship,  in  her  professors,  anrf  in 
teaching  all  the  young  men  to  do  away  with  everything  that  antagonises 
the  doctrines  of  experimental  religion,  and  to  recognise  the  fact  that 
Nature,  Science,  God  and  the  Bible  are  in  perfect  harmony  when  in- 
telligently interpreted. 

The  Rer.  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South), 
said: 

In  the  fifteen  States  of  North  America  there  are  not  merely  more 
Methodists  relatively  than  anywhere  else  in  the  United  States,  but 
more  absolutely  than  there  are  in  the  other  thirty-three  States  and 
Territories  of  the  Union.  In  the  State  of  Tennessee,  from  which  I 
come,  brightest  and  best  of  all  the  States  in  the  American  Union, 
there  are  more  Methodists  than  there  are  members  of  the  other 
Churches — ^Romanists  and  Protestants  put  together.  This  state  of 
affairs  has  obtained  almost  from  tlie  beginning  of  the  American 
Methodist  history. 

There  is  a  tradition  floating  around  the  atmosphere  of  the  city  of 
New  York  to  the  effect  that  American  Methodism  began  in  John 
Street,  but  we  all  know  that  it  began  on  Sand  Creek  in  the  State  of 
Maryland,  An  eloquent  Irishman,  who  declined  to  submit  to  the 
domination  of  Mr.  Thomas  Rankin  and  some  other  ministers  who  had 
been  sent  over  for  the  purpose  of  controlling  him,  is  the  true  father 
and  beginner  of  American  Methodism.  There  is  a  very  interesting 
account  of  him  in  Bishop  McTyeire's  "History  of  Methodism." 

Methodism  in  the  Southern  States  is  still  alive  ;  it  shows  no  sign  of 
decay.  We  glory  in  the  days  of  our  fathers,  but  we  are  not  looking 
behind  us,  we  are  looking  ahead  of  us  ;  and  we  sincerely  trust  that 
the  years  to  come  will  be  far  more  glorious  than  the  years  that  have 
already  entered  into  our  history.  We  have  a  solid  block  of  English- 
speaking  people  in  the  Southern  States.  In  the  State  of  Tennessee 
there  are  less  than  one-half  of  one  per  cent,  of  foreign  population. 
We  are  all  Englishmen  there,  white  and  black  ;  there  is  nothing  com- 
posite in  oiu"  blood.  We  hold  fast  to  the  great  traditions  of  the 
English-speaking  race.  We  are  true  Protestants,  we  are  sound 
Methodists,  we  are  on  terms  of  fraternity  with  every  other  Denomina- 
tion in  the  world,  but  there  is  only  one  thing  that  we  hate  worse 
than  persecution,  and  that  is  patronage.  Toleration  implies  superiority 
on  the  one  hand  and  inferiority  on  the  other.  Equality  is  our  word. 
All  our  Churches  stand  upon  the  same  level,  all  have  the  same  rights. 
I  visited  a  few  months  ago  the  old  home  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  at 
Monticello.  Carved  upon  his  tombstone  is  the  epitaph,  written  with 
his  own  hand,  which  narrates  the  fact  that  he  was  the  author  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  the  framer  of  the  Statutes  for  Religious 
Liberty  in  Virginia,  and  the  founder  of  the  University  of  Virginia. 

Mr.    JosBPH  Gibson    (Methodist   Church  of  Canada)  spoke  aa 

follows : 

I  shall  venture  to  recite  a  few  facts  that  bear  upon  the  history  of 
the  great  Province  from  which  I  come.  You  were  told  by  Dr.  Goucher 
that  the  Methodists  of  the  Province  of  Ontario  are  one-third  of  the 
population.  Now,  a  country  that  contains  one-third  of  a  population 
of  Methodists  must  expect  to  have  a  history,  and  this  body  surely 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  83 

has  left  some  impress  upon  the  country  in  which  they  live.  In  1876 
the  Temperance  Law  was  enforced.  At  that  time  there  was  a  popula- 
tion of  not  much  more  than  one-half  what  we  liave  now,  and  6,000 
licences  were  issued  upon  the  inland  waters  and  in  the  country,  and 
there  were  3,000  committals  for  drunkenness.  At  the  present  time, 
notwithstanding  the  population  has  nearly  doubled,  we  thank  God  the 
licences  are  down  one-half.  There  is  not  a  single  licence  on  the 
inland  waters,  and  those  inland  waters  are  so  large  and  so  covered  with 
shipping  that  if  they  were  all  put  together  you  could  baptise  this 
country  in  it. 

Let  me  give  you  another  fact  which  I  think  is  cheering.  We  have 
a  law  upon  the  Statute  Book  of  this  Province  that  compels  every  teacher 
to  recognise  as  a  text-book  a  temperance  text-book,  declaring  to  the 
children  of  the  Province  that  alcohol  is  a  poison,  and  not  a  food. 
And  while  we  have  declared  by  a  recent  plebiscite  an  immense  majority 
in  favour  of  wiping  intoxicating  liquor  out  of  the  country — and  have 
not  succeeded  because  we  are  entangled  for  the  moment  with  the  great 
Province  of  Quebec — yet  I  have  an  abiding  faith  that  when  the  genera- 
tion that  now  is  drinking  in  that  healthy  literature  day  by  day  that 
alcohol  is  a  curse  to  the  human  system  as  well  as  to  the  human  race, 
is  grown  up,  we  shall  have  a  class  of  voters  in  Canada  that,  notwith- 
standing the  number  of  French,  will  outvote  the  others. 

And  now  I  want  to  make  an  observation  without  going  into  a  discus- 
sion or  saying  anything  that  will  jar  upon  the  most  sensitive  sensibili- 
ties of  anyone  present.  I  heard  a  brother  in  this  place  expressing  a 
melancholy  regret  about  the  war  in  South  Africa,  as  if  there  were 
nothing  about  the  matter  but  what  was  deplorable,  and  as  if  we  ought, 
as  a  great  Christian  force,  to  put  our  foot  down  against  the  struggle 
that  is  going  on  there.  What  would  you  have  thought  of  a  nation 
who  would  have  sat  quiet  when  the  Boers  flung  down  their  ultimatum  ? 
What  would  you  have  thought  of  the  people  who  would  have  done 
that? 

The  President  :  I  think  you  are  going  a  little  too  far  afield. 

A  Member  :  On  a  point  of  order,  are  we  discussing  the  South 
African  War?     K  so,  some  of  us  will  follow. 

Mr.  Gibson:  Will  you  allow  me  to  say  that  the  colony  which  I 
came  from  is  intensely  loyal,  that  we  sent  5,000  troops  out?  Is  there 
any  harm  in  that?  The  nearest  thing  I  ever  saw  to  a  riot  was  the 
struggle  as  to  who  the  5,000  should  be,  such  was  the  intense  -iesire 
of  the  people  of  our  country  to  assist  the  Mother  Country. 

The  Rev.  J.  P.  BRUsmNOHAM,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
continued  the  discussion  aa  follows : 

Frederic  W.  Harrison  visited  us  last  winter,  and  he  prophesied 
that  inside  of  one  hundred  years  Chicago  would  be  the 
greatest  city  in  the  world.  Chicago  is  a  city  of  two  million  people,  and 
there  are  204  Methodist  churches  in  it  and  the  vicinity,  and  yet  it  is 
only  two-thirds  of  a  century  old.  The  church  of  which  I  have  the 
honour  to  be  pastor  (the  oldest  church  of  any  Denomination  m  Chicago, 
Roman  Catholic  or  Protestant)  was  removed  across  the  river  oy  a 
man  still  living,  in  1838,  on  scows,  and  established  at  the  corner  where 
it  now  stands.  The  proi^erty  has  become  worth  one  milhon  dollars 
since  then,  and  it  lias  given  money  to  bu.ld  other  chu,ohes  1.1  ChR-ag^ 
to  Mio  extent  of  700,000  dollars  in  various  parts  of  the  city  since  tJie 
firvj  of  187L 


84  CECUMENICAL    METHODISM. 

Ours  is  a  foreign  city,  and  I  am  glad  of  the  opportunity  which  God 
has  given  us  to  reach  the  foreigners  in  the  Sunday-schools,  and  oring 
them  to  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  have  500,000  Germans  in 
Chicago,  enough  to  make  three  such  German  cities  as  Strasburg.  We 
have  more  Irish  in  Cliicago  than  there  are  in  Dublin,  more  Scandina- 
vians than  in  Norway,  more  Bohemians  than  any  city  of  the  world 
except  Prague.  We  have  more  Italians  than  in  the  old  and  famous 
city  of  Florence,  and  they  are  mostly  all  Americans  and  loyal  to  their 
country's  flag. 

We  have  no  reason  for  discouragement.  Sometimes  it  is  said  that 
we  are  suffering  from  a  Methodist  relapse  in  the  Northern  States. 
Sometimes  there  seems  to  be  a  wavering,  a  falling  away  in  the  presence 
of  the  forces  of  darkness,  but  when  one  of  the  brave  patriots  fell  dead 
in  battle  another  one  stepped  forward  and  caught  up  the  flag,  and 
cried  out,  "Rally,  rally  to  the  colours,"  and  as  the  brave  soldiers 
gathered  round  the  flag  of  liberty  they  were  saved  from  dismay,  they 
were  nerved  to  victory.  And  I  hear  on  the  hill-tops  of  that  great 
nation  the  cry  everywhere,  "Rally,  rally  to  the  colours."  And  as  the 
soldiers  of  the  cross  gather  mund  the  flag  of  redemption  there  is  no 
reason  for  dismay,  but  the  future  shall  be  as  the  past,  only  more 
abundant. 

The  Rev.  J.  A.  B.  Wilson,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 

spoke  as  follows  : 

I  come,  an  adopted  son,  from  the  land  where  it  is  never  too  hot 
and  never  too  cold,  where  William  Taylor,  fifty  years  ago,  led  the 
pioneer  hosts  of  Methodism  to  the  conquest  of  thalt  land  for  God  and 
His  Christ  through  Methodism.  At  that  time  the  country  was  almost 
wholly  Roman  Catholic  ;  they  held  all  the  property.  William  Taylor 
laid  the  foundations  of  Methodism  deep  and  strong.  The  Presbyterian 
Church  numbers  more  members  than  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in 
that  land  to-day,  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  has  twice  as 
many  as  the  Presbyterian.  We  number  36,000  communicants  in  Cali- 
fornia. That  is  not  all  we  ought  to  have,  but  we  are  still  advancing 
and  looking  into  the  groat  future. 

There  are  many  difficulties  in  California  with  which  Methodism  has 
to  deal  that  do  not  prevail  elsewhere,  but  we  are  not  sitting  down  in 
the  dust  and  ashes  of  our  hopes.  We  are  laying  hold,  and  seeking  to 
overcome  the  difficulties  that  confront  us.  There  are  two  great  Univer- 
sities there,  each  backed  by  the  influence  and  money  of  wealthy 
persons  who  are  giving  the  utmost  which  their  wealth  makes  possible, 
and  yet  they  are  not  in  the  strict  sense  Christian  Universities.  There 
are  two  Methodist  Universities  in  the  country,  the  University  of  the 
Pacific  and  the  University  of  Southern  California.  A  year  ago  there 
was  a  £40,000  debt  on  one  and  £65,000  on  the  other,  andjt  was  a  great 
problem  whether  it  was  possible  to  save  those  Universifies  to  Metho- 
dism. At  the  last  General  Conference  the  Methodist' Church  sent  to 
our  cause  a  magnificent  leader,  and  under  that  leadership  the  debts  on 
those  Universities  have  been  paid  and  provided  for,  and  one  has  already 
in  sight  a  £140,000  endowment,  and  the  other  £25,000. 

Whatever  he  the  conditions,  the  old  Gospel,  the  old  story  of  Jesus 
and  His  love,  and  the  open  door  of  salvation  for  everybody,  is  the 
Gospel  that  is  adapted  for  California,  and  we  are  advancing  all  along 
the  line.  We  see  in  it  our  great  leader,  who  has  come  among  us  to 
carry  the  colours  forward.  You  may  remember  during  the  battle  of 
Gettysburg,  when  Pickett's   magnificent  charge  was  made,    it  actually 


GENERAL    REMARK?!.  85 

bruke  the  Federal  line,  and  there  was  a  lirigadier — General  Aniiistead — 
leading  that  part  of  the  line  whifh  had  bruken  the  Federal  line.  _  As 
he  fell,  his  colour  ibearer,  forgetting  his  high  station,  said  to  him: 
"General,  are  you  hurt?"  The  brave  man,  remembering  only  his 
cause,  called  out :  "  Carry  the  colours  for  me."  We  are  carrying  the 
colours  forward,  and  we  are  following  wherever  they  go.  I  remember 
during  the  war,  at  the  same  battle  of  Gettysburg,  there  was  a  colour- 
bearer  who  had  gone  beyond  his  own  men,  and  an  officer  shouted  to 
him  :  "  Bring  those  colours  back  to  the  line  "  ;  but  the  brave  colour- 
bearer  shouted  back:  "Do  you  bring  that  line  up  to  the  colours." 
Our  colour-bearer  is  bearing  the  colours  forward  for  the  conquest  of  all 
California,  for  God  and  Christianity,  and  we  are  bringing  the  line 
up  to  his  colours. 

The  Rev.  Hugh  C.  Ticker  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South) 

said : 

I  think  I  am  the  only  representative  present  in  this  Conference 
from  South  America.  I  speak  particularly,  however,  for  Methodism 
in  Brazil,  and,  as  this  is  one  of  our  mission  fields,  I  may  call  your  atten- 
tion to  some  of  the  conditions  that  i)revail  there,  which  bear  upon 
any  effort  to  evangelise  that  country.  There  are  certain  conditions  that 
place  evangelistic  effort  on  the  very  lowest  plane  possible.  I  refer 
now  to  the  lack  of  conscience,  a  lack  of  the  knowledge  of  gin,  and  any 
evangelistic  effort  in  that  country  has  to  begin  on  the  very  lowest 
possible  plane,  and  create  a  conscience,  and  teach  men  what  sin  is. 
They  are  living  in  sin,  but  ignorant  of  sin,  and  without  any  conscious- 
ness tbat  they  are  sinning  against  God. 

Then  again  there  is  a  condition  that  prevails  in  that  country  of, 
I  was  going  to  say  Roman  Catholicism,  but  the  longer  I  live  iii  that 
country  the  more  I  am  inclined  to  stop  saying  a  land  of  Catholicism, 
and  say  in  that  land  of  Romanism  and  Paganism.  The  teaching  and 
preaching  functions  of  the  ministry  have  been  neglected  and  denied 
until  the  people  are  left  in  ignorance,  without  instruction,  without  any 
knowledge  of  the  truth  that  the  Romanists  once  may  have  had. 
Methodism  is  peculiarly  adapted  to  this  condition  of  things,  in  the 
fact  that  she  is  a  preaching  Church,  she  is  a  teaching  Church, 
and  ignorance  prevails  everywhere.  Only  about  15  per  cent,  of  the 
entire  population  of  that  great  country  had  any  knowledge  of  letters. 
Methodism,  born  in  a  University,  is  an  educating  force  in  the  world, 
and  pre-eminently  adapted  with  her  schools  and  Colleges  to  meet  the 
great  problem  of  rescuing  and  saving  that  great  country. 

Then,  again,  there  are  racial  questions  ;  there  are  the  aborigines. 
The  country  was  settled  by  the  Portuguese,  and  there  has  been  a  large 
influx  of  our  African  brethren.  We  have  one  State  called  Bahia, 
and  when  our  brethren  were  talking  this  morning  about  Africa,  my 
heart  was  going  out  to  that  State,  "  The  Africa  of  Brazil."  Only  in  the 
year  1888  one  milUon  and  a  half  of  these  coloured  men  were  set  free 
from  slavery  in  Brazil.  So  we  have  this  compound  of  elementsto 
evangelise — the  aborigines,  the  Portuguese,  and  the  Africans,  living 
under  these  social  conditions.  A  process  of  amalgamation  has  been 
going  on.  We  make  no  question  of  race  there  ;  we  are  all  one  colour. 
If  we  undertook  to  draw  the  line  at  colour  we  should  not  know  where 
to  begin  and  where  to  stop,  for  we  have  every  shade  of  black  and 
white  and  red,  and  every  imaginable  colour  that  you  can  get  out  of 
those  three.     We   are  all   one.     Methodism  is  a   unifying,   uplifting. 


86  OECUMENICAL    METHODISM. 

sanctifying,  and  saring  force  in  Brazil,  pre-eminently  adapted  to  face 
the  great  problem  of  rescuing  the  seventeen  millions  of  that  great 
country,  and  the  forty  millions  scattered  throughout  the  whole  of 
that  neglected  continent  of  South  America. 

We  are  a  growing  Methodism  there.  In  1886  Bishop  Granbery 
organised  the  Methodist  Conference  in  Brazil,  perhaps  the  smallest 
Conference  ever  organised  in  Methodism.  The  Bishop  and  three 
preachers  were  present,  and  it  was  a  day  long  to  be  remembered. 
There  was  not  a  spectator  present,  and  even  the  sexton  himself,  when 
he  had  opened  the  doors,  ran  away  for  fear  something  was  going  to 
happen.  That  Conference  was  organised  in  1886.  Tlius,  from  a  little 
more  than  200  members,  we  have  gone  on  until  we  have  more  than 
thirty  itinerant  preachers  and  a  membership  of  more  than  3,000, 
with  our  schools,  Colleges,  printing  press,  theological  seminary,  weekly 
paper  and  Sunday  literature,  Sunday  Schools  and  leagues,  and  all 
those  things.  We  are  growing  rapidly  ;  we  are  becoming  a  great  people 
to  take  that  great  country  for  Jesus  Christ. 

We  are  one  down  there.  Our  brethren  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  began  a  mission  in  Rio  Grande,  the  extreme  Southern  State 
of  the  Republic,  a  few  years  ago,  and  such  was  the  spirit  of  unity 
that  we  called  out  to  the  Mother  Churches  at  home  to  unite  us  all 
in  one,  and  recently  we  have  been  united  in  one  Methodism,  except  our 
one  brother.  Nelson,  who  is  now  at  Para,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Amazon. 
So  soon  as  we  can  compass  the  2,000  miles  between  us  and  him  we 
shall  all  be  one  Methodism.  And  so,  throughout  the  whole  of  South 
America,  and  up  through  Mexico,  we  are  going  to  give  you  an  example 
of  unity. 

The  Rev.  John  Wesley  Butlee,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  said : 

My  father's  name  for  six  or  seven  years  was  on  the  roll  of  the  Irish 
Conference,  and,  because  he  took  a  notion  to  go  to  America,  I  escaped 
being  an  Irishman.  We  have  heard  this  afternoon  from  the  great 
Dominion  of  the  North,  from  various  sections  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  and  from  Brazil.  I  come  to  speak  of  a  country  that  lies 
between — the  country  of  Mexico.  I  beg  to  differ  a  little  from  my 
brother  who  calls  California  "  the  garden  of  the  world."  In  Mexico 
the  birds  sing  every  day  in  the  year,  flowers  bloom  unceasingly,  we 
can  eat  fresh  strawlberries  every  morning  for  breakfast  if  we  like,  and 
we  have  one  of  the  most  delightful  climates  in  all  the  world.  But, 
like  him,  I  cannot  say  that  Methodism  was  the  first  to  reach  Mexico. 
The  Romanists  anticipated  us  by  about  350  years,  and  they  had  it  all 
their  own  way  untQ  very  recently.  When  I  was  a  boy — and  that  is  not 
very  long  ago — there  was  not  a  single  Protestant  Church  in  all  the 
Republic  of  Mexico.  Now  there  are  in  the  Church  which  I  have  the 
honour  to  represent  at  this  time  140  congregations.  The  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  South  has  about  the  same  number,  so  that  there  are 
nearly  300  Methodist  congregations  in  the  Republic  of  Mexico  to-day. 
We  have  very  nearly  10,000  communicants.  In  our  schools,  supported 
by  the  Methodist  Church,  we  have  a  little  over  4,000  children  whom  we 
are  training  for  God.  The  Southern  Methodists  have  a  number  nearly 
equal  to  that,  so  that  there  are  about  8,000  children  under  Methodist 
instruction  in  that  country  to-day.  Altogether,  if  we  include  our 
brethren  of  other  Denominations,  we  have  about  600  Protestant  con- 
gregations in  a  land  where  there  was  not  a  single  Protestant  congrega- 
tion only  a  few  years  ago. 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  87 

I  came  dirodly  from  ;i  Convention 'to  this  Conference.  That  Con- 
vention was  lield  in  tho  city  of  Pueblo,  about  four  or  five  weeks  ago. 
The  first  time  I  went  into  the  city  of  Pueblo  witli  my  father  we 
were  escorted  by  secret  police  from  our  place  of  residence  to  a  little 
hall  in  which  we  purposed  to  open  free  worship,  and  conveyed  back  to 
our  place  of  residence  by  the  same  secret  police.  Again,  in  the  even- 
ing, we  had  to  go  through  the  same  operation.  The  Federal  Govern- 
ment, supposing  that  certain  threats  would  'be  carried  out  concerning 
the  assassination  of  all  the  group  of  heretics  of  that  day,  put  a  cordon 
of  soldiers  entirely  round  the  block  in  which  this  hall  was  situated. 
And  yet  the  fanatics  of  that  city,  said  to  be  the  most  fanatical  of  all 
the  Republic  of  Mexico,  threw  stones  over  the  heads  of  the  soldiers  and 
over  their  bayonets,  and  broke  all  the  front  windows  of  the  hall.  The 
American  Consul  was  present,  and  put  his  hand  in  his  pocket  and 
handed  my  father  a  handful  of  silver  dollars,  saying  to  him :  "  Keep 
on  this  line  ;  I  will  pay  for  all  the  windows  they  break."  Five  weeks 
ago,  in  ^his  city  of  Pueblo,  there  was  held  a  Convention  representing 
the  young  people  of  the  different  Protestant  Churches  working  in 
Mexico,  with  563  accredited  delegates  present,  and  these  delegates 
walked  about  the  streets  of  that  fanatical  city,  were  entertained  in  its 
various  hotels,  and  I  did  not  hear  that  a  single  one  was  insulted. 

The  day  before  I  left  Mexico  City,  three  weeks  ago,  at  the  earnest 
solicitation  of  some  members  of  the  congregation,  I  went  to  visit  an 
old  blind  man  belonging  to  our  Church- — a  man  who  had  suffered  much 
for  Christ,  lost  all  he  had  in  this  world  for  Christ,  but  who  has  attained, 
as  he  says,  more  than  ever  he  had  before,  in  happiness,  peace,  and 
hope.  He  was  confined  to  his  bed  by  sickness,  and  as  I  came  to  his 
room  the  old  man  saluted  me  very  cordially,  and  said  to  me :  "  Don 
Juanito" — they  always  call  us  by  our  Christian  names,  and  use  the 
diminutive  ;  it  means  "  Dear  Little  John  " — "  I  wish  I  were  a  fly  at 
this  time.  .  If  so,  I  would  creep  into  your  trunk,  I  would  cling  to  your 
clothing,  until  you  had  crossed  the  Atlantic  and  reached  the  great 
City  of  London,  and  then  I  would  look  upon  all  the  great  Bishops  and 
the  great  ministers  at  that  Conference,  and  I  would  tell  them  that  I 
believe  in  nobody  in  all  the  universe  but  God  the  Father,  God  the 
Son,   and  God  the  Holy  Ghost." 

The  Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
said : 

I  would  like  to  say  a  word  about  the  overflow  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  foreign  countries  of  the  world.  In  1833  we 
planted  our  first  Foreign  Mission  in  Africa.  In  that  country  to-day 
we  have  an  Annual  Conference,  and  we  have  two  Mission  Conferences 
with  a  membership  of  5,000.  ti  1836  we  planted  our  first  Mission  in 
South  America,  and  to-day  we  have  two  Annual  Conferences,  and  a 
membership  of  about  5,000.  In  1847  we  planted  our  first  Mission  in 
China,  and  in  that  country  we  have  now  two  Annual  Conferences,  a 
Mission  Conference,  and  two  Missions,  with  a  membership,  when  the 
Boxer  rebellion  broke  out,  of  26,400.  We  have  in  China  one-fourth 
of  the  entire  Protestant  membership.  There  are  about  thirty  Mis- 
sionary Societies  working  in  China,  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  has  one-fourth  of  the  entire  Protestant  membership  of  the 
Christian  Church  in  China. 

In  1849  we  planted  our  work  in  Germany.  I  have  visited  within 
the  last  four  months  three  prosperous  Conferences  in  Germany,  with 


88  CECUMENICAI,   METHODISM. 

a  membership  of  nbout:  27,000.  In  1856  we  planted  our  '.viik  in 
Scandinavia,  and  we  have  there  now  an  Annual  Ci inference  in  Norway, 
an  Annual  Conference  in  Sweden,  a  Mission  Conference  in  DeiunarK, 
with  a  membership  of  a  little  more  than  26,000.  In  1856  we  jdanted 
our  work  in  that  great  country  of  India,  and  to-day  we  have  seven 
Conferences  in  that  country,  and  a  total  membership  in  India  of  f>,bo\it 
100,000.  The  man  who  baptised  the  first  convert  in  our  Mission  in 
India  is  the  father  of  Dr.  John  Butler,  who  has  just  addressed  you. 
We  thank  God  devoutly  for  the  Union  Jack  that  has  been  over  us  in 
that  country,  and  has  enabled  us  to  carry  forward  our  work. 

In  1857  we  planted  our  work  in  Bulgaria.  We  have  about  300 
members  there.  In  1872  we  went  to  Rome.  We  Avere  like  Paul, 
we  had  long  desired  to  go  to  Rome,  <-aid  we  got  there  at  last.  We 
have  an  Annual  Conference  in  Rome,  with  about  2,000  members.  My 
former  colleague.  Chaplain  McCabe  (now  Bishop  McCabe)  attempted  to 
get  up  a  correspondence  some  years  ago  with  the  Pope.  He  wrote  to  His 
Holiness  telling  him  there  was  a  Methodist  Church  in  Rome,  and  a 
Methodist  class-meeting  every  Sunday  morning,  and  if  he  would  be  so 
gracious  as  to  do  so  he  was  invited  to  attend  and  inspect  the  institution  to 
see  if  it  were  orthodox.  We  are  in  Rome  to  stay  until  Gabriel  sounds 
his  trumpet.  In  the  same  year,  1872,  we  planted  our  work  in  the 
Island  Empire  of  Japan.  We  have  an  Annual  Conference  and  a 
Mission  Conference,  Avith  a  membership  of  about  5,000,  and  a  glorious 
revival  is  now  breaking  out  all  over  that  Empire.  In  1883  we  planted 
our  Conference  in  Mexico,  which  Dr.  Butler  has  just  represented.  We 
have  about  5,000  communicants  there.  In  1885  we  planted  our  Mission 
in  Corea,  and  there  we  have  a  membership  of  about  2,500. 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  believes  in  expansion.  We  are 
like  the  little  girl  who,  when  the  question  was  raised  as  to  when  her 
next  birthday  would  come,  said,  "  If  you  please,  sir,  my  next  birthday 
is  past." 

Bishop  W.  B.  Derrick,  D.D.  (African  Methodi&t  Episcopal 
Church),  concluded  the  discussion  as  follows : 

I  am  delighted  to  be  standing  here  to-day,  under  two  flags — England, 
the  mother  ;  Am.erica,  the  daughter.  At  no  period  of  a  girl's  existence, 
with  all  her  culture,  and  learning,  and  wealth,  can  she  be  greater  than 
her  mother  ;  so  America  cannot  be  greater  than  England,  yet  England 
welcomes  us  here  to-day.  Representing  the  African  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  a  part  of  the  great  Methodist  family,  I  may  say  that 
this  Church  bearing  the  title  "  African "  does  not  signify  that  it  is  a 
black  Church,  for  within  her  communion  all  colours  are  welcome.  We 
are  having  them  as  black  as  two  midnights  and  as  white  as  the  driven 
snow  at  our  communion.  The  only  question  is:  "Have  you  been 
born  of   God?" 

I  stand  here  as  a  negro  man,  yet  a  colourless  man.  A  colourless 
man !  What  do  you  mean  by  that  ?  It  is  not  the  colour  that  makes  the 
man  ;  it  is  the  character  and  the  principle.  We  teach  that  lesson 
in  the  Church  to  which  I  belong,  and  to-day  if  two  men  met  me,  one 
as  black  as  ebony  and  the  other  white  as  snow,  and  both  were  hungry, 
and  I  had  only  a  penny,  and  both  were  to  be  fed,  I  would  buy  a  loaf 
and  feed  both,  because  both  are  children  of  a  common  parentage, 
creatures  of  a  common  Creator.  That  is  the  principle  for  which  we 
stand. 

This  afternoon,   all  hail   to  the  great  Methodist  family,   both  North 


liUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS.  89 

and  South,  in  America.  We  represent  one  of  the  daughters  of  that 
household.  A  hundred  years  ago  Richard  Allen,  its  founder,  thought 
fit  to  step  out  and  plant  this  body  to  which  I  belong,  and  asserted  that 
manhood  Christianity,  standing  up  to  God  our  Father  and  man  our 
brother.  To-day  we  are  glad  to  be  here.  We  rejjresent  over  700,000 
communicants.  We  have  over  290,000  Sunday  scholars.  We  represent 
a  publication  department,  a  financial  department,  a  Sunday  School  de- 
partment, a  Church  extension  department,  a  Worn-Out  Preachers' 
Aid  department,  and  last,  but  not  least,  a  Missionary  department, 
operating  in  the  Islands  of  the  Seas. 

In  Africa,  in  that  country,  the  land  of  precious  memory  ;  the  land 
of  the  Pharaohs  and  the  Nimrods,  the  land  in  which  Moses,  the  great 
law-giver,  prophet,  priest,  and  king,  was  born  ;  the  land  that  "gave 
a  garden  spot  to  raise  corn  to  feed  God's  starving  Israel  ;  the  land 
that  gave  an  asylum  to  Abraham  to  resuscitate  the  remnant  of  Israel  ; 
the  place  where  Jacob  blessed  his  twelve  boys  and  died  and  went  to 
meet  his  Creator,  God  ;  and  still  later,  when  the  avenging  hand  of 
Herod  sought  the  young  Child  Jesus'  life,  it  was  Africa  that  opened 
her  arms  and  gave  an  asylum  to  the  Infant  Jesus,  and  spared  Him  from 
the  avenger's  hands.  In  Africa  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
waves  the  banner  of  free  grace,  and  invites  all  beneath  it.  It  invites 
the  philosophical  German  ;  the  witty  and  industrious  Irishman  ;  the 
avaricious  and  cunning  Jew  ;  the  musical  and  wandering  Italian  ;  the 
polite  Frenchman  ;  the  hospitable,  pugnacious,  liberty-loving  English- 
man ;  the  canny  Scotchman  ;  the  unconquered  Indian  ;  the  jmgnacious 
Hungarian  ;  the  pagan  Chinee  ;  and,  not  least,  the  industrious,  for- 
giving and  loving  negro — all  invited  together  beneath  its  banner. 

Mr.  President,  I  am  pleased  to  be  here  at  this  great  Conference. 
Some  twelve  years  ago  you  and  I  met  in  Exeter  Hall  at  the  World's 
Missionary  Conference.  Standing  here  upon  this  platform  to-day,  I 
am  pleased  to  gaze  in  the  faces  of  the  representatives  of  the  Methodist 
family.  Dr.  Goucher,  of  the  Mother  Church  in  America,  sounded 
the  keynote:  "Let  the  North  and  the  South  unite  on  one  side,  and 
let  the  black  Methodists  of  America  unite  on  the  other  side,  and  we 
will  wave  our  banner  and  bring  power  to  the  forces  of  Christianity." 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  reported  that  the  Business  Committee 
had  considered  the  notice  of  motion  by  Dr.  Manley  S.  Hard,  and 
recommended  that  a  Committee  be  appointed,  who  shall  make 
a  brief  and  becoming  minute  in  the  recordsi  of  the  Conference  con- 
cerning those  who  had  it  in  their  plans  and  hearts  to  be  at  the 
gathering,  but  who  had  already  joined  the  company  beyond.  The 
following  were  appointed  the  Committee:  The  Revs.  Manley  S. 
Hard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  Thomas  Mitchell  (Primitive 
Methodist  Church),  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South),  Bishop  E.  Cottrell,  D.D.  (Coloured  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  S.  P.  Rose,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada),  N.  Cur- 
nock  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  and  Mr.  J.  Baniford  Slack, 
B.A.  (Wesleyan  Melli(jdist  Church),  Convenor. 

The  Rev.  Alhert  Clayton  reported  that  the  Business  Committee 


go  BUSINESS   PROCEEDINGS. 

had  investigated  the  matter  of  the  letter  of  the  Bishop  of  London, 
and  found  it  was  addressed  to  the  President  of  the  CEoumenioal 
Methodist  Conference.     The  letter  was  as  follows  : 

Pitfour,  Glencarse,  Perthshire,  N.B. 

Sept.  1,  1901. 
To  the  President  of  the  Methodist  CEcumenical  Conference. 

Dear  Sir, 

I  am  aihsent  from  London  during  the  month  of  September,  but 
I  cannot  allow  a  gathering  such  as  the  Methodist  CEcumenical  Con- 
ference, representative  of  so  many  who  love  and  serve  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  in  different  parts  of  the  world  to  assemble  in  the  Metropolis 
without  sending  them  a  line  of  greeting. 

I  notice  that  a  prominent  member  of  the  Conference,  in  a  published 
interview  last  week,  said :  "  There  never  was  a  more  loyal  Churchman 
than  John  Wesley  until  he  was  forced  to  organise  a  separate  ecclesias- 
tical body.  But  Wesley  never  formally  withdrew  from  the  Church  of 
England." 

It  is  that  love  of  your  founder  for  the  Church  to  which  he  belonged 
which  makes  us,  in  the  Church  of  England,  feel  a  special  interest  in 
that  body  of  Christians  which  your  Conference  represents,  and  we 
deeply  regret  the  causes  which  led  to  the  formation  of  AVesleyans  into  a 
separate  organisation. 

While  we  recognise  with  admiration  the  zeal  and  fervent  love  dis- 
played by  your  body  in  good  works  throughout  the  world,  and  the 
noble  generosity  which  has  contributed  well-nigh  a  million  pounds 
to  a  special  Commemoration  Fund,  it  is  still  our  hope  and  prayer 
that  in  the  Providence  of  God  it  may  one  day  be  reunited  to  the 
old  Church  from  which  you  and  we  equally  recognise  that  it  sprang. 
May  God  guide  your  deliberations  by  His  Holy  Spirit  and  make  them 
fruitful  for  the  good  of  the  world  and  helpful  towards  the  reunion  of 
Christendom ! 

Tour  fellow  servant  in  Christ  Jesus, 

A.  F.  London. 

It  wag  agreed  that  the  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  be 

requested  to  prepare  a  reply  to  the  letter,  and  that  it  be  sub- 
mitted to  the  Business  Committee  and  the  Conference. 

A  conversation  took  place  on  the  question  of  the  letter  havin": 
already  appeared  in  the  press,  but  it  was  agreed  no  action  could 
be  taken. 

The  Rev.  Enoch  Salt  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  was 
appointed  to  take  the  place  of  the  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  on  the  Committee  to  make  arrangements  for  provincial 
meetings. 

The  Rev.  AijBebt  Clayton  further  reported  that  the  Rev.  C.  W. 
Smith,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  would  give  the  essay 
on  "  The  Influence  of  Methodism  in  the  Promotion  of  International 
Peace,"  owing  to  the  absence  of  Bishop  D.  A.  Goodsell,  D.D.  Also 
that  Mr.   Hanford    Cra'vN^ord    (Methodist  Episcopal   Church)    had 


BUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS,  91 

taken  the  place  of  the  ReV.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.,  on  the  Business  Com- 
mittee. Mr.  Clayton  then  announced  the  names  of  the  Presidents 
for  the  following  foiir  days. 

The  Rev.  R.  Abercrombib,  M.A.  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches) 
asked  whether  it  had  been  decided  by  the  Conference  that  every 
President  should  be  President  for  the  whole  day.  He  asked 
because  a  President  had  a  representative  character,  and  it  was 
desirable  that  all  the  various  Methodist  bodies  should  be  repre- 
sented, if  possible,  in  the  Chair.  At  previous  Conferences  they 
had  a  President  for  each  session. 

The  Chairman  read  the  following  rule:  "The  Business  Com- 
mittee shall  appoint  someone  to  preside  at  eaoh  day's  Conference, 
and  in  the  following  manner,  to  wit :  on  the  first  day  from  the 
first  division,  the  second  day  from,  the  third  division,  and  so  on 
each  day." 

In  the  cotirse  of  conversation  the  Rev.  John  Bond  (General 
Secretary)  said  in  the  Conference  of  1881  it  was  resolved  that  the 
President  should  be  President  for  the  day j  in  the  Conference 
of  1891  it  was  resolved  he  should  be  President  for  half  a  day,  and 
not  for  the  other  half,  but  that  a  new  President  stould  be  taken 
for  the  second  half.  In  this  Conference  it  was  arranged  that  they 
should  go  back  to  the  original  course,  because,  in  the  judgment 
of  both  branches  of  the  Executive  Committee,  it  was  felt  desirable 
that  a  man  should!  retain  the  post  for  the  entire  day. 

The  Rev.  R.  Abercrombib,  M.A.,  said  he  was  satisfied  with,  the 
explanation,  but  he  hoped  it  would  not  be  considered  a  precedent 
for  the  next  (Ecumenical  Conference,  the  representative  character 
of  the  Chairman  being  his  most  important  function. 

Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.D„  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  moved  a  resolution  of  sympathy  with  the  Revs.  W.  L. 
Watkinson  and  Hugh  Price  Hughes,  M.A.  (Ex-Presidents  of  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference),  in  their  illness,  and  that  a  tele- 
gram be  sent  to  them  to  that  effect  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Con- 
ference.    The  resolution  was  seconded,  and  carried  vmanimously. 

The  Doxology  having  been  sung,  the  Benediction  was  pro- 
nounced by  the  Rev.  John  Bond  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 


92  THE    PROMOTION    OF    INTERNATIONAL    PEACE. 


THIRD  DAY,  Friday,  September  6,  1901. 


THE   INFLUENCE   OF   METHODISM   IN   THE   PROMOTION 
OF  INTERNATIONAL   PEACE. 


FIRST     SESSION. 


The  morning  session  was  opened  at  10  a.m.,  the  Rev.  H.  B. 
Kendall,  B.A.  (President  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Conference), 
in  the  chair.  The  opening  devotional  service  was  conducted  by  the 
Rev.  Joseph  Odell  (Primitive  Methodist  Church). 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  (Secretary),  read  the  Daily  Record 
for  Thursday,  which  wasi  confirmed. 

Dr.  King  also  read  the  following  telegTam.  From  Dayton,  OhiO', 
to  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference,  London,  England :  "  Cin- 
cinnati Conference  greetings  for  Christ's  Kingdom  and  Methodist 
Brotherhood. — James  N.  Fitzgerald."  The  greetings  met  with  a 
cordial  reception. 

The  Rev.  John  Bond  (Secretary)  said  the  Comniittee  appointed 
to  prepare  a  plan  for  preaching  at  the  services  to  be  held  on 
Sunday  and  Sunday  week,  after  considerable  labour,  had  prepared 
a  new  list  of  appointments!,  which  it  was  hoped  would  meet  with 
the  acquiescence  of  all  the  members.  Similar  arrangements  were 
made  at  the  1881  and  1891  Conferences.  He  communicated  with 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Carroll,  and  he  replied  that  the  Americans  were  all 
good  loyal  Methodist  preachers,  and  would  undertake  to  fulfil  the 
appointments.  He  appealed  to  the  delegates  to  keep  the  appoint- 
ments which  had  been  made,  otherwise  many  congregations  would 
be  disappointed. 

A  resolution  re  a  Common  Hymnal,  brought  forward  by  the 
Rev.  Prof.  W.  I.  Siiaw,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada), 
was  referred  to  the  Business  Committee. 


ESSAY  OF  REV.  CHARLES  W.  SMITH.  93 

The  Rev.  Ciiaules  W.  Smith,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Cliurch), 
as  arranged  on  the  previous  day,  todk  the  place  of  Bishop  D.  A. 
Goodsoll,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  who  was  absent, 
and  gave  the  following  essay  on  "  The  Influence  of  Methodism  in 
the  Promotion  of  Intei-national  Peace": 

I  make  no  apology  for  coming  before  you  with  a  paper  prepared 
within  a  few  hours,  amid  the  excitement  and  interest  of  this  great 
Conference,  and  thousands  of  miles  awa-j  from  my  own  library.  I 
have  simply  done  my  be,st  to  tie  up  the  broken  threads  of  this 
programme  ;  and  such  as  I  have  give  I  unto  .you. 

The  earth  has  been  through  all  the  ages  the  arena  of  ceaseless  strife. 
Certain  teachers  tell  us  that  this  is  the  inherent  and  essential  law  of 
being ;  that  the  struggle  for  existence  is  universal ;  and  that  it  is  not 
only  a  struggle  to  maintain  existence,  but  a  relentless  assault  on  others 
having  like  wants  and  seeking  the  same  ends  ;  and  that  the  benefii'-ent 
result  of  all  this  is  the  trampling  down  and  elimination  of  the  we;ik, 
and  the  survival  of  the  fittest — that  is  to  say,  of  the  strongest.  But  all 
this  aside,  we  know  that  the  history  of  the  race  has  been  one  of  strife — 
individual  conflicts  ;  feuds  between  tribes  and  clans  ;  contests  between 
races  ;  wars  between  nations.  If  you  read  the  history  of  the  past  you 
find  one  almost  unbroken  record  of  wars — bloody,  merciless,  appalliug 
wars.  In  the  presence  of  a  creation  "red  in  tooth  and  claw"  ;  of  a 
race  one  of  whose  chief  occupations  has  been  that  of  slaughter,  the 
reason  staggers,  the  heart  grows  faint,  and  the  tongue  is  dumb.  But 
the  fact  that  these  things  have  been  is  not  proof  that  they  should  be, 
or  that  they  must  continue.  Out  of  all  the  mystery  of  the  nast  there 
springs  a  certainty,  full  of  hope  and  cheer,  that  the  order  changeth — 
that  the  old  passeth  away,  and  that  the  new  shall  come  in.  On  the 
face  of  the  dark  clouds  shines  a  bow  of  promise  which  spans  the  whole 
heaven,  and  tells  of  a  new  day  and  a  brighter. 

No  matter  what  human  nature  in  itself  may  be,  nor  what  human 
history  may  have  been,  it  is  the  clear  purpose  of  the  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  make  of  human  nature  something  other,  something  nobler 
than  it  is  and  has  been,  and  thus  to  turn  the  history  of  the  race  into 
better  channels.  Either  this,  or  it  has  no  possible  right  to  the  exalted 
claims  it  has  made  for  itself.  If  our  religion  is  intended  merely  to  net 
men  into  heaven,  while  their  conditions  here  remain  unchanged,  then 
it  is  not  the  religion  which  Jesus  taught.  His  religion  is  .♦irst  to 
reform  the  individual,  then  society,  and  thus  to  make  and  influen';e  the 
State,  changing  the  current  of  human  history,  and  bringing  to  the  earth 
the  realisation  of  the  thrilling  song  of  the  angels,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the 
highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  goodwill  toward  men."  Its  mission  here 
is  to  promote  peace  among  men — among  all  men — international,  as  well 
aa  individual  and  social  peace. 

The  question  now  before  us  is  :  How  far  has  Methodism,  as  one  of 
the  great  branches  of  the  Christian  Church,  fulfilled  her  mission  in 
promoting  international  peace?  We  do  not  ask  whether  she  has  done 
more  than  some  other  or  any  other  body  of  believers  ;  but  lias  she  used 
such  influence  as  she  has  had  in  this  direction,  and  to  good  purpose? 


94  THE    PROMOTION    OF    INTERNATIONAL    PEACE. 

In  considering  this  {question,  let  it  be  remembered,  first,  that  Metho- 
dism is  not,  and  never  has  been,  a  national  Church.  In  no  age,  in  no 
nation,  has  any  brancli  of  our  communion  ever  aspired  to  merely  poli- 
tical power.  Like  her  Master,  she  has  always  said,  "  My  Kingdom  is 
not  of  this  world."  She  has  sought  men — not  worldly  power.  What 
she  has  done  in  the  promotion  of  peace,  what  she  can  do,  is  as  a  re- 
ligious organisation,  and  not  as  a  political  agency.  She  must  work 
chiefly  through  principles,  and  not  parties.  Indeed,  international  peace 
must  oome  in  this  way.  It  cannot  be  organised,  cannot  be  forced.  To 
this  end  the  wills  of  Kings  and  Congresses  are  impotent.  It  must 
come  through  conditions  which  compel  it,  and  must  be  promoted  by  the 
creation  of  those  conditions.  Peace  is  from  within,  and  not  from  with- 
out. International  peace  must  come  from  the  state  of  the  national 
mind  and  heart ;  and  these  must  be  influenced  by  the  correct  indoctrina- 
tion of  the  powers  which  rule  the  nations.  Increasingly  with  the 
flight  of  years  in  all  nations,  whatever  the  form  of  government,  the 
public  mind  is  coming  to  direct  the  governmental  policy.  The  rime 
was  when  the  King  willed  and  the  people  followed  ;  the  time  is  when 
the  people  will  and  the  ruler  obeys,  be  he  King  or  President.  If, 
therefore,  international  peace  is  to  be  secured,  it  must  be  through  the 
promotion  in  the  public  mind  of  the  sentiment  which  not  only  justifies, 
but  demands  the  settlement  of  international  differences  by  peaceable 
means,  rather  than  by  the  arbitrament  of  the  sword.  This  is — this 
must  be — the  end  at  which  the  followers  of  Christ  will  aim  in  every 
communion  and  in  every  land,  and  by  this  means  chiefly  will  they 
succeed. 

In  considering  what  Methodism  has  done  in  this  direction,  we  must 
not  limit  our  view  to  the  hosts  which  bear  the  Methodist  name,  vast  as 
these  may  be.  The  fruit  which  has  fallen  over  the  wall  is  almost  as 
much  as  that  which  we  have  gathered  into  our  own  storehouses.  From 
our  altars  and  our  pulpits  we  have  sent  multitudes  to  enrich  and 
strengthen  our  sister  Churches,  and  thus  to  add  to  the  Christian  forces 
of  the  world  ;  and  in  reckoning  up  the  sum  total  of  the  religious 
agencies  working  so  mightily  for  peace  among  our  nations,  Methodism 
must  not  lose  her  credit  for  this  part  of  her  work. 

The  teachings  of  Methodism  are  the  fundamental  truths  on  which 
international  peace  must  rest.  One  God,  "  who  hath  made  of  one  blood 
all  nations  of  men,  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth "  ;  one 
Saviour  ;  one  Sanctifier  ;  one  law  for  all  men  ;  and  one  judgment  bar, 
before  which  all  shall  at  last  stand  to  give  an  account  of  the  deeds 
done  in  the  body.  If  there  be  not  one  common  Father,  and  if  all  men 
be  not  brothers  ;  and  if  these  truths  be  not  vital,  sacred,  and  binding, 
it  will  be  impossible  to  drag  men  so  far  out  of  the  selfishness  of  their 
natures,  especially  if  they  have  might  on  their  side,  as  to  secure  from 
them  the  recognition  of  the  rights  of  others,  and  to  have  them  treat 
others  as  equals  before  the  law.  Without  such  recognition  inter- 
national peace  is  impossible. 

It  is  easy  to  recognise  the  brotherhood  and  grant  the  rights  of  those 
above  us,  who  are  wiser  and  stronger  than  we,  but  how  different  when 
it  comes  to  the  ignorant,  unlovely,  and  weak !     They  are  beneath  us, 


ESSAY   OP    REV.    CHARLES   W.    SMITH,  .  95 

and  become  tlie  objects  of  our  neglect,  or  cool  contempt,  or  the  piey  of 
our  lust  or  avariro.  Their  rights  wc  trample  underfoot,  because  we 
can.  But  this  is  not  the  law  of  the  Gospel.  It  bids  us  bear  the  in- 
firmities of  the  weak,  and  make  their  rights  our  special  charge.  It 
makes  each  man  his  brother's  keeper,  not  only  the  keeper  of  the 
brother,  but  of  that  which  belongs  to  the  brother.  The  poor  and  help- 
less are  our  particular  care,  and  this  law  is  for  the  nations  as  well  as 
for  individuals.  The  law  of  God  lays  on  the  strong  nation  the  duty  to 
protect  the  weak,  not  to  trample  on  it  ;  to  safeguard  its  rights,  and  not 
to  crush  them.  And  how  mightily  Methodism  has  wrought  in  the 
Gospel  in  these  regards !  She  has  always  been  the  friend  uf  the  poor 
and  oppressed.  Mr.  Wesley,  rejected  by  the  learned  and  great  of  his 
day,  turned  to  the  prisons,  the  collieries,  the  neglected  masses,  and  by 
putting  the  pure  leaven  of  the  old  Gospel  among  them  he  started  a 
genuine  reformation  which  reached  all  classes,  transformed  society, 
aroused  the  nation,  and  changed  the  current  of  English  history.  His 
followers,  in  all  the  zeal  of  a  new  love,  crossed  the  sea  westward,  and 
planted  the  seed  in  that  virgin  soil ;  his  ministers  followed  and  fed 
the  flock.  Asbury  and  his  coadjutors  were  in  at  the  formation  of  the 
society,  and  the  laying  of  the  foundations  of  the  powerful  Republic  on 
the  western  hemisphere,  and  no  other  agency  contributed  more  to  the 
Christian  character  of  that  nation  than  did  they.  The  voice  of  this 
young  Hercules  has  always  been  for  peace,  and  must  ever  so  continue. 

England,  spiritually  reformed  by  Methodism  ;  America,  largely  in- 
fluenced and  typed  by  the  teachings  and  spirit  of  Methodism  !  England 
and  America,  the  freest,  most  enlightened,  most  highly  civilised, 
most  truly  religious  nations  under  the  heaven !  England  and  America, 
united  now  in  spirit,  in  aim,  in  hope,  as  never  in  the  past — of  these 
it  may  be  said  that  they  hold  the  peace,  if  not  the  destinies,  of  the 
world  in  their  hands.  And  in  spite  of  any  seeming  minor  incon- 
sistencies, they  are,  they  must  be,  both  for  peace.  Peace  between 
themselves?  Assuredly!  War  between  two  such  nations — one  in 
civilisation,  one  in  religion,  one  in  speech,  one  in  every  true  interest, 
and  bound  by  a  common  aim  to  promote  the  peace  of  the  world — ^war 
between  such  nations  would  be  a  crime  the  magnitude  of  which  no 
language  could  utter.  Palsied  be  the  hand  that  shall  ever  be  up- 
lifted in  such  an  unholy  cause.  And  these  great  nations,  loving  peace, 
bound  to  keep  the  peace  between  themselves,  and  to  promote  it  to  the 
utmost  throughout  the  world,  how  much  Methodism  has  done  to  instil 
into  them  the  spirit  which  has  produced  these  results  ! 

Time  will  not  allow  me  to  speak  at  length  of  the  attitude  of  Mr. 
Wesley  toward  war.  His  position  is  well  known.  He  was  almost  as 
pronounced  against  it  as  George  Fox.  His  pen  and  voice,  and  influence 
were  always  for  peace.  His  followers  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic, 
and  in  all  lands,  have  imbibed  his  spirit.  The  uniform  teaching  of 
Methodism  in  all  her  councils  and  in  all  her  pulpits  has  been  against 
war,  and  Methodism  has  become  a  world-wide  system.  Mr.  Wesley 
said,  "  I  look  upon  the  world  as  my  parish."  But  in  saying  this  fie  did 
not  dream  of  the  significance  of  his  words.     His  sons,    animated   by 


96  THE    PROMOTION    OF    INTERNATIONAL    PEACE. 

liis  spirit,  have  gone  everywlieix'  preaching  iiic  Wurd,  and  to-day  the 
sound  of  Methodist  song  and  testimony  lias  encircled  the  glohe.  Her 
altars  rise  under  every  sky.  Her  converts  speak  all  the  leading 
languages,  and  many  of  the  dialects  of  this  babbling  earth.  I  stand 
to-day  in  the  presence  of  a  great  CEcumenical  Methodist  Conference. 
And  wherever  the  followers  of  Wesley  have  gone  they  have  carried  her 
message  of  peace,  and  are,  and  must  be,  a  power  to  influence  the 
nations  to  which  they  belong  for  peace,  and  bind  them  closer  and 
closer  in  sweet  accoid.  Methodism,  world-wide  and  aggressive,  is  toil- 
ing to  secure  the  brotherhood  of  the  race  which  will  make  war  im- 
possible. 

I  have  said  that  we  are  not  a  State  Church,  not  a  political  organisa- 
tion. Nevertheless,  we  have  not  shunned  to  declare  the  whole  counsel 
of  God  ;  and  men  have  heard  the  message  and  heeded  it.  The  sons 
of  the  Church  have  learned  her  lesson,  and,  coming  to  places  of  power, 
they  have  held  back  the  dogs  of  war  in  more  than  one  instance. 
Memory  on  the  instant  does  not  enable  me  to  cite  the  Methodist  sons 
of  Britain  who  have  stood  for  peace  in  the  nation's  councils,  but  on  our 
own  side  of  the  water  I  may  be  pardoned  an  allusion  or  two. 

That  great  soldier  who  led  to  victory  the  Union  forces  in  our  late 
unhappy  civil  strife,  the  gallant  commander,  the  magnanimous  victor, 
when  the  strife  was  ended  took  his  late  enemies  by  the  hand,  saying 
to  them,  in  their  discomfiture,  and  to  his  own  people  in  the  flush  of 
victory,  in  the  simplicity  and  sincerity  of  his  great  heart,  "  Now  let 
us  have  peace."  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  although  a  trained  soldier  and  a 
successful  leader  in  one  of  the  greatest  struggles  of  all  history,  devoted 
all  his  after  life  to  the  promotion  of  peace  among  his  own  countrymen 
and  throughout  the  world.  General  Grant,  although  not  a  member  of 
the  Methodist  Church,  was  in  fact  trained  in  a  Methodist  home,  and 
was  at  heart  a  Methodist. 

In  the  calling  and  in  the  councils  of  the  recent  Peace  Conference  at 
the  Hague,  resulting  in  the  establishment  of  the  International 
Tribunal  of  Arbitration,  the  most  advanced  movement  of  the  world,  we 
of  the  United  States  are  proud  to  know  that  our  Government  had  no 
insignificant,  if,  indeed,  it  had  a  second  place.  And  let  it  be  known 
that  at  the  head  of  that  Government,  its  real  as  well  as  its  nominal 
master,  whose  will  dominates  and  directs  all  its  policies  at  home  and 
abroad,  stands  that  sturdy  son  of  Methodism,  President  William 
McKinley.  This  honoured  man  was  taught  at  the  knee  of  a  queenly 
and  saintly  Methodist  mother,  who  has  never  to  this  day  lost  her 
influence  over  him,  though  she  has  now  been  translated.  It  is  an  open 
secret  with  us  that  when  the  late  Spanish-American  War  was  impend- 
ing, President  McKinley  resolutely  muzzled  his  guns,  and  held  back 
his  impatient  men  of  war.  He  insisted  that  diplomacy  would  settle 
the  Cuban  complications,  and  demanded  to  be  let  alone  in  the  pursuit 
of  peaceful  methods,  until  some  of  his  hot-headed  countrymen  accused 
him  of  weakness  and  cowardice  ;  but  firmly  he  stood,  and  with  good 
hope  of  success,  until  the  awful  catastrophe,  the  destruction  of  the 
"Maine,"  made  it  impossible  longer  to  restrain  an  outraged  and 
indignant  people.     He  was  then  for  peace  and  not  war.     He  is  always 


ADDRESS    OF   MR.    R.    W.    PERKS. 


97 


for  peace,  at  home  and  abroad,    and  to  his  Methodist  training  more 
than  to  anything  else  is  this  fact  due.* 

And  now,  of  the  things  wliicli  I  have  tried  to  say,  this  is  the  sum  : 
International  peace  is  to  he  promoted  chiefly  by  the  promulgation  of 
the  principles  of  the  Prince  of  Peace  ;  and  in  the  spread  of  these 
principles  throughout  the  world,  and  in  their  incarnation  in 
human  lives,  no  agency  has  been  more  active  and  effective  than  the 
movement  called  Methodism  ;  for  this  our  testimony  must  stand  until 
nations  shall  learn  war  no  more. 

Mr.  R.  W.  Perks,  M.P.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Churob),  gave  the 
fii'st  appointed  address,  ag  follows : 

Methodism  all  the  world  over  is  a  non-political  institution.  No 
Christian  Church  can  succeed  as  a  political  power,  and  such  power 
is  no  test  of  the  Evangelical  progress  it  may  make.  Speaking  for 
the  East,  and  not  for  the  West,  I  would  say  that  Methodism  has 
never  sought  political  power.  We  have  no  backstairs  entrance  to  the 
Departments  of  the  State  ;  we  have  no  Methodist  section  or  party  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  or  in  the  House  of  Lords,  dominated  either  by 
Catholic  or  by  Anglican  opinion.  We  have  no  agents  in  what  is  called 
society  to  pull  the  strings  of  nations  ;  and  we  have  no  organisation  for 
directing  the  public  Press.  May  I  point  out  that  wherever  a  religious 
community  has  striven  to  control  directly  political  opinion,  that  nation 
has  decayed,  and,  as  a  rule,  failed.  Mr.  Lecky,  one  of  our  most  accom- 
plished historians,  points  this  out  clearly  and  emphatically  concerning 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  "  It  is  indeed,"  he  says,  "  not  too  much 
to  say  that  some  of  the  worst  moral  perversions  of  modern  times  have 
been  supported  and  stimulated  by  a  great  body  of  genuinely  Catholic 
opinion,  both  in  the  Priesthood  and  the  Press."  We  have  only  to 
turn  our  eyes  to  the  state  of  France,  to  the  secret  efforts  to  undermine 
the  power  of  Italy,  to  see  how  true  is  that  political  dictum.  I  do  not 
refer  to  such  influences  now  in  our  own  country. 

May  I  say  that  while  the  attempts  of  Churches,  as  such,  by  organised 
efforts  to  guide  public  opinion  have  failed,  and  I  think  are  increasingly 
destined  to  fail,  the  efforts  of  clerical  leaders  of  opinion,  massed  to- 
gether, federated  together,  as  such,  whether  they  be  priests,  bishops, 
presbyters,  or  Nonconformist  preachers,  when  they  gather  together  to 
make  their  manifestoes  upon  great  political  issues  without  the  guiding, 
moderating,  assisting  influence  of  the  laity  of  their  Churches,  come  to 
grief.  Methodism's  influence  is  moral ;  our  creed  is  Evangelical ;  our 
faith  in  humanity  is  boundless.  We  look  upon  every  citizen  as  the  unit 
of  the  State,  and  we  try  to  reform  the  citizen,  and,  reforming  the  unit. 
we  change  society.  Our  power  as  a  Church  is  world-wide.  We  have  a 
hold,  a  tight  hold,  upon  the  classes  who  control  society,  who  govern 
Kingdoms  and  Republics  ;  because,  believe  me,  brethren,  that  power 
is  not  to  be  found  in  the  salons  of  society,  it  is  not  to  be  found  in  tlie 


*  President  William  McKinley  was  sliot  hj  an  assassin  on  the  day  following'  that  on 
which  Dr.  Smith  gave  his  paper,  and  died  a  week  later. 

8 


gS  THE    PROMOTION    OF    INTERNATIONAL    PEACE. 

rlubs  uf  Tall  Mall.  But.  t()-(la_y,  as  in  the  brightesl,  epochs  of  universal 
history,  that  ^wwer  is  found  in  the  homes  of  the  people,  and  at  the  feet 
of  God.  I  hope  that  just  as  the  influence  of  the  Churches  was  exerted 
in  settling  some  of  the  difficult  problems  which  have  cropped  up — the 
Behring  Straits  Arbitration,  the  Venezuelan  difhculty,  possibly  the 
Nicaragua  difficulties,  and  the  Frontier  difficulties  between  Canada 
and  the  United  States — the  federated  influence  of  our  Churches 
will  be  flung  in  favour  of  arbitration,  moderation,  conciliation,  and 
peace. 

I  am  not  here  to  contend  that  wars  are  not  sometimes  necessary. 
I  believe  they  have  been,  and  they  possibly  may  be.  A  war  for 
liberty — who,  here  in  this  historic  assembly,  in  this  great  building, 
will  say  that  the  war  of  our  forefathers  in  the  times  of  the  Common- 
wealth, that  struggle  for  liberty,  was  not  a  just  war  ;  and  your  war  for 
independence  ;  wars  for  humanity  and  order  ;  your  own  civil  wars  ; 
wars  of  defence?  I  say  that  there  are  conditions,  must  be  conditions, 
and  probably  in  years  to  come  will  be,  when  such  wars  are  paramount 
necessities.  May  I  quote  here  the  words  of  that  great  statesman  who 
has  passed  to  his  rest  and  reward  since  our  last  Ecumenical  Methodist 
Conference  met  in  Washington — I  mean  Mr.  Gladstone  ?  "  However 
deplorable,"  says  Mr.  Gladstone,  "wars  may  be,  they  are  among  the 
necessities  of  our  condition,  and  there  are  times  when  justice,  when 
faith,  when  the  welfare  of  mankind,  require  a  man  not  to  shrink  from 
the  responsibilities  of  undertaking  them." 

What  are  the  forces  which  contribute  to  war?  First,  I  will  put 
ignorance.  We  have  entrusted  diplomacy  to  secret  tribunals.  The 
power  of  Parliament  to-day,  representing  the  power  of  the  people  in 
this  country,  is  not  Avhat  it  was  ten  years  ago.  We  are  losing — let  us 
face  it  as  citizens,  as  voters — we  are  losing  control  of  our  national  life. 
We  have  not  got  the  power  we  had.  It  is  centring  in  our  depart- 
ments, it  is  being  entrusted  to  an  oligarchy,  it  is  passing  from  the 
hands  of  Parliament,  and  I  say  that  it  is  one  of  the  dangers  of  war. 

Wars  of  the  past  have  been  dynastic.  They  never  will  be  in  future. 
What  two  nations  would  go  to  war  to-day  to  settle  whether  this  young 
woman  was  to  marry  that  young  man?  They  have  been  religious.  I 
do  not  think  they  will  ever  be  religious  again.  They  have  been  terri- 
torial. They  possibly  may  be  territorial  again,  but  I  believe  in  a  very 
decreasing  degree.  Our  struggles,  possibly,  will  be  commercial ;  they 
will  be  on  questions  of  tariff,  possibly  ;  and  therefore  I  ask  any  intelli- 
gent citizen :  Shall  we  not  lose  infinitely  more  by  appealing  to  the 
arbitrament  of  war  on  question  of  tariff  than  by  going  to  a  reasonable 
and  unprejudiced  tribunal? 

The  second  danger  we  have  to  face  is  what  is  called  the  profession  of 
arms.  There  are  growing  up  in  all  countries,  and  in  your  democratic 
country,  because  you  have  your  pensioners  upon  the  State  among  the 
ranks  of  the  people — there  are  in  all  countries  growing  up  classes  who 
are  directly,  pecuniarily,  personally  interested  in  the  profession  of 
arms,  and  the  increase  of  that  section  of  society  is  a  growing  danger. 
We  have  it  in  what  is  called  society  ;  you  have  it  among  that  enormous, 


ADDRESS    OF    BISHOP    A.    W.    WILSON, 


99 


tliat  uiiintelligibk'  army  to  us  who  are  Eastern  citizens,  of  ineu  whom 
you  pension  because  their  ancestors  fell  in  your  wars— and  many  of  them 
did  not  fall.  You  have  your  great  sliipyards.  We  have  our  great 
towns  whieh  prosper  when  war  is  progiessing,  and  which  are  in  a  state 
of  decadence  when  peace  exists.  Go  to  Cramp's  Yards  in  your  country. 
Go  to  Newport  News  Y'ards  in  your  country,  which  I  know  very  well. 
Go  to  Creusot's  Yards,  or  Krupp's,  in  Germany  ;  or  Armstrong's,  in 
England  ;  and  what  will  they  tell  you?  That  their  busiest  times  are 
when  nations  are  preparing  for  war.     This  is  a  danger  to  the  State. 

There  is  a  third  danger — the  corrupt  and  unlicensed  journalism  of 
the  day.  Read  Bismarck's  history.  Recall  to  your  mind  the  Dreyfus 
contest  in  France.  Those  two  are  enough  to  show  us  how  great  is  the 
corruption,  how  great  is  the  licence,  how  vast  is  tlie  influence  of  an 
unbridled,  corrupt,  and  un-Christian  Press 

My  last  point  is  this — because  my  time  has  gone — that  our  fourth 
great  danger  is  the  untrue  and  un-Christian  conception  of  what  is  real 
glory,  and  what  is  true  heroism.  I  say  it  is  no  heroism  to  invent  a 
machine  which  in  the  dead  of  the  night  coming  under  the  waters  will 
pierce  one  of  your  great  battleships,  and  send  thousands  of  souls  to 
their  eternal  reward.  I  trust  that  the  power  of  our  Church,  as  in  days 
gone  by,  increased  and  federated,  will  be  applied  to  combating  these 
influences  to  which  I  have  called  attention,  and  to  strive  that  we  may 
become,  by  being  peacemakers,  the  children  of  God. 

Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.D.  (Meth,odist  Episcopal  Church,  South), 
in  the  absence  of  the  Hon.  S.  B.  Adams  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South),  gave  the  second  appointed  address,  as  follows  : 

I  shall  not  waste  any  time  making  apologies.  If  I  say  anything 
good,  it  is  my  own  ;  and  if  I  do  not,  you  charge  it  to  the  original, 
who  ought  to  be  here,  and  is  not. 

The  question  itself  is  narrowed  down,  I  think,  to  a  very  small 
space.  A  simple  exhortation  of  the  Apostle  will  show  the  place  that 
Ave,  as  Methodists,  and  as  a  Church  of  God,  occupy  in  relation  to 
international  peace  :  "  I  exhort,  therefore,  that,  first  of  all,  supplica- 
tions, prayers,  intercessions,  and  giving  of  thanks,  be  made  for 
all  men  ;  for  kings,  and  for  all  that  are  in  authority  ;  that  we  may 
lead  a  quiet  and  peaceable  life  in  all  godliness  and  honesty  .  .  . 
I  will,  therefore,  that  men  pray  everywhere,  lifting  up  holy  hands, 
without  wrath  and  doubting."  My  impression  is  that  the  secret  of  the 
whole  matter  lies  there.  We  may  organise  Peace  Conferences  and  pass 
peace  resolutions  in  our  Conferences,  and  express  ourselves  in  the 
newspapers,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing.  But  they  are  mere  incidents, 
and  if  they  be  not  sincere  and  genuine  expressions  of  the  spirit  and 
power  that  underlie  our  relations  to  God  and  to  humanity,  they  are 
nothing  more  than  the  passing  breeze,  and  amount  to  nothing. 

The  element  of  power  in  Methodism  has  always  been  at  the  bottom. 
We  have  laid  great  stress  upon  personal  spiritual  life,  we  have  insisted 
upon  vital  godliness.  We  have  insisted  in  every  other  department  of  our 
religious  life  that  is  the  essential  thing,  and  nothing  is  available  for 
use,  or  effective  in  service,  without  that.     Is  it  not  so  also  in  this  case? 


TOO  THE    PROMOTION   OF    INTERNAtlONAL    PEACE. 

We  do  manufacture  public  opinion,  but  we  do  it  by  that  subtle, 
im-isible  process  which  works  within  the  secret  chambers  of  human 
souls,  and  through  the  agencies  of  living  experience— Christian  life. 
There  is  more  power  to  accomplish  the  peace  of  the  -world  in  our  own 
rooms  than  there  is  in  all  the  open  Conferences  that  can  be  held.  The 
men  that  move  the  world  are  the  men  that  keep  talking  with  God  day 
by  day.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  multitude  of  these  saintly  women 
who  have  influenced  so  largely  the  modern  life  of  Christendom,  un- 
obtrusively and  quietly,  have  done  more  to  bring  about  a  condition  of 
things  that  promises  peace  in  the  future  than  we  have  done  with  our 
more  open  demonstrations  and  more  active  efforts. 

I  am  satisfied  that  at  the  bottom.,  after  all,  we  have  to  get  back  ta 
those  first  principles.  John  the  Baptist  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
preached  to  the  soldiers,  and  gave  them  directions  as  to  their  methods 
of  life,  but  did  not  say  a  word  about  wars,  or  the  causes  of  wars, 
except  that  they  would  be.  They  taught  us  nothing  as  to  the  reason 
why  wars  should  be  carried  on,  or  why  wars  should  cease.  They  only 
let  us  know  that  underlying  all  the  commotion,  tumult,  disturbance, 
passion  and  strife  of  this  world  there  were  elements  at  work  which  m 
time  would  cause  them  all  to  subside  and  settle  down  into  permanent 
and  final  composure  and  rest.  It  is  to  these  elements  that  we  are 
looking  under  a  sort  of  chemical  process  that  we  cannot  see  or  define  ; 
but  the  element  is  there  and  the  force  is  there — the  vital  force.  When 
Methodism  takes  its  true  place  in  relation  to  the  nations  of  the  world 
and  international  relations,  it  will  be  found  that  the  power  that  has 
controlled  and  influenced  and  directed  the  whole  course  of  events 
was  simply  the  individual  religious  life  of  the  great  body  of  the 
Church  of  God. 

I  am  quite  satisfied  that  must  be  the  case.  We  have  had  a  great 
deal  of  effort  made  in  these  last  years  to  influence  legislation.  I  never 
had  much  faith  in  it.  I  do  not  look  to  law  to  promote  temperance, 
or  almost  anything  else  that  is  good.  I  have  never  been  satisfied  that 
methods  and  agencies  of  that  sort,  except  as  the  vohmtary  expression 
of  an  uncontrollable  and  all-powerful  principle  and  vital  element  within, 
would  avail  anything.  You  may  put  some  obstacles  out  of  the  way  and 
bring  in  some  incidental  agencies  that  may  smooth  things  over,  but, 
after  all,  that  which  will  work  the  result  will  be  the  consciousness  that 
God  is  at  work  within  men,  and  through  the  whole  course  of  society 
and  of  nations  too.  "  The  nations  and  the  kingdoms  " — that  was  the 
lesson  which  we  heard  this  morning — "  shall  serve  Him  "  ;  and  unless 
they  come  to  the  recognition  of  Him  we  shall  never  get  to  that  state 
of  civilisation  and  that  position  in  relation  to  all  the  elements  of  a 
highly  refined,  cultured,  and  pure  life  that  we  are  seeking. 

Our  Methodism  needs,  first  of  all,  cultivation  of  its  spiritual  power 
and  life — ^recourse  to  the  private  room  more  than  anything  else,  cease- 
less daily  prayer  to  God,  which  avails  more  than  aught  else  besides  ; 
prayer  for  kings  and  all  that  are  in  authority,  with  a  distinct'  view  to 
the  fact  that  we  may  lead  quiet  and  peaceable  lives.  If  I  should  speak 
for  an  hour  I  do  not  know  that  I  could  say  anything  more  than  that. 
I  hold  St.  Paul  to  be  a  first-class  authority,  and  I  am  very  well  satisfied 


O-ENERAL    REMARKS.  lOI 

that  when  we  get  outside  the  range— narrow  as  it  may  seem—of  the 
prescriptions  and  provisions  of  the  Gospel  and  the  New  Testament, 
we  shall  be  very  apt  to  go  astray.  All  the  rest  of  it  is  mere  conjec- 
ture, and  speculation,  and  effort,  oftentimes  baseless,  of  our  human 
reason  and  human  energies  ;  but  when  we  get  to  that  we  are  on  solid 
ground.     We  cannot  make  any  mistake  there. 

What  Jesus  Christ  says  is  absolutely  certain.  What  St.  Paul  says 
we  take  upon  Divine  authority.  We  are  sure  that  the  things  that 
they  tell  us  to  do  are  exactly  the  things  that  we  ought  to  do,  and  that 
if  we  do  them  the  necessary  result  will  follow.  We  complain  that  we 
have  lived  so  long  since  Christ  spoke,  and  Paul  talked,  without  having 
achieved  the  result.  Well,  have  we  done  any  better  on  any  other 
line  ?  Our  great  aim  has  been  right  against  sin.  We  have  been  fight- 
ing it  through  all  these  centuries  ;  yet  it  is  about  us  every  day,  open, 
barefaced,  unashamed.  We  see  it,  and  we  scarcely  take  notice  of  it. 
We  simply  shrug  our  shoulders  if  it  is  a  little  more  pronounced  than 
usual,  and  turn  away  and  smile.  We  do  not  feel  that  awful  horror  at 
its  presence  which  took  the  Psalmist  when  he  saw  people  violating  the 
law.  So  is  it  with  wars  and  tumults,  and  things  of  that  sort.  We 
have  to  get  rid  of  the  sin  first,  and  then  we  shall  get  rid  of  the  wars. 
Strike  at  that,  the  root  of  the  whole  business.  Aim  at  the  very 
fundamental  and  essential  evil  of  the  matter,  and  when  you  have  that 
out  of  the  way  you  will  get  all  the  rest  out  ;  for  Christ  came,  "  not  to 
send  peace  on  the  earth,  but  a  sword,"  until  the  sword  should  hew 
down  everything  that  stood  against  Him.  Wlien  that  is  done  we  can 
look  for  quietness  and  assurance  for  ever. 

Mr.  Thom4s  Snapb,  J.P.  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches), 
opened  the  discussion  as  follows  : 

At  the  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference  at  Washington  I  had 
the  honour,  at  the  request  of  the  Committee,  to  submit  a  paper 
upon  the  subject  of  International  Arbitration.  Ten  years  have  passed 
away  since  then,  and  I  wish  a  practical  answer  to  be  given  to  the 
question,  with  a  view  of  helping  us  to  future  considerations  as  to 
what  Methodism  has  done  on  behalf  of  peace  during  those  ten  years. 
It  is  not  good  enough  for  me  to  have  even  John  the  Baptist  brought  up 
as  an  authority  to  fight.  He  was  less  than  the  least  in  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven,  and  he  told  the  soldiers  to  do  violence  to  no  man,  and  if 
they  had  acted  upon  that  principle  there  would  have  been  no  war. 
It  is  not  good  enough  for  me  to  say  that  Christ  stated,  "  My  King- 
dom is  not  of  this  Avorld,"  for  if  the  Church  has  no  message  for  the 
world,  then  I  want  to  know  what  is  the  good  of  the  Church  ?  At  that 
Conference  we  were  honoured  by  the  presence  of  a  good  man,  who 
has  since  gone  to  his  rest,  President  Harrison.  He  made  a  speech  at 
that  Conference,  and  he  told  us  that  he  was  going  away  from  it, 
notwithstanding  his  approval  of  International  Arbitration,  and  his 
sympathy  with  our  efforts  in  that  direction,  to  the  Navy  yard  to  inspect 
the  meri-of-Avar  of  the  United  States.  I  leave  it  to  the  Methodists 
of  the  United  States  to  judge  liow  far  the  men-of-war  of  their  country 
since  1891  have  been  well  employed. 

We  have  had  at  llio  Hague  an  International  Conference,  and  very 
satisfactory  conclusions,   so  far  as  they  went,    arose  from  that  Con- 


I02  THE    PROMOTION    OF    INTERNATIONAL    PEACE. 

ference  ;  and  yet  I  am  bound  to  ask  myself,  as  a  subject  of  Great 
Britain,  whether  the  result  of  it  has  been  of  such  a  character,  looking 
at  events  that  have  taken  place  in  South  Africa,  as  I,  as  a  Methodist, 
can  be  satisfied  with.  I  ask  you,  therefore,  not  to  talk  any  vague 
generalities  about  this  matter,  but  to  apply  your  principles  to  the 
practical  events  of  national  life.  If  we  have  no  message  for  the 
ethics  of  our  national  action,  then  I  think  we  had  better  at  once  close 
our  doors  and  shut  our  pulpits. 

Look  at  what  occurred  in  1891.  There  had  been  held,  as  I  had 
occasion  then  to  point  out,  a  Pan-American  Conference.  The  members 
of  that  Conference  had  all  agreed  that  the  differences  betwixt  the 
States  of  North  and  South  America  should  always  be  settled  by 
arbitration.  They  went  back  to  their  respective  Governments,  and 
they  failed  to  have  those  decisions  ratified  by  those  Governments, 
and  although  ten  years  have  gone  by,  that  Pan-American  Conference 
remains  exactly  where  it  was.  The  Hague  decisions,  so  far  as  they 
have  had  any  effect  upon  recent  events,  are  exactly  as  though  they 
had  never  been  arrived  at.  I  want  to  knov  whether  we,  as  Metho- 
dists, and  whether  the  Christian  Church  generally,  has  acted  upon 
the  principles  of  Christ?  Longfellow,  your  American  poet,  said,  "I 
hear  once  more  the  voice  of  Christ  say.  Peace."  Did  you  hear  the 
voice  of  Christ  say  "Peace"  in  the  matter  of  the  Philippines'?  Do 
we  hear  the  voice  of  Christ  say  "  Peace "  in  the  matter  of  South 
Africa?  Have  we  endeavoured  to  withstand  those  wars  by  carrying 
out  the  Pauline  and  the  Scriptural  principle  of  showing  a  more 
excellent  way  of  manifesting  that  love  is  easily  entreated  and  is 
kind  ?  Has  that  been  our  practice  ?  If  it  is  not,  is  it  not  high  time 
that  we,  as  a  great  section  of  the  Christian  Church,  should  devise 
means  by  which  the  view  that  we  hold  shall  be  practically  applied 
to  the  actions  of  the  different  nations  to  which  we  belong  ? 

The  Rev.  E.  E.  Ross,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South), 
spoke  as  follows : 

I  am  very  much  puzzled  to  know  just  what  our  brethren  mean  when 
they  propose  to  make  a  practical  application  of  our  New  Testament 
principles  to  the  settlement  of  all  questions  of  war.  There  have  been 
one  or  two  very  small  wars  in  the  United  States  during  the  past  three 
or  four  years.  Very  few  of  us  have  been  aware  of  the  fact  that  the 
wars  were  going  on — they  have  been  so  easy.  I  should  like  to  know 
whether  any  organised  body  of  Christians  would  have  the  right,  or 
whether  it  would  be  at  all  becoming  and  proper,  on  the  part  of  any 
organised  body  of  Christians,  to  issue  a  deliverance  as  to  the  exact 
manner  in  which  the  Government  of  the  United  States  should  comport 
itself  in  reference  to  those  wars.  Great  Britain  has  had  a  war  in 
South  Africa,  very  much  to  be  regretted.  Nobody  deplores  it  more 
than  I  do.  As  one  of  our  great  American  generals,  for  whom  we 
Southerners  have  more  respect  now  than  we  had  twenty-five  years 
ago,  used  to  say,  "War  is  hell."  Yet,  is  there  any  man  in  this 
Conference  that  would  have  the  audacity  to  issue  a  deliverance  as  to 
the  exact  manner  in  which  Great  Britain  shall  deal  with  the  questions 
growing  out  of  this  war  ? 

War  questions  cannot  be  settled  like  mathematical  questions  ;  they 
are  complicated  and  tangled  worse  than  a  skein  of  silk  after  it  has 
been  ravelled  out  and  trampled  upon.  There  are  a  thousand  issues 
to  be  settled  in  connection  with  every  war,  and  I  should  deeply  deplore 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  IO3 

any  effort  on  the  part  of  tliis  body  to  speak,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
with  reference  to  the  justice  or  the  injustice  on  the  one  side  or  the  other 
of  South  African  questions.  As  an  American,  I  should  resent  it  as  an 
impertinence  for  anybody  else  to  undertake  to  settle  our  questions 
for  us,  and  if  I  were  a  Briton  I  should  resent  it  as  an  impertinence 
for  anybody  to  undertake  to  settle  our  questions. 

All  the  influence  that  we  can  exert  in  regard  to  these  matters  is 
indirect,  and  moral,  and  spiritual.  Every  individual  has  a  right  to 
his  own  opinions,  to  express  them  at  the  ballot-box  ;  but  I  should 
like  to  see  the  Church  that  would  endeavour  to  organise  and  mass 
Methodism  to  carry  out  any  political  programme,  or  any  scheme  of 
that  kind  !  I  have  been  asked  frequently  to  what  political  party  I 
belong  in  Americc-'.     I  do  not  belong  to  any  political  party. 

The  trouble  about  all  definite,  tangible,  practical  schemes  of  this 
sort  is,  that  they  involve  an  amount  of  mechanical  arrangement  and 
ecclesiastical  domination  to  which  Methodists  the  wide  world  over 
will  never  submit.  We  are  not  a  very  peaceable  people.  I  am  not 
quite  sure  that  Dr.  Smith  was  correct  when  he  said  that  the 
Americans  were  a  peaceable  people.  We  have  fought  everybody  in 
sight.  We  have  fought  the  Indians.  We  joined  you  in  fighting  the 
French,  in  wrestling  with  them  for  the  control  of  the  great  Mississippi 
Valley.  We  turned  and  fought  you  when  we  had  nobody  else  to 
fight,  and  after  a  breathing  spell  we  fought  you  again.  At  a  later 
date  we  fought  one  another,  God  pity  us!  God  forbid  that  any  such 
thing  should  ever  occur  again.  But  out  of  that  war,  with  all  its  horrors 
and  all  its  bloodshed,  there  has  come  a  better  nation.  Out  of  that 
war  there  has  come  a  more  imposing  Union,  which  has  come  without 
the  surrender  of  any  of  our  local  rights,  or  of  any  of  our  personal 
and  individual  liberties.  God  is  in  the  midst  of  all  the  movements 
tliat  are  going  on  in  this  world. 

The  Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
said  : 

I  think  there  is  danger  of  losing  sight  of  what  Christianity  has 
already  accomplished  in  this  matter  of  war.  When  the  century  that 
has  recently  passed  into  history  came  in,  all  Europe  was  a  battlefield, 
and  the  first  half  of  the  century  was  one  in  which  the  so-called 
Christian  nations  of  Europe  were  engaged  in  a  death  struggle.  The 
old  century  passed  out  with  but  very  little  war  on  this  planet.  The 
war  that  was  going  on  in  South  Africa,  and  what  remained  of  the 
struggle  l)etween  the  United  States  and  Spain,  was  all  there  was  of 
war  on  this  planet,  and  to-day  this  world  is  in  a  state  of  peace 
such  as  it  has  hardly  known  in  all  its  history-.  We  have  much  to 
thank  God  for  in  what  Christianity  has  already  accomplished.  This  is 
the  outcome  of  that  moral  and  spiritual  life  to  which  Bishop  Wilson 
has  referred  from  this  platform. 

I  do  not  look  upon  the  Conference  at  the  Hague  as  having  been 
a  matter  of  small  importance.  I  shall  never  forget  the  morning 
when  I  read  in  the  newspaper  the  call  of  the  Czar  for  that  Conference" 
I  thought  I  saw  on  that  north-eastern  sky  the  first  dawning  of  the 
light  of  which  Isaiah  prophesied,  when  the  mountains  of  the  Lord's 
House  shall  be  exalted  in  the  top  of  the  mountains  and  above  the 
hills,  and  all  nations  shall  flow  into  it,  and  when  nation  shall  cease 
to  war  against  nation,  the  sword  be  beaten  into  the  jjloughshare, 
the  spear  into  the  iiruning  hook,   and   men   shall   learn  war  no   more. 


I04  THE   PROMOTION    OF    INTERNATIONAL    PEACE. 

I  believe  that  the  influence  of  the  Hague  Conference  will  be  felt  upon 
the  nations  of  the  earth  in  all  the  years  which  are  to  come.  It  is 
the  inauguration,  the  beginning,  of  a  new  policy  in  reference  to  the 
settling  of  differences  between  nations,  and  we  have  great  reason  to 
thank  God  for  what  has  already  been  accomplished. 

I  am  not  scared  and  alarmed  because  of  navies  and  standing  armies. 
I  think  the  world  would  get  along  quite  as  well  without  the  great 
standing  armies,  and  without  the  great  navies.  But,  for  the  time 
being,  the  navies  police  the  seas  of  the  world,  and  the  armies 
the  lands  of  the  world.  After  all,  they  are  a  sort  of  guarantee  for 
peace.  I  do  not  look  upon  the  fact  of  a  nation  having  a  standing 
army  as  being  a  great  crime.  The  time  may  come  when  these  standing 
armies  can  be  disbanded,  and  I  hope  that  time  will  come,  but  for 
the  time  being  these  standing  armies  are  more  a  guarantee  of  peace 
in  a  great  many  instances  than  they  are  of  war. 

We  ought,  also,  to  thank  God,  I  think,  that  war  is  not  what  it 
was  in  years  that  are  gone  by.  The  war  that  has  been  going  on  in 
South  Africa  has  had  some  cruel  things  in  it,  but  they  were  the 
common  things  of  war  a  century  ago.  There  are  more  ameliorating 
influences  among  the  nations  that  forbid  cruelties  in  war  than  the 
world  has  ever  seen  in  all  its  history. 

The    Rev.    R.    Abercrombib,    M.A.     (United    Methodist    Free 

Churohes),  siaid. : 

I  am  the  son  of  a  soldier.  My  grandfather  was  a  soldier,  my  great- 
grandfather was  a  soldier,  and  my  father  and  mother  were  in  Gibraltar 
for  a  number  of  years.  I  wish,  first,  to  bear  testimony  to  the  work  of 
the  Methodists,  to  the  work  of  the  Mother  Church,  in  the  Army 
many  years  ago.  I  have  a  diary  of  my  mother's,  Avritten 
between  the  years  1820  and  1830,  containing  an  account 
of  a  great  revival  that  took  place  among  the  soldiers  during 
those  years.  My  conviction  is  that  one  of  the  chief  relations  of  the 
Methodist  Church  to  this  quej^tlon  has  been  the  sweetening  and 
Christianising  process  that  has  taken  place  in  the  Army  itself,  as  the 
result  of  Methodist  work. 

As  regards  the  doctrines  of  Methodism — for  the  subject  before  us 
is  really  the  relation  of  Methodism  to  international  peace — let  us 
remember  that  Methodism  was  a  kind  of  Broad  Church  before  there 
was  any  Broad  Church  in  the  Church  of  England.  Let  us  remember 
that  in  an  age  of  Calvinism,  &n  age  of  narrow  opinions  in  theology, 
John  Wesley  taught  God's  universal  truth.  He  taught  the  universality 
of  the  Atonement ;  he  taught  those  very  doctrines  which  have  led 
on  to  the  deep  conviction  that  men  of  all  Churches  have  in  our  days, 
of  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  Brotherhood  of  man,  and  it  is  those 
convictions  which,  in  the  long  run,  will  do  more  than  anything  else  to 
put  an  end  to  war. 

I  am  not  a  peace-at-any-price  man.  I  believe  there  have  been  battles 
which  have  done  enormous  service  to  humanity.  It  was  a  great  battle 
that  put  a  stop  to  the  progress  of  Mohammedanism  in  Europe.  It 
was  a  great  battle  fought  by  King  Alfred,  the  millenary  of  whose  death 
we  keep  this  year,  in  the  year  870,  which  put  an  end  to  the  incursions 
of  the  Danes,  and  began  all  the  modern  progress  and  unity  of  England. 
We  owe  to  some  of  the  great  battles  of  the  past  all  those  things. 
Nevertheless,  bearing  in  mind  those  things,  bearing  dn  mind  the 
teaching  of  the  Old  Testament  as  well  as  the  teaching  of  the  New 
— for    I    believe    in    the    Old    Testament,    and    I    do    not    believe 


GENERAL    REMARKS. 


105 


that  one  dispensah'MU  ..f  God  altogLthor  does  away  with 
another  ;  that  is  a  kind  >^f  rluoiidlogical  fallacy  which  imposes  upon 
the  minds  of  some  pcuplc— bearing  in  mind  all  these  things,  neverthe- 
less the  ultimate  tendency  of  ilie  Gospel  will  be  to  put  an  end  to  the 
thousand    wars    of    old  and   bring    in    the    thousand   years  of    peace. 

How  are  we  to  make  our  convictions  effectual  ?  Is  it  an  imperti- 
nence of  the  Christian  Church  to  express  its  opinion  'i  Surely  the 
Christian  Church  has  as  much  right  to  express  its  opinion  as  those 
newspapers  about  which  we  have  heard  so  much  this  morning.  It  is 
true  that  the  message  of  John  Wesley  was  individual.  Does  not  an 
individual  message  sometimes  expand  into  a  social  message  ?  Has 
the  Christian  Church  had  nothing  to  say  in  the  past  ahout  slavery, 
which,  let  us  remember,  was  once  a  political  question  ?  War,  also,' 
is  a  thing  that  we  may  have  something  to  say  about,  but  let  it  be 
something  practical.  Let  us  not  interfere  in  the  midst  of  a  sequence 
of  events  over  which  we  exercise  no  real  control  ;  but  while  the  thing 
is  hanging  in  the  balance,  let  the  Christian  Church  then,  as  a  united 
body,  express  its  strong  conviction  that  no  war  should  take  place 
except  under  the  stress  of  an  absolute  necessity.  Let  it  express  its 
conviction,  then,  instead  of  the  wild,  vague  suggestions  that  we  have 
in  various  newspapers  at  the  present  time,  one  contradicting  another. 

If  the  Christian  Church  would,  during  the  time  of  negotiation,  during 
the  time  of  diplomacy,  exert  all  the  influence  that  it  has,  as  one 
united  power  in  favour  of  peace,  then  I  believe  that  all  wars  that  are 
unnecessary  and  cruel  would  be  prevented  ;  and  we  might  be  able  to  do 
something,  not  merely  by  our  influence  on  individuals,  but  in  a  social 
way,  for  the  good  of  mankind,  and  for  the  blessing  of  our  own  nation. 
I  believe  it  is  the  duty  and  function  of  the  Cliristian  Church  not  merely 
to  save  the  soul :  that  is  its  first  great  duty  ;  but  also  to  do  something 
that  there  may  be  sweeter  manners  and  purer  laws. 

Mr.  Adam  Adams,  J.P.  (Primitive  Methodist  Church),  was  the 
next  speaker.     He  said : 

My  name  is  Adam  Adams,  a  name  that  existed  before  the  first 
battle  was  fought.  I  was  deeply  pained  this  morning  as  I  opened 
a  newspaper,  one  of  our  dailies,  and  found  that  the  first  leader  in 
that  very  largely-circulated  and  influential  paper,  the  purpose  of 
which  seems  to  be  to  set  forth  daily  the  claims  of  militarism,  was  a 
leader  of  congratulation  to  the  Methodist  Church  for  the  magnificent 
expression  in  favour  of  Imperialism  it  gave  in  its  discussion  of  yester- 
day. I  ask  you  to  lay  that  to  heart.  Is  our  chief  business  here 
to  spread  the  spirit  of  militarism  and  to  defond  the  actions  of  military 
experts   of  the  past  ? 

I  cannot  forget  that  we  are  Christians.  There  are  divisions  of 
political  opinion  in  this  great  body,  I  have  no  doubt.  I  am.  not  going 
to  tell  you  what  side  of  politics  I  take,  but  I  will  confess  that  next 
to  being  a  Christian,  I  am  proud  of  being  an  Englishman.  I  have 
much  faith  in  the  beneficence  of  British  Government,  wherever  that 
Government  is  established,  but  I  want  us,  as  a  body  of  Christians, 
and  especially  as  Methodistic  Cliristians,  who  are  among  the  pioneers 
in  spreading  truth  throughout  the  Churches  of  the  land,  to  set  forth 
in  no  uncertain  voice  our  opinion  on  the  question  of  the  maintenance 
of  peace.      Mistakes  have  been  made  ;  forget  them  for  the  moment. 

What  shall  be  the  policy  of  the  hour  ?  We  have  been  told  by  a 
previous  speaker  that  it  is  not  our  business  to  pronounce.  Then 
what  is  our  business  here  to-day?    We  are  supposed  to  walk  in  the 


I06  THE    PROMOTION    OF    INTERNATIONAL    PEACE. 

footsteps  of  our  Divine  Master,  to  speak  His  words,  t"  think  His 
thoughts,  to  do  His  deeds.  And  what  said  our  Lord  and  Master? 
"  They  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  with  the  sword."  Did  He  not 
say,  "  Unto  him  that  smiteth  thee  on  the  one  cheek  offer  also  the 
other"  ?  You  may  discuss  the  question  as  to  whether  it  is  practicable 
in  the  range  of  politics,  but  not  in  this  Congress.  What  we  should 
say  here  to-day  should  be  such  as  will  tend  to  the  consolidation  and 
maintenance  of  peace.  Let  it  be  known  that  we  have  no  faith  in  the 
sword. 

A  speaker  who  preceded  me  spoke  of  the  necessity  of  having 
a  strong  navy  and  maintaining  our  armaments.  Brethren,  that  is  not 
our  business.  Our  business  is  to  counsel  the  heads  of  the  nation, 
those  who  direct  national  affairs,  that  forgiveness  and  conciliation, 
and  such  things  as  will  promote  the  well-being  and  peace  of  the 
nation  must  be  the  first  business  of  all  responsible  statesmen.  I 
cannot  forget  that  what  we  want  in  this  country  is  a  vetoing  power. 
We  have  too  much  of  autocratic  rule.  Let  the  Christians  of  our 
nation  take  up  this  question,  and  at  the  ballot-box  express  their 
opinion  that  wars  henceforth  in  this  twentieth  century  shall  cease, 
and  that  if  ever  war  shall  be  justified  it  must  be  justified  as  the 
extremest,  last  resource  when  unfortunate  circumstances  of  estrange- 
ment or  difficulty  occur. 

The  President  (Rev.  H.  B.  Kendall,  B.A.)  said  :  Before  we  pro- 
ceed further,  I  wish  to  remind  prospective  speakers,  that  they  had 
better  not  trench  as  much  as  past  speakers  have  done  on  what  are 
considered  purely  political  questions. 

The  Rev.  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
spoke  as  follows  : 

It  is  very  gratifying  that  we  can  approach  the  discussion  of  this  sub- 
ject without  any  intention  of  imijugning  the  motives  of  any  nation  that 
may  at  this  time  be  engaged  in  war.  But  there  are  some  fundamental 
truths  to  which  the  Christian  Church,  now,  as  at  every  time  in  her 
history,  ought  to  address  herself.  I  think,  in  the  spirit  of  my  friend, 
Dr.  Leonard,  we  are  making  progress,  and  that  war  is  not  what  it 
used  to  be  in  the  days  gone  by.  We  have  got  rid  of  some  things  that 
have  been  a  great  danger,  that  in  themselves  have  helped  to  make 
war  among  nations.  We  have  got  rid  of  the  superstition  of  the  divine 
right  of  Kings  to  rule.  When  we  shall  get  rid  of  the  superstition — 
just  as  superstitious — of  the  divine  right  of  any  particular  race  to 
rule  in  the  world  we  shall  look  for  peace.  Righteousness  and 
character  will  rule,  it  matters  not  what  the  race  is,  or  what  the 
individual  is  ;  the  colour  of  the  skin  will  make  no  difference.  When 
I  say  we  must  get  rid  of  the  superstition  of  the  divijie  right  of  any 
particular  race  to  rule,  I  do  not  mean  any  race  to  which  I  accidentally 
do  not  belong  ;  I  state  it  as  a  fact. 

I  am  on  the  right  line,  for  that  was  laid  down  in  the  first  proclama- 
tion after  the  opening  of  this  great  meeting — that  the  Gospel  was  to 
transform  the  individual,  and  when  you  have  a  thousand  individuals 
transformed,  or  ten  thousand  individuals  transformed,  or  a  million 
individuals  transformed,  you  will  look  very  much  towards  the  transfor- 
mation of  the  State  and  of  the  nation,  and  then  we  shall  begin  to 
understand  the  Spirit  of  Christ  Jesus  in  the  world.     We  are  coming 


GENERAL    REMARKS. 


107 


<oit.  Tlioro  will  be  .-i  time— I  pi-.ty  (ind  ihv  lime  will  enme  before  I 
(lie— Avhcn  there  will  l)e  no  war  of  nations  an<l  no  war  nf  races;  when 
every  man  witiiout  losing  his  individnal  rights,  without  losing  his 
individual  liberty,  can  look  up  in  the  face  of  Almighty  God 
and  eall  Him  Father  ;  can  look  into  the  face  of  the"  hum- 
blest man,  and,  with  equal  emphasis,  call  the  man  next 
to  him,  however  poor,  brother.  That  is  a  good  distance  off  ;  but 
we  are  approaching  it,  and  with  sublime  patience.  We  are  w'llin" 
to  wait  and  to  trust,  andwdiile  waiting  do  the  best  we  can,  understanding 
as  best  we  may,  the  things  that  are  about  us,  putting  our  hand  in  God's 
hand,  willing  to  lay  aside  all  customs  and  habits,  everything  that  has 
grown  up  out  of  the  past  that  does  not  belong  to  Christ,  until,  in  the 
purity  of  an  ethical  life  that  is  like  to  that  of  the  Nazarene  Himself, 
we  shall  be  His,  and  the  expression  of  our  lives  shall  be  for  the 
largest    liberty   to    every    human  being,   and  eternal   peace   on    earth. 

The  Rev.  George  Elliott,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
said : 

I  desire  to  call  attention  to  something  which  has,  in  all  the  dis- 
cussions up  to  this  hour,  been  frequently  stated,  but  which,  I  think, 
involves  a  dangerous  lialf  truth,  and  that  is  that  the  message  of 
Christianity  is  to  the  individual.  It  involves  a  dangerous  half  truth, 
because  it  forgets  the  fact  that  the  individual  salvation  contemplated 
by  Jesus  Christ  was  a  salvation  which  joined  the  individual  at  once 
to  a  social  order,  and  that  no  man  can  truly  be  said  to  be  saved  when 
he  is,  in  the  old-fashioned  narrow  Evangelical  way,  just  saved  from 
his  sins. 

The  unethical  conversions  of  the  past,  which  have  been  too  largely 
echoed  in  Methodism,  as  we  have  allowed  ourselves  to  be  influenced 
by  a  reformed  theology,  so-called,  instead  of  a  truly  catholic  theology, 
which  is  our  true  inheritance — I  say  that  narrowly  selfish  concep- 
tion of  saving  souls  is  not  the  Christian  salvation  contemplated  in 
the  words  or  the  message  of  our  Master.  No  man  is  truly  saved 
except  within  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  as  he  becomes  a  member 
and  a  fellow  of  that  Kingdom  of  God.  Can  we,  indeed,  call  our- 
selves Christian  men,  and  then  have  nothing  to  say,  and  no  duty, 
when  we  come  to  act  as  citizens  which  is  dictated  by  our  convic- 
tions as  Christian  men  ?  Has  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  or  the 
message  of  the  Master,  no  application  in  trade  or  in  politics?  Are 
all  these  common  spheres  of  our  life  to  be  put  aside  1  Are  the  ethics 
of  Christianity  nothing  more  than  the  stoical  ethics  of  the  schools— 
a  mere  self-regarding  morality.  He  who  has  truly  learnt  the  meaning 
of  the  cross  in  his  life,  and  that  salvation  through  Jesus  Christ  means 
entering  into  sympathy  with  the  cross  and  Avith  the  agony  of  our 
Lord,  knows  that  to  him  every  war  that  comes,  with  its  crime,  and 
every  shame  on  earth,  social  and  ethical,  in  business  or  society, 
becomes  a  personal  stain  to  his  conscience  and  the  disturbance  of 
his  personal  peace.  We  are  bound  by  the  very  .spirit  of  our  Chris- 
tianity to  be  opposed  to  war,  the  greatest  of  all  crimes — that  crime  in 
which  all  other  crimes  come  together. 

I  will  agree  that  war  has  been,  in  the  Providence  of  God,  the  road 
by  which  national  regeneration  has  come.  It  is  not  so  certain  that 
it  would  not  have  come  in  other  ways  and  by  gentler  processes.  Very 
often  the  frenzy  of  the  nations  has  been  the  statesmanship  of  God. 
"It  must  needs  be  that  offences  come,  but  woe  be  to  that  man  by 
whom  the  offence  cometh.''     He  who  rides  on  the  spheres  and  calfa 


Io8  THE    PROMOTION    OF    INTERNATIONAL    PEACE. 

the  nations  to  jutlgment,  He  who  is  Lord  of  Hosts,  yes,  and  God  of 
battles,  shall  use  the  wrath  of  men  for  His  own  ends  and  His  own 
purposes.  But  that  does  not  excuse  us,  noi-  make  us  religious  when 
we  defend  it,  or  apologise  for  it,  or  tolerate  it.  I  have  been  called, 
at  times,  a  little  American.  I  would  be  glad  if  I  might  be  called  a 
great  Christian.  Years  ago,  in  boyhood,  I  read  a  great  oration,  one 
on  the  true  grandeur  of  nations  by  Charles  Sumner — great  and  illus- 
trious name — and  into  the  fibre  of  my  political  conscience  went  that 
great  utterance  as  to  what  truly  should  make  a  nation  great,  and  in 
political  isolation,  with  no  imperial  policy,  closed  in  by  the  seas,  with 
no  disturbing  hand  stretched  beyond  them,  America  became  great. 

Mr.  T.  Morgan  Harvey  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  said  : 

It  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  live  in  South  Africa  for  some  twenty 
years,  and  I  want  to  bear  testimony  this  morning  to  the  fact  that 
wherever  the  Methodist  emigrant  goes  he  makes  for  peace  and  right- 
eousness. In  the  year  1820  a  great  many  Methodists  went  out  to  settle 
in  South  Africa.  I  belong  to  a  great  number  of  people  who  went  out 
in  the  year  1850,  and  when  we  arrived  in  South  Africa  we,  through 
the  grace  of  God,  retained  not  only  our  Methodism,  but  our  trust 
in  the  Prince  of  Peace.  We  have  had  a  series  of  troubles  and  disasters 
throughout  some  portions  of  those  colonies ;  but  I  want  to  say  this  for 
the  information  of  my  friends  who,  perhaps,  ^are  not  informed  on  the 
subject,  that  for  now  over  fifty  years  in  the  Colony  of  Natal  we  have 
lived  side  by  side  with  some  four  hundred  thousand  black  people, 
Zulus,  and  there  has  never  been  a  shot  fired.  There  has  never  been 
a  serious  disturbance  as  between  the  two  peoples.  I  attribute  that 
largely  to  the  fact  that  many  of  the  early  settlers  were  Methodists, 
and  as  Methodists  they  have  maintained  the  great  principles  of  peace 
and  righteousness  and  goodwill  towards  all  men,  and  that  will  continue 
without  any  doubt. 

I  want  to  clear  up  one  point.  It  seemed  to  me  that  there  was  a 
wrong  impression  in  the  assembly,  and  it  was  to  this  effect,  that  the 
British  nation  does  not  desire  peace,  and  that  the  British  nation  made 
war  in  South  Africa.  I  do  not  want  to  enter  into  the  different  ques- 
tions, because  there  is  a  great  difference  of  opinion  ;  but  let  me  say 
this,  that,  in  my  opinion,  the  British  Government  tried  every  possible 
means  and  failed.  In  the  previous  troubles  that  the  British  nation 
had  with  the  Transvaal,  if  you  will  remember,  the  British  nation  did 
its  very  best  and  forgave  them  more  than  once.  I  am  sure  of  this, 
that,  much  as  we  all  deplore  war — and  if  any  of  you  have  had  any 
experience  of  it,  it  is  heU — I  can  see  a  very  bright  cloud  in  the  distance 
dn  reference  to  South  Africa.  I  believe,  more  especially,  in  the  interests 
of  the  native  population*,  the  natives  who  have  up  to  these  last  very 
few  months  been  trodden  down  as  the  scum  of  the  earth,  for  the 
black  man  had  no  right  to  style  himself  a  man  under  the  Transvaal 
government.  We  shall  have  now  under  our  control  in  the  Transvaal 
and  the  Orange  River  Colony  perhaps  over  one  million  of  native 
people,  and  every  one  of  those  men  will  be  free  in  the  largest  and  ful- 
lest sense  of  the  word. 

While  I  am  saying  this  in  reference  to  the  influence  of  Methodism 
in  South  Africa,  I  would  also  remind  you  of  one  of  our  great  worthies 
in  connection  with  the  benighted  peoples  fartlier  down  the  Eastern 
Provinces — the  Rev.  Peter  Hargreaves — a  man  whose  name  ought  to 
be  known  by  all  of  us  here,  and  all  Christian  people.  On  more  than 
one  occasion  he  has  actually  stepped  in  and  prevented  war  between 
the  native  tribes,  and  my  contention  as  that  wherever  the  Methodist 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  1 09 

goes,  whether  he  is  black  or  white,  he  makes  for  peace  and  righteous- 
ness. Let  it  not  be  said  that  we  as  a  nation  have  brought  this  war 
upon  those  people,  when  the  moment  this  people  crossed  into  British 
territory  and  proclaimed  war,  we  were  obliged  to  act  on  the  defensive. 

The  Rev.  R.  J.  Cooke,  D.D.  (Metbodist  Episcopal  Church),  con- 
tinuing the  disacussion,  said : 

There  seems  to  be  a  diversity  of  opinion  here  this  morning  on 
this  tremendous  subject.  Let  us  focus  ourselves.  Is  the  (Ecumenical 
Conference  of  Methodism  for  peace  or  for  war? 

War  is  sin.  We  can  no  more  endorse  war  than  we  can  endorse  sin 
of  any  shade  or  of  any  form.  If  the  Church  of  Jesua  Christ  endorses 
war,  as  we  commonly  understand  war,  then  in  the  name  of  suffering 
humanity,  let  Christianity  pull  down  her  sign  and  go  out  of  business. 
War  is  a  drain  upon  the  best  resources  of  humanity.  It  is  a  waste 
of  God's  best  gifts.  It  intensifies  passions,  and  develops  the  meanest 
and  the  lowest  passions  and  crimes  of  men.  The  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  can  never  sit  quietly  by  and  allow  any  body  of  men  to  hurl 
the  masses  of  humanity  into  war  against  one  another.  It_  is  true 
that  it  is  not  for  any  Christian  Church  to  dictate  the  policy  of  a 
Government,  but  it  is  the  duty  of  a  Christian  Church  to  help  to 
formulate  the  policy.  I  have  no  right  to  say  how  you  shall  vote 
to-morrow,  but  it  is  my  duty  as  a  Christian  and  as  a  citizen  to  help 
to  educate  you  to  vote  aright.  But  if  we  sit  down  and  allow  three 
or  four  men  in  a  Government  to  settle  a  great  international  question, 
and  to  hurl  nations  into  war  against  each  other,  then  why  not  sit 
down  and  allow  the  agencies  of  vice  in  every  city,  and  in  every 
nation,  to  do  the  same  thing  on  a  lower  plane.  It  is  the  duty  of 
the  Church  to  help  to  educate  the  people  to  settle  their  differences 
without  resort  to  the  arbitrament  of  war. 

That  is  one  side  of  it.  Some  questions  have  two  sides,  and  some 
of  them  half-a-dozen.  INot  every  war  is  wrong.  I  do  not  want  to 
throw  any  inflammable  material  upon  this  already  burning  question, 
but,  before  God,  I  can  never  believe  that  a  war  that  would  prevent 
an  Armenian  massacre  again  could  ever  be  wrong.  There  are  wrongs 
to  be  righted.  But  it  shoald  not  be  done  •with  vengeance.  It  should 
not  be  done  in  the  spirit  of  murder.  It  should  be  done  as  the  magis- 
trate condemns  a  criminal,  and  not  for  the  sake  of  grabbing  territory 
or  of  enslaving  the  human  race. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  spoke 
as  follows : 

I  wish  simply  to  express  two  thoughts.  I  am  greatly  confused,  as 
a  professing  Christian  man,  as  to  my  duty  in  reference  to  war.  When 
my  own  country  is  at  war,  at  my  family  altar  I  pray  God  to  bless  our 
arms.  I  suppose  you  do.  The  people,  or  the  portion  of  a  people,  when 
their  country  is  engaged  in  what  is  believed  to  be  a  just  war  for 
right,  who  do  not  pray  for  the  success  of  their  arms,  are  accounted 
traitors. 

I  rose  simply  to  read  a  single  sentence  very  appropriate  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  this  hour.     When  my  eyes  rested  upon  it  I  confess  to  you 


no  THE    PROMOTION    OF    INTERNATIONAL    PEACE. 

the  tears  came.  They  are  the  utterance  of  the  Christian,  Methodist 
President  of  the  United  States  (President  William  McKinley)  at  the 
Pan-American  Exhibition  yesterday  at  Buffalo.  They  were  telegraphed 
for  this  debate.  I  will  read  them.  "  The  period  of  exclusiveness  is 
past.  The  expansion  of  our  trade  and  coiumeree  is  a  pressing  problem. 
Commercial  wars  are  unprofitable.  The  policy  is  goodwill,  and 
friendly  trade  relations  will  prevent  reprisals.  Reciprocity  treaties  are 
in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  times.  Measures  of  retaliation  are 
not." 


The  Rev.  W.  D.  Parr,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  said  : 

It  is  worth  while  for  us  to  focus  the  question  again.  There  is  no 
use  in  crying  peace  where  there  is  no  peace.  We  cannot  avoid  a  square 
look  into  the  conditions  of  the  world.  We  are  idealists  largely,  and  in 
a  sense  this  were  well  enough.  But  we  are  not  living  in  an  ideal  age. 
We  must  view  our  times  as  they  are.  There  are  all  forms  of  evil 
around  us.  Someone  has  said  that  war  is  hell,  and  I  believe  that 
there  is  a  hell.  What  if  that  were  true  1  What  if  war  is  hell  1  Evi- 
dently hell  is  a  necessity,  or  it  would  not  be.  The  progress  of  the 
race  has  come  by  the  battlefield.  The  supremacy  of  the  truth  has 
been  maintained  upon  the  battlefields  of  the  world.  There  will  never 
be  the  reign  of  righteousness  until  there  is  righteousness  worth  while, 
and  in  the  unequal  conditions  of  civilisation,  an '  in  the  awful  fight  of 
forces,  we  must  remember  that  truth  shall  prevail,  and  sometimes 
it  must  come  by  the  horrid  hand  of  war. 

When  there  is  a  question  of  principle  involved,  we  believe  but 
little  in  a  man  who  would  not  even  give  his  life  for  that  principle. 
We  resjDect  the  man  who  stands  by  his  conviction ;  our  religion 
teaches  that,  and  Christ  taught  that,  and  that  sometimes  means  war. 
If  my  memory  is  right,  the  soldier  has  stood  close  to  God  Almighty 
in  war  in  the  progress  of  the  earth.  What  of  Gideon?  What  of 
Joshua  ?  Sometimes  there  cannot  be  other  than  conflict.  We  had  a 
war.  It  seemed  they  could  not  help  it.  I  somehow  or  other  believe 
that  in  the  progress  of  things  there  could  not  have  been  any  other 
way.  A  great-souled  man  who  wanted  peace,  who  suffered  under  the 
pangs  of  the  civil  conflict,  when  a  magnificent  Peace  Commission  came 
to  him  and  asked  that  the  war  should  cease  among  our  people,  said, 
"Here  are  two  horns  of  a  dilemma.  Will  you  have  one  people  in 
bondage  or  have  the  war  cease  ? "  They  did  more  to  bring  the  war 
on  than  any  people  I  knew  or  know  of.  He  at  once  impaled  them 
upon  one  of  the  horns.  That  glorious  man,  who  honoured  peace, 
who  believed  in  peace,  was  Abraham  Lincoln.  We  accept  the  situa- 
tion, and  it  is  bringing  to  us  a  broader  destiny. 

Let  us  have  peace  ;  let  us  pray  for  it  ;  let  us  arbitrate  ;  but  at  last, 
if  there  is  no  other  resource,  in  the  last  analysis,  ilF  it  is  war  for 
the  supremacy  of  truth,  let  it  be  war.  I  think  that  is  good  Methodist 
teaching.  I  am  sure  it  has  been  Methodist  practice,  and  I  believe 
that  it  will  be  until  the  better  day.  The  better  day  will  come,  for 
out  of  all  this  there  is  coming  a  splendid  peace.  Let  us  give  time  a 
chance.  We  believe  in  evolution.  Let  it  go  forth  from  this  great 
Conference,  mighty  in  moulding  the  public  thought,  mighty  in  crystal- 
lising the  opinion  of  great  men,  that  Methodists  are  in  favour  of 
war  when  in  defence  of  the  right. 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  Ill 

The  Uev.  Thomas  Allen,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church), 
concluded  the  discussion,  as  follows : 

I  think  that  it  is  within  the  range  of  possibility  that  by  the  two 
or  three  remarks  which  I  intend  to  make  I  may  somewhat  calm  the 
troubled  sea.     I  want  to  say  a  word  on  two  points. 

First,  with  regard  to  population,  I  think  that  if  you  will  think 
the  matter  out,  you  will  realise  that  population,  perhaps  more  than 
anything  else,  modifies  and  must  modify  in  certain  conditions  the  politi- 
cal views  and  the  political  theories  of  men.  In  regard  to  this  matter, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  world,  especially  certain  nations  of  the 
world,  is  approaching  steadily  a  very  difficult  period  indeed,  and  the 
fact  is  that,  in  the  future,  statesmen,  and  Churchmen  too,  will  have 
to  turn  their  attention  more  and  more  to  this  question  of  population. 
Certain  old  nations  of  the  world,  as  we  all  know,  are  a  good  deal  over- 
crowded, and  you  cannot  read  the  newspapers  to-day  without  realising 
that  those  nations  are  looking  very  anxiously  indeed  for  outlets  for 
their  surplus  population. 

What  does  that  mean  ?  In  the  practical  sense  it  means  territory, 
where  the  people  belonging  to  those  nations  can  remain  under  their 
own  flag.  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  there  is,  in  my  opinion,  just  now 
a  terrible  amount  of  jealousy  among  the  nations  of  the  AA-orld.  Let  us 
pray  that  it  may  be  calmed,  nay,  that  it  may  be  destroyed.  What  if 
one  of  the  great  nations  of  the  world  should  attack  us,  and  threaten 
to  take  territory  from  us  ?  What  would  you  do  in  that  case  1  Sup- 
pose an  individual  were  to  come  to  you  and  threaten  to  take  away 
your  personal  rights.  If  you  are  a  man  you  would  meet  him  straight. 
Tou  would  say  :  I  object  to  that.  That  which  is  true  of  the  individual 
to  a  very  great  extent  indeed  is  true  of  the  nation.  But  there  is  no 
doubt  at  all  that  the  leading  statesmen  of  all  countries — and  after 
all  these  matters  are  in  their  hands,  and  to  a  great  extent  must  be 
in  their  hands — during  the  next  twe^ity-five  years  will  need  an  immense 
amount  of  prudence,  and  an  immense  amount  of  firmness.  Let  us  pray 
for  these  men,  not  merely  for  our  own  nation,  but  for  all  nations. 

The  other  point  which  I  want  to  refer  to  for  a  moment  is  commerce. 
We  have  all  been  accustomed  to  regard  commerce  as  a  great  force 
working  for  harmony.  It  has  done  that  to  a  marvellous  extent  in 
times  gone  by.  War  is  destructive  to  trade,  but  no  man  can  read  the 
newspapers  to-day  without  observing  that  the  nations  of  the  world  are 
entering  into  what  I  will  venture  to  describe  as  a  terribly  severe  period 
of  competition.  That  is  manifest  in  the  newspapers  every  day.  I  do 
not  think  that  we  shall  accomplish  very  much  as  Churches  by  teaching 
which  is  intended  to  regulate  competition. 

I  am  afraid  that  many  of  us  are  not  quite  competent  to  deal  with  some 
of  these  great  economical  questions.  What  we  have  to  do  is  to  seek 
to  the  utmost  extent  to  destroy  in  men  the  principle  of  selfishness. 
We  are  on  clear  ground  there,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  it  is  for  us 
to  give  a  very  clear  and  definite  testimony  in  regard  to  these  points, 
and  I  hope  that  we  shall  do  so. 

The  Benediction  was  then  pronounced,  and  the  Conference 
adljourned. 


113  METHODISM    AND    CHRISTIAN    UNITY. 


SECOND     SESSION. 


TOPIC : 
METHODISM  AND   CHRISTIAN   UNITY. 


The  Rev,  H,  B.  Kendall  (Primitive  Methodist  Church)  again 
presided  at  the  afternoon  session  of  the  Conference.  Prayer  was 
offered  by  the  Rev.  S.  P.  Rose,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada). 

The  Rev.  W.  J.  Townsend,  D.D.  (Methodist  New  Connexion), 
President  Elect  of  the  National  Council  of  the  Evangelical  Free 
Churches  of  England  and  Wales,  then  gave  the  following  esisay  on 
"The  Relation  of  Methodism  to  the  Elvangelioal  Free  Church 
Movemient "  : 

The  most  important  and  significant  achievement  in  the  direction  ol 
Christian  union  and  co-operation  since  the  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference of  1891  is  the  formation  of  the  National  Council  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Free  Churches.  It  arose  in  1893,  and  was  the  spontaneous 
expression  of  an  overwhelming  yearning  for  closer  brotherhood,  freer 
intercourse,  and  more  frequent  co-operation  for  common  ends  among  the 
Churches  than  then  existed.  It  was  a  Providential  movement,  as  has 
been  abundantly  illustrated  during  its  short  but  eventful  history. 

England  and  Wales  have  been  covered  by  a  network  of  Free  Church 
Councils  and  County  Federations,  which  have  engaged  in  forms  uf 
spiritual  and  social  effort  far  too  manifold  to  be  enumerated  here.  Tlie 
Federation  now  embraces  within  itself  eighteen  Denominations  of  Free 
Churchmen,  including  1,910,000  communicants,  9,114  ministers,  384,000 
Sunday  School  teachers,  3,283,000  Sunday  scholars,  and  50,000  lav 
preachers,  while  in  the  Churches  provision  is  made  for  more  than  eight 
millions  of  hearers  of  the  Gospel.  The  movement  is  also  spreading 
itself  to  the  Continents  of  the  West  and  South,  and  these  may  multiply 
indefinitely  its  area  and  usefulness. 

The  objects  of  the  Federation  are  primarily  and  mainly  spiritnal. 
They  aim  at  Church  fellowship  and  co-operation,  to  promote  evangelistic 
propagandism  by  every  possible  method  at  home  and  abroad,  to  give  a 
clear  and  certain  pronouncement  of  Evangelical  truth,  and  to  insist 
upon  the  application  of  the  law  of  Christ  to  everything  relating  to 
national,  or  social,  or  individual  life.  In  short,  it  means  in  the 
largest  sense  the  establishment  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  the  world  of 
humanity. 

In  the  progress  of  the  movement  the  hand  of  God  has  been  unmis- 
takably revealed.  In  the  rapid  growth  of  the  Federation,  in  the  un- 
selfish but  untiring  enthusiasm  which  has  characterised  its  leaders,  in 
the  spirit  of  liberality  which  has  been  poured  out  upon  its  men  of 
wealth,  in  the  manner  in  which  its  initial  and  subsequent  difiiculties 
have  been  solved,  in  the  harmony  of  soul  which  has  enabled  great 


ESSAY   OF    REV.    W.    J.    TOWN  SEND.  I13 

enterprises  to  be  accomplished  without  even  the  vestige  of  f/ lotion— 
e.g.,  the  preparation  of  the  Free  Church  Cathechism,  in  which  during 
sessions  extending  over  two  years  every  statement  and  definition  wan 
decided  by  an  absolutely  unanimous  vote— in  the  singular  timeliness  of 
its  birth  when  critical  questions  touching  the  revival  of  sacerdotalism, 
the  degradation  of  national  education  to  sectarian  ends,  the  establish- 
ment of  seven  days'  newspapers,  the  wide  extension  of  aggressive  evan- 
gelism, the  social  problems  of  the  drink  traffic,  overcrowding,  sweating, 
gambling,  and  impurity  required  to  be  dealt  with  resolutely  and 
vigorously — all  demonstrate  that  this  is  a  movement  Divinely  called 
and  ordered,  having  in  itself  boundless  resources  and  possibilities  for 
good. 

In  this  great  Federation  English  Methodism  has  taken  a  prominent, 
almost  a  commanding  part.  Two  of  the  Presidents  have  been  Metho- 
dists, one  of  the  Treasurers  is  a  Methodist,  the  expert  and  indefati- 
gable Organising  Secretary  is  a  Methodist,  and  half  of  the  Executive 
Committee  are  Methodists.  These  facts  speak  eloquently  of  the  extent 
to  which  Methodism  has  struck  its  roots  into  this  splendid  movement, 
and  identified  itself  with  its  Christlike  aims. 

The  special  relations  and  functions  of  Methodism  to  the 
Federation  are  vital  in  their  character.  The  movement  must  neces- 
sarily be  kept  superior  to  any  denominational  colour  or  bias.  As 
Christianity  is  free  from  all  party  or  national  tinge  in  its  teaching,  in- 
stitutions and  methods,  so  must  this  great  Christian  institution  pre- 
serve itself  from  any  local  or  sectarian  partiality  in  every  direction. 
On  the  other  hand,  every  Denomination  has  some  special  contribution 
to  bestow,  or  quality  to  impart  in  the  building  up  of  an  organisation  of 
lofty  comprehensiveness  and  of  universal  beneficence.  No  party  in 
this  spiritual  alliance  can  bring  more  valuable  offerings  to  its  efficiency 
or  power  than  Methodism,  the  particular  forms  of  which  we  must 
briefly  consider. 

(a.)  Methodism  as  a  whole,  happily,  has  never  identified  itself  with 
any  political  party  in  the  State,  and,  therefore,  has  been  able  to  exert 
a  high  and  beneficial  influence  on  great  social  reforms,  and  also  has 
signally  contributed  to  the  elevation  of  the  political  life  of  the  nation. 
Herein  can  Methodism  do  a  gracious  and  saving  work  in  the  National 
Free  Church  Council.  In  some  quarters  of  Methodism  fears  have  been 
expressed,  and  aloofness  manifested,  lest  the  movement  should  degene- 
rate into  a  political  one,  or  become  an  appendage  to  one  or  another 
party  in  the  State.  Up  to  the  present  there  has  not  been  the  slightest 
indication  in  this  direction,  but  it  may  be  that  in  the  evolutions  or 
devolutions  of  the  future  efforts  may  be  made  by  opportunist  statesmen 
to  tempt  an  organisation  of  such  vast  potentialities  from  its  high  posi- 
tion as  the  moulder  of  a  noble,  national  life,  into  being  only  the  lackey 
of  a  party.  Such  a  descent  would  spell  ruin  to  the  movement.  Its 
future  possibilities  would  vanish  like  a  dream  of  the  night.  It  holds 
now  a  magnificent  mission  to  all  rulers  and  governments,  and  a  Divine 
Leader  is  calling  it  to  the  purification  and  elevation  of  national  life. 
In  keeping  it  upright  and  loyal  to  this  calling,  Methodism  can  do  much, 
9 


114  METHODISM    AND    CHRISTIAN    UNITY. 

by  imbuing  it  with  the  spirit  which  has  kept  it  above  partialities  and 
sections  in  its  marvellous  history,  and  thus  preserve  it  in  lofty 
superiority  for  its  greater  work  in  building  the  City  of  God. 

But  if  Methodism  acts  as  a  deterrent  to  the  movement  in  regard  to 
political  partisanship,  it  must,  on  the  other  hand,  become  an  effective 
inspiration  to  it  to  bear  clear  and  uncompromising  witness  against  the 
social  evils  of  the  State  and  all  false  principles  of  government  and 
statecraft.  An  organisation  with  Christ  as  its  Head,  enrolling  millions 
of  adherents  who  concentrate  in  themselves  all  the  noblest  elements  of 
the  Reformers,  the  Puritans,  and  tlie  early  Methodists  ;  which  is  throb- 
bing with  divinest  ambition  and  Christly  sympathies  ;  must  make  itself 
felt  in  every  department  of  the  body  politic.  It  must  denounce  the 
terrible  contrasts  of  wealth  and  poverty,  the  cruelty  of  selfish  luxury 
and  wasteful  extravagance.  It  must  have  a  bleeding  heart  for  the 
poor,  for  the  crowded,  degraded  masses  of  humanity  stewing  in  squalid 
wretchedness  and  dying  like  dogs.  It  must  be  deaf  to  all  calculations 
of  earthly  gain  or  profit,  to  all  considerations  of  worldly  favour  and  posi- 
tion. But  its  ear  must  be  divinely  attuned  to  every  wail  of  sorrow,  to 
every  cry  of  the  children,  to  every  groan  of  despair.  It  must,  with 
calm,  unflinching  courage,  proclaim  the  foundation  principles  of  public 
and  national  life  as  spoken  by  the  Master  upon  the  Mount,  and  insist 
upon  their  observance.  It  must  repudiate  with  profound  indignation 
the  modern  position  that  those  words  are  inapplicable  to  present  circum- 
stances and  impracticable  in  modern  life.  It  must  be  one  chief  reason 
for  the  existence  of  the  Federation  to  contend  for  the  embodiment  of 
those  principles  in  public  life,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  In  fact,  the 
Free  Church  Council  must  become  the  conscience  of  the  nation.  The 
Nonconformist  conscience  has  demonstrated  itself  so  far  in  recent  days 
as  to  have  become  as  gall  and  wormwood  to  truckling  journalists  and 
time-serving  politicians,  because  they  have  felt  its  power  to  expose  evil 
and  defeat  its  conspiracies.  But  in  the  development  of  this  Federation 
what  will  be  practically  the  Christian  conscience  will  be  able  to  speak 
with  profounder  emphasis  and  accumulated  power. 

Methodism  in  all  its  sections  has  done  much  in  these  directions.  Its 
zeal  for  the  Sabbath,  its  efforts  for  the  higher  education  of  the  young, 
its  magnificent  temperance  work,  its  inexorable  opposition  to  the  pre- 
tensions of  sacerdotalism,  and  its  readiness  to  co-operate  in  any  en- 
deavour to  promote  national  righteousness  have  made  it  in  the  past  at 
once  a  breakwater  against  the  advance  of  evil,  and  an  impelling  power 
in  the  upward  life  of  the  people.  The  same  spirit  must  be  constantly 
active  in  the  National  Free  Church  Federation.  The.  day  will  come 
when  the  enemy  will  seek  to  tempt  it  from  its  mount  of  vision  and 
obscure  from  its  eyes  the  Lord  Jesus  as  its  sole  crown  and  end,  to  allure 
it  by  bribes  or  sophistry  into  by-paths  of  compromise  and  faithless- 
ness. When  that  day  comes,  if,  which  I  do  not  believe,  any  of  the 
component  parts  are  tempted  from  their  allegiance,  Methodism  must — 
nay,  will — say,  in  firm  and  unmistakable  manner,  "We  are  doing  a 
great  work,  and  cannot  come  down."  Let  it  do  this,  and  the  future  of 
the  movement  in  this  respect  is  safe, 


ESSAY    OF    REV.    W.    J.    TOWNSEND.  1 15 

(b.)  Methodism  has  always  been  elastic.  It  has  adapted  itself  with 
readiness  to  the  requirements  of  localities,  or  circtimstances,  or  tem- 
perament. It  has  not  been  prevented  by  vnli^ar  pride  from  probing  the 
lowest  depths  of  human  depravity,  nor  withheld  by  undue  diffidence 
from  assailing  wickedness  in  high  i)laces.  It  has  been  truly  Christlike, 
both  in  its  universal  sweep  of  vision  and  in  its  tender  regard  for  the 
individual.  None  ever  laboured  more  conscientiously  for  the  unit,  and 
yet  it  cried,  ''  The  world  is  my  parish."  It  easily  appropriated  every 
Divine  prompting  to  a  method  of  usefulness,  and  exercised  a  limitless 
ingenuity  in  the  use  of  aggressive  expedients.  It  recalled  into  benefi- 
cent action  Church  methods  which  had  been  buried  for  a  thousand  years. 
It  gave  to  consecrated  cobblers  and  colliers  a  commission  to  preach  the 
unsearchable  riches  of  Christ.  It  exercised  its  gifts  anywhere  and 
everywhere,  in  the  parish  church  or  the  Moravian  meeting-house,  on 
the  pit-bank  or  the  village  green,  in  the  blacki^mith's  shed  or  the 
squire's  hall,  in  the  wigwam  of  the  Indian  or  the  hut  of  the  cannibal. 
The  fiery  labourers  were  at  home  everywTiere,  always  cheerful,  always 
at  a  white  heat  of  enthusiasm.  John  Wesley  ate  blackberries  on  the 
Cornish  roads,  and  said,  "  How  good  God  is  to  give  us  these  black- 
berries ;  if  it  were  not  for  these  we  might  starve."  The  mob  threw 
dead  cats  at  Whitefield  in  Moorfields,  and  he  cried;  "  Throw  more  ; 
they  will  only  enrich  the  soil,  upon  which  we  shall  raise  great  harvests 
for  God."  Out  in  the  West  they  rode  across  the  prairies,  with  their 
saddle-bags,  singing  as  they  rode  ;  they  swam  the  rivers  to  their 
appointments  on  their  vast  circuits  ;  every  condition  was  sanctified  for 
the  work,  every  place  became  holy  ground  on  which  to  raise  the  stan- 
dard of  the  cross,  every  expedient  was  used  by  which  souls  might  be 
saved  and  the  Church  of  God  enlarged. 

Methodism  still  preserves  this  fine  quality.  To-day  it  is  ingenious 
and  inventive.  The  great  Central  Missions  and  Settlements  it  is  work- 
ing in  large  centres  of  population  under  the  guidance  of  men  like  the 
Revs.  Hugh  Price  Hughes,  F.  L.  Wiseman,  Peter  Thompson,  Samuel 
Chadwick,  S.  F.  Collier,  and  J.  Scott  Lidgett,  are  evidences  of  the 
present  adaptedness  of  Methodism  to  the  necessities  of  the  times.  From 
this  spontaneous  responsiveness  to  Divine  calls  the  great  revival  of  the 
eighteenth  century  came — came  in  conversions  of  fifties,  hundreds, 
thousands.  There  were  great  spiritual  outpourings  ;  there  were  com- 
munities born  in  a  day  ;  groups — nay,  crowds — saved  in  a  service  ;  and 
then,  by  the  organising  skill  of  the  leaders,  they  were  -^-^  elded  into 
powerful  Churches,  which  stemmed  the  torrents  of  rampant  infidelity 
which  abounded,  which  saved  England  from  revolution,  and  lifted  ita 
whole  life  to  a  higher  plane. 

There  is  a  tendency  in  all  gigantic  movements  to  fossilise,  for  groAvth 
to  be  arrested,  for  a  mere  conservatism  tn  creep  in  and  over,  for 
methods  to  crystallise  into  formalities.  Methodism,  which  for  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  has  preserved  its  flexibility  and  elasticity,  can 
do  much  to  keep  tlie  Free  Cinnch  movement  receptive  and  responsive, 
sympathetic  with  human  needs,  and  eager  to  follow  all  Divine  prompt- 
ings and  opportunities  for  the  saving  of  the  lost.       This  organisation 


Il6  METHODISM    AND    CHRISTIAN    UNITY. 

must  preserve  the  power  of  adaptation,  a  full,  deep  sympathy  with  the 
redemptive  purposes  of  Christ,  and  with  the  sorrows  of  a  lost  humanity. 
It  must  not  be  restricted  in  its  operations  by  conventionalities  or  pre- 
judices, nor  must  its  enthusiasm  be  chilled  by  fashion  or  pride.  It 
must  be  elastic,  lithe,  vigorous,  aggressive,  evangelistic.  It  must  not 
stand  on  a  pedestal  to  point  the  way,  and  cry,  "Go."  It  must  be 
among  the  people,  and  invite  them  to  "  Come."  It  must  gather  into 
itself  wealth,  intellect,  scholarship,  eloquence,  expertness — ^all  these 
may  be  utilised  by  it.  Above  all,  it  must  have  a  living,  restless,  yearn- 
ing, irrepressible  passion  for  souls,  and  such  tender  sympathy  with 
them  as  to  gain  the  ear  of  the  lapsed  masses,  as  to  retrieve  what  the 
Cliurches  have  lost  during  the  past  century  by  indifference  and  for- 
malism, and  to  restore  the  Christianity  of  the  early  centuries  and  the 
eighteenth  century  as  a  power  to  grasp  and  save  the  perishing  multi- 
tudes of  humanity.  That  transfiguring  inspiration,  that  surging  en- 
thusiasm, that  plastic  adaptability,  Methodism,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
can  infuse  into  this  mighty  organisation.  In  doing  this  it  will  not  only 
confer  upon  the  Federation  a  quickening  and  consecrating  gift,  but  it 
will  itself  receive  reviving  grace  beyond  all  calculation.  The  reflex 
influence  will  be  as  great  a  boon  to  Methodism  itself  as  the  direct  vitalis- 
ing force  imparted  will  be  to  the  Free  Church  Federation,  in  making  it 
the  great  evangelising  power  of  the  latter  days. 

(c.)  There  is  yet  one  other  all-important  work  which  Methodism  can 
effect  in  relation  to  the  Free  Ohurch  enterprise.  It  can  keep  it  true  to 
Evangelical  truth,  and  teach  it  how  to  bring  that  truth  to  bear  effec- 
tually upon  the  people.  The  doctrines  proclaimed  by  our  Methodist 
fathers  were  substantially  those  professed  by  the  Beformers,  but  special 
emphasis  was  laid  on  what  we  call  "  the  saving  doctrines,"  those  which 
directly  deal  with  the  salvation  of  man  from  the  guilt  and  pollution  of 
sin.  Those  truths  were  presented  by  the  early  Methodists  in  the  virgin 
freshness  and  pristine  power  in  which  they  fell  from  the  lips  of  Peter 
at  Pentecost  and  Paul  at  Philippi.  But  if  no  new  doctrine  was  added 
to  the  Christian  symbol  by  our  fathers,  the  manner  in  which  they  pre- 
sented the  truth  was  startlingly  new — at  least  in  modern  times.  That 
manner  of  preaching  may  be  called  the  individualising.  It  was  the 
manner  of  Tauler  at  Strasburg,  of  Savonarola  at  Florence.  Whitefield 
appealed  to  the  passions  and  emotions  of  men  with  overwhelming  force  ; 
Wesley,  with  calm,  chaste  logic,  addressed  men's  consciences  ;  and  both 
spoke  in  such  a  way  that  everyone  felt  he  was  separately  addressed, 
apart  from  the  thousands  around  him.  The  effect  produced  was  a  con- 
trast to  that  seen  now,  when  a  great  pulpit  orator  has  held  his  audience 
entranced  for  the  forty  minutes  which  is  the  extreme  limit  a  modern 
congregation  can  allow  to  its  best  preachers.  Then  men  had  no  power 
to  criticise  or  time  to  admire.  They  were  occupied  in  examining  their 
own  state  and  condition  before  God.  The  truth  had  grasped  them  as 
in  a  vice.  The  s^^rong,  manly,  personal  declaration  of  the  Gospel  came 
home  with  power,  piercing  the  conscience,  melting  the  heart,  convincing 
the  judgment,  converting  the  soul. 


ESSAY   OF    REV.    W.   J.    TOWNSEND.  II7 

Can  Methodism  exert  this  influence  to-day  in  holding  the  Free 
Church  luovenient  to  a  bold  dfilaration  of  tlie  great  truths  peculiar  to 
Christianity?  Can  it  impart  to  its  sister  Denominations  its  ancient 
individualising,  pungent,  incisive  style  of  preaching  to  every  hearer 
separately?  If  so,  it  will  confer  a  boon  on  the  united  Ohurches  no 
words  can  adequately  express.  If  so,  Methodism  can  more  than  repeat 
its  mighty  achievement  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  it  poured  a 
quickening  influence  into  the  heart  even  of  the  Sadducean  and  ice- 
bound Established  Church  of  the  land,  and  gave  the  impulse  which 
resulted  in  the  numberless  philanthropic  agencies  which  redeem  the 
Christian  nations  from  selfishness  and  greed. 

It  is  strongly  felt  by  the  leaders  of  the  Free  Church  movement  that, 
to  properly  vindicate  its  existence,  it  must  work  mainly  on  the  line  of 
aggressive  evangelism  for  the  lost  masses,  both  poor  and  rich.  It  is 
equally  evident  that,  if  this  is  done,  its  ministry  to  the  lost  must  be 
by  a  clear  setting  forth  of  Evangelical  truth,  and  in  the  manner  that  can 
grasp  and  effectually  impress  the  sinner.  There  has  never  been  a  great 
revival  in  the  Churcli  of  Christ  but  when  remarkable  prominence  has 
been  given  to  the  truths  of  redemption,  nor  has  any  minister  been  sig- 
nally used  by  God  in  turning  many  to  righteousness  who  has  negatived 
or  omitted  these  truths  in  his  ministry.  If  Methodism,  true  to  its  old 
traditions — nay,  to  its  essential  conditions — in  this  respect,  can  not 
only  confirm  itself  as  the  greatest  single  evangelising  force  in  the 
world,  but  can  impart  to  its  allies  in  the  Free  Churches  in  a  larger 
degree  than  they  now  possess  them  its  passion  for  souls  and  its  power 
of  deaUng  with  souls,  its  range  of  holy  influence  will  be  indefinitely 
extended,  and  it  will  once  more  reveal  its  Providential  calling  as  a 
leavening  presence  in  all  the  Churches. 

I  have,  therefore,  to  appeal  to  this  august  Christian  assembly  to 
rivet  more  closely  the  ties  which  bind  it  in  the  Free  Church  Federation. 
The  Free  Churches  of  England  and  Wales  have  closed  their  ranks ; 
they  have  joined  hand  in  hand  ;  they  have  vowed  together  to  fight  out 
oiur  social  wrongs  and  crimes,  to  seek  to  spread  Scriptural  Holiness 
throughout  the  land,  to  establish  the  Kingdom  of  Christ,  to  hasten  the 
consummation  of  all  that  is  in  our  Saviour's  programme  of  Eedemp- 
tion  ;  and  the  idea  of  retreat,  of  failure,  either  utter  or  partial,  cannot 
be  entertained  in  any  form.  Our  only  alternative  is  war,  uncompro- 
mising, untiring,  unresting,  in  which  every  resource  in  God  or  man,  in 
earth  or  heaven,  shall  be  brought  into  play,  utilised  to  the  utmost,  con- 
secrated by  the  glory  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  so  that  ere  long  the  victory, 
final  and  crowning,  shall  be  declared  on  the  side  of  eternal  righteous- 
ness. This  shall  be  done,  by  this  instrumentality,  if  its  aim  is  sure,  its 
faith  full,  its  zeal  perfect,  its  sympathy  universal ;  through  it  a  larger 
Christ  will  dilate  before  the  eye  of  humanity  ;  the  world  will  be  drawn 
to  the  fold  of  eternal  love  ;  and  the  Church,  purified  from  every  spot  or 
wrinkle  or  any  such  thing,  elevated  above  all  partialities,  moulded  into 
harmonious  perfectness,  shall  be  fit  to  be  the  consort  of  Him  who  has 
His  name  written,  King  of  Kings  and  Lord  of  Lords. 


Il8  METHODISM    AND    CHRISTIAN    UNITY. 

Bishop  R.  S.  Williams,  D.D.  (Coloured  Mothodist  Episcopal 
Church),  next  gave  au  address  on  "  Methodism  and  Christian 
Unity,"  as  follows  : 

To  the  important  and  interesting  subject  of  "  Methodism  and 
Christian  Unity "  I  confess  I  know  not  how  to  address  myself  in 
the  time  allotted.  What  other  words  ever  meant  more  in  their  rel^,- 
tions  to  the  past,  present,  or  future  1  Methodism  did  not  come  by 
chance  or  accident,  but,  called  of  God,  it  sprang  from  the  womb  of 
necessity  at  a  perilous  time  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church,  at 
a  time  when  men  had  a  form  of  godliness,  but  without  the  power  there- 
of. Although  during  its  anxious  formative  period  it  was  uncertain  as 
to  the  plan  and  purpose  of  God  respecting  the  greatness  of  its  future,  yet, 
under  the  guidance  of  heaven,  Mr.  Wesley,  its  great  fnunder,  and  his 
coadjutors  builded  more  wi(^ely  than  they  knew.  I  know  of  nothing 
to  compare  with  the  remarkable  history  of  Methodism  ;  with  its  first 
struggles  and  besetments  ;  its  sunshine  and  shadows  ;  and  withal 
nothing  to  compare  with  the  social  and  spiritual  reformation  it  has 
effected  among  the  masses. 

Methodism  !  Who  can  define  it  1  It  is  not  merely  rigid  adhesion  to 
printed  principles  and  empty  formalities,  but  an  active,  throbbing, 
organised  spiritual  force — a  Divine  system  of  faith  and  practice,  co- 
operating with  Christ  in  the  redemptive  work  of  man's  fallen  family. 
It  is  Christianity  at  work,  Christianity  earnestly  contending  "  for  the 
faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints."  Its  fundamental  principle — love 
to  God  and  all  mankind — and  its  simplicity  of  purpose  to  help  in  the 
redemption  of  the  world  by  the  power  of  the  glorious  Gospel  have 
wrought  mightily  in  advancing  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  on  earth. 

Methodism  is  a  marvel !  It  was  no  less  remarkable  in  its  origin  and 
rise  than  it  has  been  in  its  progress  and  development.  Even  now,  far 
into  the  second  century  of  its  eventful  history,  it  does  not  yet  appear 
what  it  shall  be,  or  how  God  shall  yet  use  it  in  furthering  the  final 
triumphs  of  Christianity.  Methodism  has  not  only  fed  and  fanned  into 
spiritual  life  and  liberty  the  perishing  millions  who  have  sought  and 
found  refuge,  lived  and  died  within  its  pale,  but  it  has  also  served  to 
liberalise  believers  in  all  Churches,  and  quicken  the  spiritual  impulse 
of  all  Christendom.  Its  precepts  and  practices,  its  tenets  and  teach- 
ings, together  with  its  inspiriting,  ever-living  Wesley  hymns,  all  tend 
to  unify  Christian  believers.  Our  Saviour  in  His  intercessory  prayer 
prayed  that  His  people — His  Church  and  children — might  be  one,  that 
is,  united  in  love  and  labour  for  His  Name's  sake.  We  are  all  engaged 
in  one  common  work  and  welfare,  with  one  faith,  one'  hope,  and  one 
eternal  Head  to  inspire  our  efforts.  I  see  no  reason  why  we  might  not 
here  and  now  in  some  way  undertake  to  plan  and  readjust  our  differ- 
ences in  a  way  to  meet  the  needs  of  present  conditions,  and  give  the 
world  the  happy  example  of  QHcumenical  Christianity.  Should  we  any 
longer  allow  national  distinctions,  racial  prejudices,  theological  dogmas 
and  sentimental  quibbles  to  separate  and  keep  us  disunited  touching 
the  most  essential  and  vital  part  of  our  work  as  co-labourers   with 


ADDRESS    OF    niSITOP    R.    S.    WILLIAMS.  II9 

Christ?  1  do  ii(i(  ailviso  that  our  Driiomiiial  ions,  as  sui-h,  slioiiM  de- 
preciiilc  tlieir  own  sacred  hislury,  vhixw^a  their  standards  of  doctrines, 
or  revise  tlieir  creeds.  I  thank  Gud  Methodism  has  never  found  it 
necessary  nor  expedient  to  leave  the  hmdniarks  of  tlie  fathers.  But  I 
insist  it  is,  in  the  light  and  teachings  of  the  New  Testament,  imjiera- 
tive  to  leave  the  principles  of  doctrines,  and,  walking  l)y  the  same  rule, 
and  minding  the  same  things,  to  go  forward  in  solid  column  and  un- 
divided counsel,  mightily  achieving  for  God  and  mankind. 

Our   Church  organisations  are,    perhajjs,    sufficiently  comi)lete,   and 
our  human  operations  sufficiently  systematised.     We  have  all  that  the 
wisdom  and  experience  of  the  centuries  can  give  us   in   the   form  of 
human    devices.     Our  need  now    is    Divine    momentum,    and    united 
Christian  aggression  to  conquer  the  world  for  Christ.  Without  effacing 
our  denominational  lines  and  apparent  differences,  we  can  gWe  an  illus- 
tration of  genuine  brotherly  love  and  practical  Christian  fellowship  such 
as  noth'ng  but  Christian  unity  is  capable  of  producing.   The  atmosphere 
of  Evangelical  Christianity  indicates  a  tendency  towards  concentration 
and  united  effort.     I  confidently  advocate  the  possibility  and  the  prac- 
ticability of  Christian  unity,  despite  the  vast  variety  of  national  dis- 
cords and  divisions,  idioms  and  habits.     Is  not  the  day  at  hand  when 
all  Protestant  Christians  can  approach  one  another  in  a  spirit  of  love 
and  sympathy,  each  preserving  his  own  peculiar  identity,  and  yet  with 
a  oneness  of  Christian  purpose  to  co-operate  for  the  progress  of  the 
glorious  Gospel?     We  seem  now  to  be  approaching  a  period  in  the  his- 
tory of  {he  Church  which  is  fraught  with  admonitions  respecting  our 
duty  as  well  as   our  danger.     We  can   ill  afford   to   waste   time  and 
energy  in  cavil  and  controversy  over  matters  of  small  moment.     We 
must  form  a  united  front  against  the  powers  and  principalities  of  dark- 
ness.    For  there  is  no  power  or  combination  of  powers,  no  forces  or 
union  of  forces,  however  many  or  mighty,  that  can  successfully  resist 
the  united  efforts   of  Christian  believers.      The  world-wnde   family   of 
man  is-  naturally  divided,   divided  by  reason  of  its  various  tongues, 
tribes,  races,  and  nationalities  ;  and  there  is  no  hope  of  forming  these 
heterogeneous  millions  into  one  system  of  government.     But  we  can 
hope  for  a  community  of  Christian  interests  in  solving  the  momentous 
question  of  their  social  and  spiritual  regeneration,  and  thereby  making 
them  subjects  of  the  government  of  the  Prince  of  Peace.     All  sin  tends 
to  disintegrate,  alienate,  and  separate  ;  but  the  teachings  and  tenden- 
cies of  Christianity    are  to   conciliate,    harmonise,    and    tc    unite.     If 
Christian  unity,  therefore,  is  so  essential  as  we  confess  it  to  be,  when 
and  where,  if  not  now,  are  we  to  indicate  our  readiness  to  make  provi- 
sion for  the  blessings  it  waits  to  bestow?     The  spirit  of  unity  of  pur- 
pose, with  a  constraining  sense  of  fraternal  co-operation,  will  furnish 
Evangelicalism  strength,  zeal,  and  courage  such  as  has  not  characterised 
its  movements  since  the  days  of  Pentecost. 

Many  of  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  Christian  unity,  regarded  by 
■many  as  insurmountable,  may  be  removed  by  a  more  cordial  inter- 
denominational exchange   of  mutual  courtesies.     Co-operation,    there- 


T20  METHODISM    AND    CHRISTIAN   UNITl?. 

fore,  without  the  compromise  of  denominational  principles,  is  both 
;i  privilege  and  a  duty.  The  constant  evolutions  incident  to  human 
life,  and  the  ever-restlessness  of  the  unchurched  millions  in  quest  of 
something  new  and  novel,  oblige  us,  as  the  representatives  of  the  Lord 
Almighty,  so  to  broaden  our  bases  and  concentrate  our  forces  as  to 
meet  the  issues  before  us.  These  constantly  increasing  sects  and  mis- 
guided zealots,  springing  up  in  our  large  centres  of  society,  teaching 
doctrines  contrary  to  both  reason  and  religion,  serve  at  least  to  indicate 
a  condition  made  possible  by  our  detached  and  isolated  forms  of  Pro- 
testantism. Let  us  be  admonished  by  these  to  cherish  the  hope  and 
cultivate  the  spirit  of  Christian  unity.  We  should  not  lightly  consider 
these  questions.  They  demand  our  best  attention,  our  earnest  prayers, 
and  considerate  judgment.  With  practical  Christian  unity  planned 
and  pursued,  a  brighter  day  will  dawn,  marking  a  new  epoch  in  the 
history  of  modern  Christianity,  insuring  peace  and  spiritual  prosperity 
for  all  time  to  come. 

"  Finally,  brethren,  whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever  things 
are  honest,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  pure, 
whatsoever  things  are  lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report 
think  on  these  things." 

The  Rev.  T.  Bowman  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church),  then  gave  an  address  on  "  Inter-Denominational 
Fellowship  among  Methodists."     He  said  : 

I  do  not  like  my  subject,  and  I  tried  to  get  out  of  it,  because,  if  I 
speak  honestly  about  it  I  know  I  shall  not  please  everybody,  and  I 
doubt  very  much  if  I  shall  please  anybody.  The  title  may  mean  fellow- 
ship between  Methodist  Denominations,  or  fellowship  between  Method- 
ists of  various  Denominations.  I  shall  use  it  loosely,  if  you  will  allow 
me,  and  as  covering  either  or  both  of  these  interpretations.  It  is 
almost  unavoidable  that  I  should  speak  from  the  Eastern  standpoint, 
for  although  I  have  the  happiness  to  know  America  better  than  most 
Englishmen,  and  have  been  most  kindly  received  there,  yet  it  is 
exceedingly  difficult  for  any  man  to  judge  of  all  the  conditions  of  a 
complicated  problem  like  this  when  he  is  obliged  to  look  at  them 
from  across  the  great  ocean. 

My  subject,  then,  is  inter-denominational  fellowship,  and  first  of 
all,  we  have  it !  We  have  it  now !  Our  Conferences  communicate  by 
friendly  messages  and  by  occasional  delegations  ;  we  exchange  pulpits  ; 
we  hold  joint  communion  services  ;  we  hold  united  love-feasts  ;  and  we 
help  each  other  on  all  sorts  of  special  occasions.  We  neither  persecute 
nor  patronise  each  other.  As  for  our  local  preachers,  a  magnificent 
body  of  men,  far  beyond  20,000  in  number  in  this  country,  they 
render  us  invaluable  service  and  are  common  property  ;  indeed,  many 
of  the  smaller  village  causes  would  have  to  shut  up  altogether  but  for 
the  help  given  by  the  local  preachers  of  sister  Denominations.  It 
follows  that  already  we  know  each  other  a  great  deal  better  than  we 
did  twenty  years  ago.  We  like  each  other  better  ;  I  think  I  might  use 
a  warmer  word,  and  say  we  love  each  other  better. 


ADDRESS    OF    REV.    T.    BOWMAN    STEPHENSON.  12 1 

We  go  beyond  sentiment.  We  have  a  Committee  for  Concerted 
Action  which  is  appointed  by  the  several  Conferences  of  this  country. 
The  only  criticism  I  would  venture  to  make  upon  that  particular 
body  IS,  that  there  is  a  great  deal  more  concert  than  action  about 
It.  There  are  also  two  practical  illustrations  of  the  improved  feeling 
which  are  just  coming  to  light,  one  of  which  indeed  is  a  little  older 
than  the  other.  One  is  that  three  out  of  the  Methodist  Denominations 
in  this  country  have  agreed  to  use  a  common  Hymn  Book,  and  to 
join  in  the  preparation  of  it.  The  other  is  that  in  the  Children's 
Home,  a  large  philanthropy  of  which  I  have  some  knowledge,  the 
government  is  confided  to  a  committee  representing  four  out°of  the 
five  Denominations,  and  appointed  by  the  four  Conferences,  the  fifth 
merely  standing  out  from  the  arrangement  because  it  has  a  similar 
work  of  its  own. 

AH  that  is  good,  but  it  does  not  touch  many  of  the  most  serious 
evils  with  which  we  have  to  deal.  It  does  not  touch,  for  instance, 
the  undue  and  wasteful  competition  that  is  going  on  here  and  there^ 
the  overlapping  which  we  cannot  help  regretting  at  so  many  points  of 
our  work.  It  does  not  affect  the  needless  extra  management  expenses 
of  three  or  four  separate  Missionary  Societies  ;  it  does  not  touch  the 
fact  that  we  have  small  Theological  Colleges  which  cannot  be  so 
effective  as  larger  and  better  equipped  Colleges  would  be,  and  yet 
which  cost  relatively  more.  It  does  not  touch  the  miserable  scandal 
of  two  or  three  little  chapels  standing  side  by  side  in  villages  at  need- 
less expense  of  money  and  men,  and,  more  than  that,  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  wholesome  Church  discipline. 

Can  an  inter-denominational  fellowship  go  further  ?  Is  there  much 
more  on  this  line  that  is  really  practicable?  I  do  not  believe  there 
is.  We  may  love  one  another  a  little  better  ;  we  may  preach  for  one 
another  a  little  oftener  ;  we  may  hold  more  love-feasts  ;  we  may  be 
more  polite  and  cordial  ;  and  we  may  still  more  carefully  than  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  do,  avoid  the  temptation  to  needlessly  criticise 
one  another.  But  all  this  will  not  do  the  things  that  are  most  desirable, 
for  this  fellowship  cannot,  as  I  have  already  pointed  out,  touch  the 
question  of  overlapping,  and  I  do  not  think  it  would  help  such  ques- 
tions as  theological  tuition.  Would  any  of  our  Churches  be  content  to 
put  their  students  under,  say,  a  professor  of  pastoral  theology  .nnd 
Church  polity  appointed  by  one  of  the  other  Denominations? 

I  do  not  think  fraternal  fellowship,  good,  sweet,  pleasant,  and 
helpful  as  it  is,  can  go  very  much  farther.  There  are  sentimental 
young  men  and  women  who  sometimes  desire  to  assume  to  each 
other  the  platonic  relation  of  brother  and  sister.  It  ends  in  nothing, 
or  it  ends  in  something  warmer.  We  were  told  yesterday  about  a 
courtship  that  had  been  going  on  in  Australia,  and  one  cannot  help 
asking  in  reference  to  some  courtships,  how  long  they  are  to  go  on. 
Courtship  too  long  continued  is  apt  to  become  tedious  and  fretful,  and 
even  quarrelsome.  It  may  possibly  end  in  action  for  breach  of 
promise.     Marriage,   if  there  is  to  be  one,   should  really  not  be  put 


122  METHODISM    AND    CHRISTIAN    UNITY. 

off  too  long.  A  friend  of  mine  was  crossing  the  Atlantic.  There  was 
a  bright  little  boy  on  board,  and  he  asked  him  how  old  he  was. 
"  Six."  "  Would  you  like  to  be  seven  ?  "  "  Yes."  "  Would  you  rather 
be  seven  or  eight?"  "Eight."  "Why?"  "Because  I  want  to  hurry 
up  and  be  married.  '  Speaking  only  for  myself,  it  appears  to  me  that 
we  have  got  just  about  as  far  with  inter-denominational  fellowship  as 
we  are  likely  to  get.  We  may  continue  as  we  are,  and  we  may  even 
somewhat  improve  our  relationship  to  each  other,  but  I  believe  that 
we  have  reached  the  point  at  which  any  serious  further  advance  spells 
Union,  and  nothing  less. 

I  am  not  going  to  discuss  Union  ;  I  am  not  at  hberty  to  do  it,  it  is 
not  my  subject,  and  I  know  there  are  plenty  of  difficulties  in  the  way, 
and  that  the  thing  is  not  to  be  done  hastily.  We  had  a  hint  yester- 
day that  the  first  approaches  should  come  from  the  stronger  party. 
That  is  a  doctrine  which,  in  the  abstract,  we  may  all  receive,  and 
which,  no  doubt,  will  be  dulj'  considered.  There  is  another  thing 
that  must  be  remembered,  too — all  the  concessions  must  not  be  expected 
from  the  stronger  partj'.  If  ever  Union  takes  place,  there  must  be 
concessions  all  round,  or  let  us  say  mutual  accom.modation  in  matters 
not  of  principle.  The  concessions,  too,  must  not  be  in  inverse  ratio  to 
the  size  and  importance  lof  the  contracting  parties.  Of  this,  also,  be  sure, 
if  any  Church  is  determined  to  cling  to  all  outstanding  peculiarities 
as  though  they  were  the  very  Ark  of  the  Lord,  that  Church  will  either 
prevent  Union  altogether,  or  will  be  left  out  in  the  cold  when  the 
others  are  welcome  to  clasp  hands  in  the  common  joy. 

The  one  thing  I  want  to  leave  on  the  minds  of  my  friends  of  the 
Eastern  Section  in  all  its  Denominations  is  this,  that  I  believe  we  have 
reached  a  point  greatly  in  advance  of  any  former  days.  For  this  we 
may  thank  God  ;  from  it  surely  we  may  take  courage  ;  but,  in  my 
judgment,  if  any  serious  further  advance  in  this  direction  is  desired, 
it  is  only  possible  by  way  of  Union,  and  we  may  well  ask  "  Shall  we 
have  grace  anj  sense  and  wisdom  to  do  the  right  thing  under  these 
circumstances  ?  "     Pray  God  we  may  ! 

The  Rev.  G.  T.  Candlin  (Methodist  New  Connexion)  opened  the 
discussion  as  follows  : 

The  words  uttered  by  Dr.  Stephenson  are  such  that  I  feel  a  solemn 
responsibility  laid  upon  me,  as  the  President  of  the  Methodist  New 
Connexion,  to  respond  to  them,  so  far  as  I  am  competent  to  do  on 
behalf  of  the  body  which  I  represent.  I  am  somewhat  in  the  same 
position  as  Dr.  Stephenson.  I  speak  for  myself,  and  cannot  be  under- 
stood as  committing  the  Methodist  New  Connexion  on  any  point_  of 
detail  on  the  question  of  Union.  I  stand  here  to  express  the  conviction 
that  the  oldest  daughter  of  Methodism  will  be  ready  with  any  other 
part  of  Methodism,  East  or  West,  to  form  one  united  Methodist 
brotherhood  the  world  around.  I  speak  as  a  missionary  who  has  spe^it 
nearly  twenty-five  years,  not  in  the  East  and  not  in  the  West,  but  in  the 
farthest  East,  in  China,  where  we  have  a  very  large  Methodist  brother- 
hood Indeed,    and  I  could  wisli  Avith  all  my  heart   that  some   of   our 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  "  1 23 

Chinese  brethren,  whether  they  spoke  the  Celestial  tongue  or  ours, 
had  been  on  this  platform.  While  I  myself  personally  have  been  for 
some  years  a  most  ardent  advocate  of  Methodist  Union,  I  believe  most 
earnestly  that  is  the  case  with  every  Methodist  missionary  in  China, 
and  probably  with  every  member  of  the  many  Methodist  communities 
in  China. 

I  can  speak  with  absolute  assurance  for  the  members  of  our  own 
Methodist  New  Connexion  Mission  in  the  North,  and  I  can  speak,  I 
am  sure,  from  personal  acquaintance  with  the  Wesleyan  Methodist 
workers  in  Canton  and  on  the  River  Yangste,  and  for  the  United  Free 
Church  missionaries  in  Wenchow.  Happily  our  geographical  relations 
are  such  that  we  shall  increase  our  strength  and  efhciency,  and  carry 
Methodism  round  the  coast  of  the  great  empire  of  China.  I  think  I 
can  also  speak  for  that  very  much  larger  body  of  American  Methodist 
workers.  North  and  South,  who  are  also  labouring  in  China.  As  for 
the  bulk  of  our  Chinese  members,  well,  the  fact  is  they  do  not  know 
anything  about  it — they  are  "  the  people  called  Methodists." 

I  am  quite  sure  that  such  a  movement  as  this  would  give  us  a  great 
spiritual  power  for  good  among  the  Churches  of  God  in  this  empire. 
I  have  the  feeling  that  Methodism  has  never  realised  one-half  of  its 
strength,  just  on  account  of  its  divisions — that,  if  we  did  once  get 
together  (and  I  for  my  part  do  not  know  anything  that  should  separate 
us),  then  a  new  era  would  dawn  for  the  Methodism  of  England,  and 
the  days  of  John  Wesley  would  come  back.  I  agree  with  all  my  heart 
with  the  sentiment  uttered  by  Dr.  Stephenson,  that  the  sooner  this 
courtship  ends  the  better,  and  that  if  we  are  to  come  together,  let  us 
come  together.  A  little  accident  occurred  to  me  as  I  was  coming  to 
this  Conference  this  afternoon.  I  went  into  Wesley's  House,  and  as 
I  came  out  and  went  to  reach  my  hat  from  the  rail  I  found  it  was  not 
there.  Is  that  a  sample  of  Methodist  Union  or  is  it  not?  When  we 
get  to  wearing  one  another's  hats  I  think  we  may  well  put  our  heads 
together  and  our  hearts  too. 

If  you  want  a  further  sign  that  the  blessing  of  God  is  upon  this  pro- 
posal, I  seem  to  see  it  in  the  ornament  which  so  greatly  beautifies 
the  front  of  the  gallery  of  this  chapel.  The  proposal  made  this  after- 
noon may  have  upon  it  the  Pentecostal  blessing  of  the  Divine  Spirit ; 
for  I  see  in  the  symbol  around  this  gallery,  with  the  olive  branch  in  its 
beak,  the  white  dove  floating  in  a  golden  heaven. 

Ml'.  G.  P.  Dymoa'd,  B.A.  (Bibb  Christian  Church),  spoke  as 
follows  : 

I  am  very  glad  that  the  subject  of  Dr.  Townsend's  paper  is  one 
which  reminds  us  of  a  fact  which  I  think  our  absent  friend,  Mr.  Hughes, 
has  again  and  again  stated — that  God  has  not  staked  His  all  on 
Methodism.  I  do  not  know  if  we  ourselves  need  to  be  reminded 
forcibly  of  it,  but  we  do  need  to  take  an  attitude  which  will  enable 
others  to  remember  that  is  not  our  position  altogether,  and  that  there 
are  Churches  that  have  done  grand  and  glorious  work,  as  some  of  us 
have  been  reminded  by  a  visit  to  Bunhill  Fields,  just  opposite  this 
chapel.  Other  Churches  have  done  a  great  and  noble  work  for  Noncon- 
formity, and  it  behoves  us,  if  we  are  to  have  the  right  spirit,  that  we 
should  maintain  the  most  cordial  attitude  towards  those  Churches. 
We  should  recognise  the  valuable  work  which  they  have  done,  and  we 
should  do  all  we  can  to  co-operate  with  them  in  the  promotion  of  the 
spirit  of  Christian  unity. 


124  METHODISM    AND    CHRISTIAN    UNITY. 

We  know  that  this  sentiment  of  unity  is  one  which  has  had  to  stand 
a  great  deal  of  strain,  and  that  it  is  strained  almost  to  breaking  point 
in  some  localities  in  different  parts  of  our  country.  There  are  villages, 
as  we  have  been  reminded,  where  there  are  three  or  four,  four  or  five, 
even  five  or  six,  different  Nonconformist  places  of  worship,  where,  in 
some  cases,  there  ought  to  be  only  one.  Therefore,  we  are  on  right 
lines,  and  we  are  doing  what  we  ought  in  striving  to  promote  Christian 
unity  in  this  land. 

I  am  inclined  to  think  that  Methodism  is  responsible  for  a  great 
administrative  principle — that  is,  the  principle  of  cohesionby  decen- 
tralisation. If  there  is  one  principle  which  is  carried  out  in  our  life, 
it  is  this  one,  which  I  think  has  been  interwoven  now  into  the  affairs 
of  our  Empire.  I  will  go  even  further,  and  say  that  whatever  there 
may  be  to  lament  in  the  Imperialism  of  to-day,  we  as  a  people  are 
greatly  responsible  for  it,  because  our  line  has  gone  out  into  all  the 
earth. 

There  is  a  vast  work  to  be  done  in  promoting  the  spirit  of  real 
co-operation  among  the  Churches.  We  are  talking  about  co-operation  ; 
we  are  talking  about  unity  ;  but  the  question  for  all  of  us  is  whether 
we  are  promoting  in  ourselves  a  spirit"  of  unity.  Whatever  we  may 
think  of  it,  the  men  outside  the  Church  often  look  upon  us  as  being 
in  some  respects  as  sacerdotal  as  those  whom  we  call  sacerdotal.  _  There 
are  some  who  feel  that  every  minister  of  the  Christian  Church  is  more 
or  less  of  a  sacerdotalist.  That  may  be  a  misunderstanding— I  do  not 
doubt  that  it  is— but,  as  one  of  the  50,000  lay  preachers  of  whom  men- 
tion has  been  made  here  this  afternoon,  I  feel  that  there  is  a  greater 
work  yet  to  be  done  by  the  lay  element  in  our  various  communities,  that 
there  must  not  continue  to  be  the  ignoring  of  the  capability  of  laymen 
to  do  some  really  energetic  work  in  connection  with  the  Church. 
There  is  a  disposition,  even  among  Methodist  communities,  I  venture 
to  say,  to  ignore  the  work  that  is  done  by  laymen.  I  am  not  sure 
that  the  layman  is  not  sometimes  responsible  for  that  attitude,  but 
there  it  is.  There  is  more  stress  laid  upon  the  opinions  that  come 
from  the  "  cloth,"  so  called,  than  there  is  upon  the  layman's  work,  and 
while  we  may  in  assemblies  of  this  kind  take  into  account  the  grand 
work  which  has  been  done  by  Methodist  laymen  in  the  past,  do  not 
let  us  forget  that  the  work  will  have  to  be  done  to  a  large  extent  by 
the  laity  in  the  future.  I  think  work  might  be  done  more  direct  than 
it  is  yet  being  done  in  the  way  of  reaching  those  who  are  outside, 
if  some  scheme  could  be  devised  by  which  some  of  the  most  prominent 
men — of  the  prominence  of  that  brother  who  was  here  upon  the 
platform  this  morning,  and  who  spoke  so  ably  to  us — should  go  out 
and  show  that  it  is  possible  for  a  Christian  layman  to  maintain  his 
life  unstained,  free  from  reproach,  free  from  the  spirit  of  grinding 
oppression,  which  the  workman  generally  thinks  belongs  too  often 
to  the  Christian  Church. 

If  there  is  to  be  a  true  spirit  of  unity  it  must  be  in  the  cordial 
co-operation  of  all  branches  of  the  Christian  Church,  for  the  sanctifying 
of  the  laity,  for  uplifting  those  who  are  down,  for  the  operation  of  our 
work  in  connection  with  our  village  communities,  that  we  may  be  able 
to  co-operate  with  the  National  Council  of  the  Free  Churches  to  carry 
the  Gospel  tidings  of  salvation  into  every  village,  and  to  show  that  we 
are  interested,  ^nt  only  in  the  spiritual,  but  the  social  salvation  of  all 
men.  I  have  felt  myself  in  this  assembly  that  the  one  sentiment  which 
seems  to  prevail  among  us  is  that  of  Union.  I  should  be  very  glad  if 
it  had  been  possible  for  the  Union  to  be  consummated  between   the 


GENERAL    REMARICS.  I25 

Church  which  I  represent  and  the  CMiiuch  which  is  represented  by 
the  President  of  fo-daj.  I  sliuuld  be  glad  if  it  were  possible  for  the 
minor  Churches  of  Methodism  to  unite  together,  and  to  show  not  simply 
unity  of  spirit,  but  unity  of  organisation,  that  we  might  be  one,  and 
then  that  there  might  come  the  larger  unity  which  will  come  when  all 
the  Methodist  Churches  are  one.  I  want  a  greater  unity  even  than 
that,  if  we  are  to  be  successful  in  our  work  in  the  great  outlying  fields, 
and  that  is  the  unity  of  all  them  that  love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
the  breaking  down  of  this  terrible  party  spirit  which  prevails  outside 
the  Church,  and  in  the  Church,  that  all  who  really  love  righteousness 
may  go  shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  so  promote  the  advancement  of  our 
Saviour's  Kingdom. 

The  Rev.  Ralph  Abbrcrombib,  M.A.  (United  Methodist  Free 
Church),  said : 

I  wish  to  say  a  few  words  on  behalf  of  the  United  Methodist  Free 
Churches.  I  listened  with  very  great  pleasure  to  the  speech  of  Dr. 
Stephenson  this  morning.  I  have  been  associated  with  him  before  in 
reference  to  this  subject  af  Christian  unity.  I  was  associated  with 
him  at  the  (Ecumenical  Conference  of  1891.  On  that  occasion  a  friend 
of  ours,  the  Rev.  William  Eedfern,  made  a  special  appeal  in  his  paper 
to  Dr.  Stephenson  on  this  very  subject  of  Christian  unity.  Dr. 
Stephenson  happened  to  be  out  of  the  Conference  at  the  time.  I 
saw  him  when  he  returned,  and  asked  him  whether  he  was  aware 
that  such  an  appeal  had  been  made  to  him.  He  said  he  was  not  aware. 
I  asked  him  then  if  he  would  speak,  and  I  suggested  to  him  that  I 
would  go  to  Bishop  Warren,  who  was  presiding  that  day,  and  would 
ask  him  if  he  would  call  upon  Dr.  Stephenson  to  speak,  and  also  on 
the  other  Presidents  of  Methodist  Churches,  especially  in  the  Eastern 
Section.  I  asked  Bishop  Warren,  and  he  said  he  should  be  delighted. 
He  called  upon  Dr.  Stephenson,  and  called  upon  the  other  Methodist 
Presidents,  and  we  had  the  most  delightful  love-feast  that  afternoon 
that  I  had  attended  for  many  years.  You  will  remember  that  Dr. 
Berry  the  other  day  told  us  that  what  occurred  that  very  afternoon 
was  one  of  the  inspirations  of  Union  in  the  Australasian  Churches,  so 
that  this  inter-denominational  connection  and  sympathy  has  afready 
contributed  to  a  great  result,  cind  that  result  has  been  Union. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  is  the  ultimate  issue  of  it,  but  I  cannot  say 
that  I  agree  with  Dr.  Stephenson  in  thinking  that  everything  has  been 
done  tliat  can  be  done  as  yet.  His  position  is  that  we  have  gone  as 
far  as  we  can  go,  and,  therefore,  we  must  not  go  further.  Expressed  in  a 
few  words,  that  is  what  I  understood  the  position  of  Dr.  Stephenson 
to  be.  I  hold  that  we  have  not  got  quite  so  far  as  we  can  go  in  the 
way  of  inter-denominational  sympathy.  We  could  go  yet  further.  For 
instance,  we  could  have  at  some  (Ecumenical  Conference  a  full  state- 
ment, without  raking  up  the  ashes  of  any  past  controversies,  of  the 
history  of  the  distinguished  men  and  tho  various  institutions  of  each 
Denomination.  If  that  had  been  done  at  this  Conference,  then  our 
American  friends  could  have  gone  back  to  the  West  fully  informed 
of  all  the  varieties  of  Methodism  which  are  in  England — fully  informed 
in  reference  to  each  one  of  us.  We  could  have  been,  as  it  were,  all 
introduced  to  one  another,  and  that  introduction  I  have  no  doubt 
would  have  been  a  further  step  in  the  way  of  amity  and  Union. 

Allow  me  to  say,  we  of  the  Methodist  Free  Churches  have  ever 
responded  to  every  offer  of  Union.     We  have  been  ever  ready  to  make 


126  METHODISM    AND    CHRISTIAN    UNITY. 

oifers  of  Union.  AVe,  nf  the  Mctluxlist  Free  Churches,  are  already  an 
amalgamation  of  several  Ixirlies,  and  the  various  stages  of  our  history, 
the  eras  of  our  Iiistory  in  the  past,  are  (lie  eras  of  successive  unions' 
and  we  shall  ever  listen  to  any  such  offer  in  the  future,  and  ever  be 
ready  to  listea  to  the  kind, Christian  words,  accompanied  also  with  the 
ex-presidential  level-headedness  of  our  friend  Dr.  Stephenson. 

Mr.  Percy  W.  Bunting,  M.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  was 
the  next  speaker.     He  said : 

I  am  not  going  to  say  anything  about  Methodist  Union.  I  have 
not  come  here  to  speak  about  Methodist  Union.  I  agree  with  Dr. 
Stephenson.  I  have  taken  many  steps  in  that  direction,  and 
I  trust  that  before  another  (Ecumenical  Conference  meets  we  shall  be 
able  to  report  something  substantial  done  in  that  respect.  I  felt 
ashamed  when  I  heard  the  reports  of  Mr.  Berry  and  of  the  gentlemen 
from  Canada  as  to  the  extent  to  which  they  have  succeeded  by  large- 
heartedness,  by  great  confidence  in  the  future,  by  determination  to 
stick  to  great  pi-incipks  and  to  overlook  small  differences.  I  am 
ashamed  that  we  are  in  so  backward  a  state  in  that  respect  as  we  are 
to-day.     We  will  try  to  amend  before  the  next  Conference. 

I  wish  to  say  a  few  words  on  the  subject  opened  by  Dr.  Townsend. 
All  of  us  in  the  Eastern  Section,  I  think,  are  fairly  aware  of  the  history 
of  the  Free  Church  Federation  movement,  and  I  do  not  think  in  hve 
minutes  I  could  say  anything  substantial  which  would  tend  to 
enlighten  our  friends  of  the  Western  Section  as  to  the  history  of  the 
difficulties  of  that  movement.  I  wish  in  the  two  or  three  minutes 
that  I  can  speak  about  it  rather  to  show  what  are  the  reasons  which 
have  made  such  union  possible,  and  which  did  not  operate  in  the  times 
of  our  fathers.  Our  fathers  were  as  good  men  as  we  are,  and  they 
were  very  large-minded  and  large-hearted,  too.  They  could  not  unite 
then,  and  we  can  now.  Why  ?  The  Churches  which  we  are  discussing 
are  the  Churches  of  the  Reformation.  The  Reformation,  whatever 
else  it  was,  was  a  great  revolt  against  ecclesiastical  tyranny,  and  I 
think  you  will  observe  thi'oughout  history  when  there  has  been  a 
great  movement  of  revolt  there  is  a  tendency  for  the  revolters  not 
only  to  secede  from  what  they  all  object  to,  but  to  find  causes  of 
differences  among  themselves.  If  the  spirit  of  the  movement  is  that 
you  will  not  be  tyrannised  over,  you  decline  to  allow  each  other  as 
well  as  the  enemy  to  tyrannise  over  you,  and  there  is  a  certain  ten- 
dency to  magnify  differences.  The  spirit  of  liberty  and  freedom  is  a 
little  overweeningly  in  the  ascendant.  The  result  of  that  at  tlie  time 
of  the  Reformation  was  that,  trying  to  start  afresh  on  the  principle  of 
private  judgment,  the  revolting  Protestants,  founding  themselves  upon 
the  New  Testament,  interpreted  the  New  Testament  in  different  Avays, 
and  formed  themselves,  perhaps  unnecessarily,  into  different  Churches, 
divided  mainly  on  the  question  of  Church  government,  because  it  Avas 
on  the  question  of  Church  government,  to  a  large  extent,  that  they 
were  seceding  from  Rom.e.  The  result  has  been  that  down  to  our  own 
time  the  Churches  have  divided  mainly  on  questions  of  government, 
although  I  admit  also  on  some  great  questions  of  doctrine,  and  we 
find  ourselves  divided  into  three  or  four  great  Churches. 

Here  I  must  make  an  exception.  My  Church  is  not  a  Church  of  the 
Reformation  historically  ;  it  did  not  exist  then.  It  has  come  into 
operation,  it  has  come  into  being,  since.  Sometimes  I  think  it  may 
plead  something  of  the  apology   of  the  Apostle  Paul.     It  was,    as  it 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  12-; 

were  "  born  n„t  of  ,l„e  time."  Anyhow,  it,  did  not  arise  out  of  a  -liffer- 
ence  from  anyl.o.Iy  with  regar.l  to  Cli.uvh  <,'overnment  ;  it  .snran.^  „n 
as  a  separ^ile  movement,    and   took    its  inspiration   directly   from°  the 

ff   A      ?='""'  ''"'^  'T'"""  '"^"  ^""o  ""^^  '««  a  Cliurch  with  a  theory 
of   Church    government    at    all,    but    as    a    practical    Church    tryS 
to  advance  the  caiise  of  religion.     At  the  same  time,  it  did    in  fact 
spring  from  the  Puritan  spirit  of  England,   and  so  it  falls  'into  iTne 
with  the  other  Reformation  Churches. 

For  many  reasons,  which  it  would  take  far  too  long  for  me  to  attempt 
to  discuss  here,  very  much  on  account  of  the  larger  theolof^ical 
spirit,  which  has  been  the  special  revelation  of  the  latter  part  of  the 
last  centuiy  a  revelation  which  has  br-mght  into  prominence  great 
aspects  of  Christian  truths  which  were  believed  before,  but  which  did 
not  so  far  dominate  Christian  thought  as  they  have  come  to  do  since, 
we  have  found  that  specific  theological  differences,  which  separate  us 
so  tar  as  they  exist,  are  not  by  any  section  of  the  Church  treated  as  so 
important  in  relation  to  the  fundamental  truths  as  they  were  before 
Ihere  has  been  a  great  mediation  and  reconciliation,  owincr  to  the 
opening  of  new  aspects  of  truth.  There  has  also  been  a  areat  dis- 
position to  understand,  very  much  by  the  process  of  historical  research, 
that  the  New  Testament  does  not  lay  down  any  one  form  of  Church 
government  rather  than  another  ;  it  leaves  the  Christian  Church  to  the 
inspiration  of  the  Spirit  to  accommodate  itself  to  the  necessities  of 
the  time.  Those  two  beliefs,  theological  reconciliation  and  the  general 
view  of  the  nature  of  Church  government  and  its  authority,  have 
united  to  take  away,  out  of  view  almost,  the  whole  of  the  differences 
which  separate  the  Methodists  and  Congregationalists,  the  Baptists, 
and  the  Presbyterians.  We  find  ourselves  to-day,  not  only  theologic- 
ally in  such  a  position  that  the  same  sermon  may  be  preached  in  any 
pulpit  of  the  four  Denominations,  in  England,  at  any  rate,  if  not  in  the 
Highlands  of  Scotland,  and  will  be  accepted  by  the  people,  but  I 
venture  to  say,  as  a  rule,  that  the  most  critical  will  not  be  able  to 
discover  to  what  Denomination  the  preacher  belongs.  We  have  come 
to  see  the  truth  from  the  same  aspect  from  all  our  pulpits,  and  it  is 
time  to  consider  what  is  the  reason  for  keeping  apart.  We  find  that 
in  our  own  Church  practices,  however  peculiar  some  of  them  may 
be,  and  however  interested— I  will  not  say  prejudiced  at  all— however 
determined  we  may  be  in  maintaining  them  in  their  efficiency,  we  are 
coming  to  imitate  one  another's  methods. 

One  thing  more,  if  I  may  have  time  for  it.  There  has  been  a  great 
idea  of  the  expansion  of  the  social  work  of  the  Church.  The  work  of 
the  Christian  ministry,  and  of  the  Christian  Church,  is,  however, 
different  to  what  it  was  fifty  years  ago.  It  is  so  in  all  Churches. 
We  throw  ourselves  upon  the  lapsed  and  neglected  populations  around 
us,  to  help  them  in  all  ways,  not  only  spiritually,  but  in  their  moral 
and  intellectual  condition,  and  that  work  is  necessarily  not  denomi- 
national. Tou  cannot  have  a  Presbyterian  Band  of  Hope  ;  a  Band  of 
Hope  is  undenominational.  For  those  reasons  it  has  come  to  be  that 
our  Churches  are  so  much  identical  that  we  can  not  only  act  together, 
but  it  is  very  hard  for  any  Denomination  at  this  moment  to  formulate 
any  statement  by  which  its  own  peculiarities  could  be  to  its  own  con- 
science so  far  justified  as  to  say,  "  They  are  more  important  than  the 
things  we  hold  in  common." 

We  have  come  to  find  that  in  common  we  hold,  not  only  for  theo- 
logical, but  for  practical,   purposes,  a  plain,   large.   Evangelical  Chris- 


128  METHODISM   AND    CHRISTIAN    UNITY. 

tianitv,  aii'l  that  being  so,  we  have  come  to  face  the  question  whether 
we  cannot  act  together  now  that  there  is  no  great  reason  for  leniain- 
ing  apart-  -whether  we  cannot  exert  an  enormously  greater  force  upon 
the  world  by  acting  together  than  we  can  by  acting  separately.  That 
idea,  you  may  depend  upon  it,  will  grow.'  It  is  already  organic  in 
England.  I  trust  it  will  become  so  in  other  parts  of  the  earth.  It 
has  already  become  organic  ;  it  is  very  rapidly  becoming  so  strong  an 
organism  that,  although  I  shall  not  live  to  see  it,  I  believe  the  time 
will  come  when  the  Protestant  Evangelical  Churches  will  be  one 
Church. 

The  Kev.  F.  M.  North,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  spoke 
as  follows : 

I  desire  simply  to  add  a  word  to  what  has  been  said  so  eloquently 
and  so  strongly  concerning  the  power  of  federation  among  Christian 
Churches,  and  especially  to  state  one  or  two  facts  concerning  the 
progress  of  the  idea  of  federation  among  the  theological  Churches  of 
the  United  States.  There  is  a  movement  there  which  has  gone  forward 
very  quietly,  which  has  carried  no  banners,  and  has  had  very  few 
trumpets,  but  which  has,  after  all,  gathered  about  it  a  very  large  body 
of  earnest  thinkers  and  of  devout  workers  who  believe  that  there  is 
a  basis  for  combination  in  effort  and  sympathy  which  perhaps  does 
not  find  its  place  at  the  top,  but  at  the  lower  level,  of  society.  In 
other  words,  what  we  can  do  as  Christian  Denominations  is  to  come 
together  upon  the  basis  of  a  common  service,  where  perhaps  we 
cannot  come  together  upon  the  basis  of  common  ecclesiastical  order  or 
a  common  statement  of  theology. 

There  has  been  some  very  strong  influence  coming  to  us,  I  believe, 
from  the  movement  in  Great  Britain.  The  Free  Church  Council  has 
sent  its  messages  to  us  very  recently.  Its  President,  and  one  of 
its  most  able  workers,  were  only  a  few  months  ago  entertained  by  a 
group  of  gentlemen  in  New  York,  and  they  heard  from  these  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Free  Church  Council  the  progress  that  was  being  made 
here  in  this  great  movement.  One  of  the  gentlemen  represented  most 
definitely  to  us  the  fruits  of  your  Simultaneous  Mission.  Our  federa- 
tions are  of  a  little  different  character  from  those  which  you  have 
here.  We  are  not  there  organised  as  Nonconformists,  because  we 
have  nothing  to  nonconform  to.  It  is  one  of  the  strong  points  in  our 
work  in  America,  in  reference  to  the  special  federated  work,  that  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  in  the  capacity  of  its  individual  Churches, 
and  many  of  its  rectors,  is  as  earnestly  interested  in  the  work  of 
federation  as  are  the  other  Denominations.  In  the  city  of  New  York 
the  great  leading  Episcopal  Churches,  like  St.  Bartholomew's  and  the 
Church  presided  over  by  your  own  Dr.  Walpole  Warren,  who  is  also 
our  Dr.  Walpole  Warren,  the  Church  of  St.  James — these  Churches 
are  definitely  interested  at  this  very  moment  in  the  work  of  federation 
that  is  being  carried  on  there  during  the  summer  months. 

We  have  federations  in  these  forms.  Our  cities  are  federated.  We 
federate  for  the  purpose  of  trying  to  find  out  what  is  the  condition 
of  the  people.  We  believe  that  there  is  a  scientific  basis  for  religious 
work,  and  that  basis  is  in  the  ascertaining  in  exact  form  of  the  condi- 
tions of  the  people  to  whom  the  Gospel  is  to  be  preached.  We  have 
great  masses  of  people  there  who  are  not  indoctrinated,  as  are  most 
of  those  to  whom  you  preach  in  England  and  in  Scotland,  in  the  great 
fundamental  principles  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  we  must  find  out 
what  their  characteristics  are,  how  they  live,  how  they  are  housed, 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  1 29 

ami  wliaC  wo  can  do  to  read)  them.  Having  found  that  out  by  scientific 
inquiry  of  tlic  most  exact  and  the  most  thorougli  kind^  we  distribute 
among  the  Churches  wliich  are  involved  in  such  an  inquiry  the  terri- 
tory which  is  thus  investigated,  and  each  Denomination  has  its  parish. 
For  instance,  the  Presbyterian  Church  will  have  for  its  parish  a  block 
of  homes,  and  it  will  find  out  what  is  going  on  in  those  houses,  and 
will  put  into  touch  with  the  other  Churches  those  who  belong  to  the 
pastors  of  those  other  Churches,  and  when  removal  takes  place,  as 
is  constantly  the  case,  we  find  that  we  can  thus  keep  track  of 'thei 
people.  This  summer,  in  the  few  months  that  are  now  passing,  in 
the  city  of  New  York  there  is  a  great  inquiry  in  perhaps  six  or  eight 
of  the  great  assembly  districts  as  to  the  characteristics  of  the  popula- 
tion, so  that  we  shall  know  every  member,  every  home,  the  number  of 
children  in  every  family,  and  be  able  to  put  some  Christian  influence 
in  some  way  in  touch  with  every  family  in  that  whole  realm  of  the 
grealt  city. 

To  this  there  has  come  a  spirit  of  splendid  comity.  There  is  no 
discussion  of  theological  doctrine.  We  are  all  upon  the  common  basis 
of  confidence  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Saviour  of  men,  and  do 
not  know  any  other  way  by  which  the  world  is  to  be  saved  than  by 
confidence  in  Him  as  the  Redeemer.  We  are  to  teach  this,  but  on 
the  basis  of  our  investigations  we  are  glad  to  welcome  the  help  of  all 
men  of  every  kind,  who  love  to  do  that  which  is  right  to  be  done  for 
human  life. 

Then  we  have  organised  in  this  way  not  only  the  great  cities  in 
several  cases,  but  the  States,  and  not  only  the  States,  but  we  have 
now  a  National  Committee,  or  a  national  organisation,  in  which  we 
hope  to  have  the  representatives  of  all  the  cities,  and  all  the  various 
State  organisations,  and  individual  churches  which  shall  come  together 
upon  a  common  platform,  for  the  discussion  of  the  great  subjects  in 
which  all  are  in  common  interested.  This  quiet  movement,  as  we 
call  it,  is  a  movement  of  great  force.  I  believe  it  has  in  it  noifc  an 
organic  future  union  for  the  Church  of  America — we  have  tried  that — 
we  cannot  find  that  there  is  a  common  union  because  there  is  one 
corner  of  the  quadrilateral  that  somehow  does  not  fit  in.  We  cannot 
get  that  quadrilateral  in  shape  to  do  our  work  for  us,  and  we  cannot 
rest  upon  it,  but  we  can  come  together  upon  the  basis  of  this  common 
service.  The  great  word  as  it  seems  to  me  for  these  coming  days 
is  not  common  faith  only,  but  the  common  ministration  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  As  we  come  to  them  I  believe  we  come  to 
the  true  federation  of  the  forces  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  God  grant 
we  may  have  it,  not  only  as  you  have  it  here,  but  in  even  a  broader 
way,  because  _we  have  a  freer  opportunity  of  working  without  super- 
vision, and  without  the  superintendence  in  any  way  of  the  State, 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Rider  (Methodist  New  Connexion)    said : 

I  have  been  greatly  moved  by  the  conversation  this  afternoon.  The 
subject  was  "  Inter-denominational  Fellowship,"  and  I  felt  at  once, 
with  Dr,  Stephenson,  that  we  have  inter-denominational  fellowship. 
We  have  it,  I  think,  completely.  Tlie  Methodist  Denominations  do 
not  now  argue  with  each  other,  to  say  nothing  of  speaking  unkindly 
to  each  other.  We  meet  as  brothers.  We  take  part  in  common  meet- 
ings, and  preach  to  Methodist  people  of  the  various  Denominations, 

Years  ago  I  watched  with  very  great  interest  the  movement  for 
Union  in  Canada,  and  my  heart  glowed  from  time  to  time  as  I  found 
10 


130  METHODISM    AND    CHRISTIAN    UNITY. 

that  Union  had  resulted  in  immense  spiritual  blessings  nnd  success. 
For  some  years  after  the  Union  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada  in- 
creased by  10,000  members  per  annum.  I  have  not  the  statistics  at 
hand  to  tell  you  what  has  been  the  increase  in  the  latter  years.  I 
have  watched  with  deep  interest  also  the  action  of  the  Australasian 
Methodist  Churches,  and  devoutly  thank  God  for  what  has  been  done 
there,  and  my  heart  yearns  for  some  similar  thing  to  be  done  here  in 
my  own  country. 

I  noticed,  however,  in  the  movement  in  Canada,  the  first  important 
steps  were  taken  by  the  Mother  Church,  and  in  the  movement  in 
Australia  the  first  important  steps  have  been  taken  by  the  Mother 
Church.  I  believe  that  a  great  deal  has  been  done  in  the  direction  of 
Union  by  the  minor  bodies  of  Methodism.  I  do  not  know  whether  it 
is  possible  for  them  to  do  much  more,  so  that,  in  a  measure,  I  agree 
with  Dr.  Ktephenson  that  we  have  come  to  a  sort  of  impasse,  that  it 
is  somewhat  difficult  for  the  minor  bodies  of  Methodism,  at  any  rate, 
to  know  what  is  the  next  step  to  be  taken.  I  think  that  the  Mother 
Church  will  probably  feel,  in  thinking  this  matter  over,  that  it  would 
be  somewhat  difficult  for  us  to  go  further  than  we  have  gone.  But 
would  it  be  difficult  for  the  Mother  Church  to  go  a  step  further  ?  I 
perfectly  understand  that  the  state  of  things  in  this  country  is  largely 
different,  as  a  matter  of  feeling  and  history,  from  the  state  of  things 
in  Canada  and  the  state  of  things  in  Australasia.  The  state  of  things 
in  this  old  country,  with  our  history  and  our  prejudices, 
is  largely  different  from  the  state  of  feeling  there.  I  sym- 
pathise very  truly  with  th«  Mother  Church  in  the  difficulties 
she    may    feel    in    taking   further    steps.  Almighty   Grod,    in   His 

great  blessing  upon  the  great  Wesleyan  Church,  has  committed  to 
our  Wesleyan  friends  a  great  heritage,  and  they  must  watch  over  that 
heritage  with  godly  jealousy,  and  must  be  very  careful  lest  any  element 
should  be  introduced  that  should  in  any  way  act  with  unfriendly  in- 
fluence upon  that  great  spiritual  heritage  which  they  watch  over.  But 
my  own  feeling  Is  this,  as  a  member  of  one  of  the  smaller  bodies,  and 
having  intercourse  with  members  of  other  bodies,  that  the  Mother 
Church  in  that  matter  has  nothing  to  fear,  and  that  if,  in  the  exercise 
of  their  large  generosity  and  spiritual  confidence  and  courage,  and 
feeling  that  they  are  acting  in  the  fear  of  God,  the  Mother  Church 
could  feel  itself  justified  in  taking  some  further  step,  my  judgment  is 
that  the  minor  bodies — ^the  major  part  of  them,  at  any  rate — would  hail 
the  advance  and  speedily  step  forward  to  meet  it. 

My  own  mind  was  very  much  impressed  by  some  solemn  words 
spoken  by  Dr.  Rainy,  that  those  who  are  at  the  head  of  matters  of 
this  kind,  and  who  have  these  movements  in  hand,  must  be  very  care- 
ful lest  in  any  way  they  should  hinder  the  consummation  of  the  Union 
of  the  Churches  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  From  the  bottom  of  my 
heart  I  desire  and  humbly  pray  to  Almighty  God  that  we  may  not  have 
reached  an  impasse  in  all  respects,  but  that  we  have  reached  a  point 
which  requires  that  we  go  further  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  consummate 
Union  among  Methodists  such  as  we  have  never  known  before. 

The  Rev.  Edward  Boadbn  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches) 
spoke  as  follows  : 

We  have  all  listened,  with  a  great  deal  of  interest,  I  am  quite  sure,  to 
the  essays  read,  and  also  to  the  speeches  delivered.  That  on  which  I  am 
thinking  most  at  the  present  moment  is  what  Dr.  Stephenson  said.  He 
represented  what  is  perfectly  true — that  a  great  deal  has  been  done  to 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  I3I 

bring  the  MeMiodist  Denominations  together,  and  to  work  together  in 
common  with  tli.e  Lord  and  Master.  He  seemed  to  think  that  we  had 
eome  iu  a  point  beytrnd  Avhich  we  cannot  go  except  we  aim  at  some- 
thing very  mucli  greater.  Well,  I  daresay  that  is  true.  In  relation  to 
our  present  position,  I  du  not  know  that  we  can  multiply  our  modes 
of  interchange  of  thought  and  sentiment  to  any  great  extent,  but  we 
may  multiply  the  opportunities  ;  and  I  am  persuaded  that,  if  we  were 
to  do  as  l)r.  Ste])henson  said  we  might — namely,  interchange  pulpits, 
attend  each  other's  meetings,  have  more  of  social  intercourse  with  one 
anuther  than  we  have  had  in  times  past — it  would  greatly  help  for- 
ward ultimate  Union. 

There  is  a  brother  beloved  whom  we  hoped  to  see  in  this  place,  but 
who  is  prevented  from  coming.  He  has  been  a  hard  worker,  and  in 
the  cause  to  which  we  are  now  adverting  he  has  worked  hard  ;  but 
he  is  a  man  of  strong  will,  and  it  is  not  everybody  who  looks  at  him 
from  a  distance  who  sees  equally  with  him.  When,  in  this  great  Free 
Church  movement,  it  was  said,  to  one  of  his  co-workers,  "  Can  you  work 
with  Mr.  So-and-So  V  he  said,  "Yes."  "How  can  you  do  it  1"  "I 
can,"  he  said,  "  because  I  know  him.  '  He  had  been  brought  into 
contact  with  him  ;  he  understood  the  man's  principles  and  spirit ;  and 
therefore  he  was  prepared  to  work  with  him,  and  he  worked  hard 
with  him  with,  all  his  heart  and  soul.  Bi'ing  us  together,  let  us  unite 
in  social  fellowship  and  in  our  meetings  as  frequently  as  possible  with, 
one  another,  and  we  shall  begin  to  know  each  other,  and  the  more 
fully  we  know  one  another  the  more  prepared  we  shall  be  for  Union. 

I  know  there  are  very  great  difficulties  stranding  in  the  way.  I  will 
not  refer  to  what  those  difficulties  are.  But  is  there  a  Denomination 
here  that  has  not  had  to  encounter  difficulties  1  Methodism  has  been 
built  up  by  the  conquering  of  difficulties  in  the  power  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  if  it  appears  to  us  that  the  Lord  Himself  is  leading 
us  to  Union,  shall  a  few  difficulties  stand  in  the  way  of  its  being  accom- 
plished? Let  us  know  one  another.  I  have  had  to  deal  with  a  few 
difficulties  in  the  course  of  my  life.  I  have  said  again  and  again,  "  I 
do  not  mind  any  difficulties  except  the  tempers  of  those  with  whom  I 
have  to  deal."  If  the  temper  is  only  such  as  to  allow  reason  to  pre- 
vail, difficulties  will  be  surmounted.  So  in  regard  to  Methodist  Union 
in  this  land,  and  in  other  lands,  too.  I  am  persuaded  of  this — that 
there  is  no  difficulty  but  can  be  overcome  if  our  hearts  are  united,  if 
we  know  one  another,  and  if  we  have  frequent  inter-communion.  That 
is  the  word  which  I  wish  to  say.  Nothing  is  impossible  if  we  set 
about  the  work  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  if  that  is  right  in  itself,  as  I 
believe  Methodist  Union  to  be,  we  of  the  United  Methodist  Free 
Churches  are  prepared,  I  am  sure,  to  go  in  the  way  of  Union  when- 
ever Providence  may  open  it  before  us. 

The  Rev.  G.  Armstrong  Bennetts,  B.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church)   said : 

I  think  we  ought  to  lay  great  stress  this  afternoon  upon  the  very 
remarkable  residt  of  the  Free  Church  Federation  in  connection  with 
the  Simultaneous  Mission,  seeing  that  all  the  Free  Churches  of  this 
country  came  together  upon  the  principle  that  was  so  magnificently 
laid  down  for  us  by  Bishop  Galloway  in  the  sermon  that  commenced 
this  Conference.  The  Free  Churches  of  this  country  were  one  in  that 
great  Mission  in  presenting  to  this  nation  a  present  salvation.  There 
is  another  thing  in  connection  with  that  Simultaneous  Mission  which 


1^2  METHODISM    AND    CHRISTIAN   UNITY. 

has  led  me  to  tliink  (liat  the  Free  Churches  are  beginning  to  undersland 
the  importance  of  another  principle,  which  was  laid  down  by  Jolin 
Wesley,  namely  this — that  to  reacli  the  uncvangcllsed  masses  we  must 
liave  field  preaching.  For  we  found  out  in  that  Simultaneous  Mission 
— I  had  the  privilege  of  conducting  two  of  those  missions,  one  in 
London  and  the  other  in  the  provinces,  in  the  midst  of  a  large  popula- 
tion— we  fi.und  nut  that  after  all  our  advertising,  and  with  all  our 
visitation,  there  were  vast  masses  of  the  people  that  we  could  not  get 
together  in  our  churches  and  chapels,  and  that  if  they  were  to  be 
reached  at  all  they  were  to  be  reached  in  the  open  air.  We  found 
(lut  at  Grimsby  that  in  midnight  missions  in  the  open  air  we  could 
get  hold  of  some  of  the  lowest  and  most  degraded  of  the  people,  and 
bring  them  to  Christ,  people  who  could  not  be  got  at  at  other  times 
of  the  day,  because,  on  account  of  their  habits,  they  prowl  about  at 
night. 

There  is  one  other  word  I  wish  to  say.  There  is  to  be  this  autumn, 
throughout  the  whole  of  this  country,  not  directly  and  immediately 
in  connection  with  the  Free  Church  Council — I  wish  it  were — but  still 
a  glorious  federation  of  the  Free  Churches  in  this  country,  to  combine 
together  in  a  great  crusade  for  fighting  that  which  is  unmistakably 
one  of  the  greatest  enemies  of  the  evangelisation  of  the  world — I  refer 
to  alcoholic  intemperance.  The  temperance  organisations  of  all  the 
Free  Churches  of  this  kingdom — I  am  glad  to  say  that  Unitarians  are 
with  us — are  joined  together  to  determine  to  make  a  desperate  attempt 
this  autumn  to  add  at  least  a  million  new  pledges  to  the  roll  of  total 
abstainers  in  this  country,  and  I  am  glad  to  say  that  the  West  is  with 
us  in  this  matter,  and  that  our  great  campaigner  is  to  be  an  eminent 
and  honoured  minister  from  tlie  United  States,  Dr.  Henry,  who  to- 
gether with  the  Fisk  Jubilee  Singers,  is  going  to  help  us  in  this  great 
crusade. 

The  Rev.  F.  W.  Bourne  /^Bible  Chi-istian  Church)  said : 

There  is  no  question  in  which  I  have  felt  so  deep  an  interest,  and 

for  so  long  a  period,  as  the  Union  of  the  Methodist  Churches.  Nearly 
forty  years  ago,  in  one  of  the  Methodist  publications  of  this  country, 
I  said  that  the  ideal  that  every  Methodist  ought  to  cherish  should  be 
one  Methodist  Church  for  England,  and  one  Methodist  Church  for 
America,  and  one  Methodist  Church  for  Australia,  and  so  I  might  go  on 
— one  Methodist  Church  for  each  country  throughout  the  world.  I 
have  prayed  fur  this  ;  I  have  laboured  and  have  made  some  sacrifices  for 
this,  but  the  results  are  not  altogether  encouraging.  I  have  some- 
times felt  that  if  someune  with  more  skill,  with  more  deftness,  had 
been  engaged  in  the  task,  as  I  have  had  the  opportunity  of  being 
engaged  in  it,  they  would  have  succeeded  much  better  than  I  have 
done.  I  have  on  two  distinct  occasions  joined  with  brethren  of  my  own 
Church  in  trying  to  bring  about  Union  with  another  Methodist  Church 
in  this  country,  but  for  the  time  at  any  rate  we  have  failed.  That  may 
be — I  do  not  know  but  what  it  is — in  the  Providence  of  God. 

I  know  something  about  the  Unions  that  have  taken  place  in  Canada. 
I  was  there  as  a  deputation  in  1882,  and,  knowing  something  about 
the  facts  in  connection  with  all  the  Methodist  Churches  there,  I  very 
strongly  counselled  our  own  friends  not  to  go  into  any  minor  Union, 
but  to  ,seek  a  larger  Union,  because  I  felt  at  that  time  that  the  public 
sentiment  of  Canada  was  altogether  in  favour  of  that  policy.     Writing 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  1 33 

tT»  my  brethren  at  home,  I  said  (hat  in  ^oing  about  that  great  country, 
and  holding  intercourse  with  ministers  and  others  of  all  Denominations, 
that  the  Methodist  Church  that  stood  out  of  Union  in  Canada 
vrould  be  left  high  and  dry  before  long.  In  the  good  Providence  of 
God  Methodist  Union  has  come  there.  I  felt  more  strongly  about 
Methodist  Union  in  Australia  than  I  did  in  Canada,  because  the 
populations  were  sparser,  the  people  were  more  scattered,  the  town- 
ships were  much  smaller,  and  it  seemed  to  me  a  very  great  necessity, 
even  twenty  years  ago.  I  am  ^sorry  I  have  not  a  copy  of  the  report 
here  that  i  made  to  my  own  Conference,  so  that  I  might  read  some 
sentences  from  it.  I  reported  that  it  was  not  possible,  in  my  view, 
for  another  Methodist  Denomination  to  establish  itself  in  that  country, 
and  that  those  that  were  already  established  would  have  very  great 
difficulty  in  maintaining  their  position  unless  they  united.  Now, 
happily,  from  a  letter  that  I  received  only  a  day  or  two  ago  from 
Australia,  I  learn  that  in  a  very  short  time  Methodist  Union  in 
Australia,  that  great  Commonwealth,  will  be  an  accomplished  fact. 

Whajt.  can  we  say  abomt  it  in  our  own  country?  I  have  felt  lately 
very  strongly  that  if  the  Mother  Church  of  Methodism  could  spon- 
taneously, by  an  act  of  grace,  make  only  one  single  great  concession,  all 
the  other  Churches  in  this  country  would  gladly  unite.  It  is  for  the 
Methodist  Church  itself  to  judge  what  is  its  duty  in  that  matter. 
It  has,  I  believe,  a  supreme  opportunity  for  usefulness,  for  the  waste 
of  labour  and  energy  is  enormous.  People  who  have  no  experience 
of  it  would  not  credit  it.  I  have  felt  for  a  very  long  time  that  if  we 
could  only  get  three  Denominations  in  this  country  it  would  be  better 
than  five  or  six — if  we  could  get  two  it  would  be  better  than  three — 
and  why  should  we  not  have  two  if  we  cannot  have  anything  better? 
Then,  at  any  rate,  there  would  be  only  two  Methodist  chapels  in  the 
same  village,  and  we  might  go  into  many  villages  where  we  are  not 
now  represented.  It  would  be  still  better  if  there  were  only  one.  As 
to  the  monetary  and  other  sacrifices  that  would  have  to  be  made  in 
such  a  case  as  this,  I  thought  this  morning,  while  the  brethren  were 
speaking,  of  how  in  the  Middle  Ages,  or  the  Dark  Ages,  as  we  call 
them,  the  people  put  all  their  skill,  and  nearly  all  their  wealth,  into 
the  building  of  our  cathedrals  and  churches.  In  these  later  days  we 
put  much  of  our  inventive  power  and  wealth  in  our  weapons  of  war, 
in  our  armies,  and  in  our  navies.  We  are  living  in  precisely  the 
same  period,  it  seems  to  me,  in  the  history  of  this  country  as  the 
period  when  Uzziah  was  King  in  the  history  of  God's  ancient  people. 
I  say  that  there  would  be,  if  we  resolved  upon  it,  not  only  the  money 
forthcoming  for  such  a  Union  as  that  of  which  I  am  now  speaking,  as 
should  secure  its  easy  and  prosperous  working  ;  but  in  the  money  that 
we  should  actually  save,  in  the  greater  success  that  would  attend  our 
efforts,  in  the  greatly  increased  influence  that  I  believe  by  God's  grace  we 
should  be  able  to  exert,  we  should  scarcely  need  any  special  or  large 
gifts  if  this  most  desirable  Union  were  consummated. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Mitchell  (Primitive  Methodist  Church)  con- 
cluded the  discusaion  as  follows : 

I  have  two  or  three  reasons,  Mr.  President,  for  desiring  to  say  a 
word  on  this  subject.  One  is,  that  I  do  not  wish  you  to  stand  alone 
on  this  platform  as  representing  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church. 
Another  is,  tha;t  I  spoke  on  this  toi)ic  at  the  Conference  ten  years  ago 
at  Wasiiington.     I    think  it  was  the  morning    session   at   which    lliis 


134  METHODISM    AND    CHRISTIAN    UNITY. 

question  was  introduced,  followed  by  the  afternoon  session,  at  whicfi 
an  appeal  was  made  to  Dr.  Stephenson  to  which  reference  has  been 
made.  I  had  to  speak  then  on  the  quesition  of  "Christian  Unity," 
and,  as  a  practical  man,  I  made  a  practical  applicaition  of  the  topic 
to  the  gathering  present,  and  asked  whether  that  subject  should  not 
have  a  practical  issue  in  regard  to  the  branches  of  the  Methodist 
Church  in  this  country.  I  then  said  I  believed  there  was  very  little 
that  divided  us.  We  are  one  in  doctrine  ;  we  are  largely  one  in  our 
Church  institutions  ;  we  are  one  in  our  aims  ;  and  we  are  very 
largely  one_  in  our  methods.  An  old  colleague  of  mine  once  had 
a  conversation  with  a  countryman  as  to  the  difference  between 
Wesleyan  Methodism  and  Primitive  Methodism,  and  this  country 
brother  said,  the  main  difference,  lie  thought,  between  these  two 
Churches  was  that  the  Wesleyan  ministers  rode  to  their  appointments 
and  the  Primitive  Methodists  walked.  If  I  were  travelling  in  a  wide 
circuit  I  should  go  in  for  Union  as  a  matter  of  interest.  I  go  in  for 
it,  as  I  am  not  travelling  on  a  wide  circuit,  as  a  matter  of  principle. 

There  is  little  that  divides  us,  and  I  want  to  say  a  few  words,  because 
I  fear  that  my  Church  will  be  the  last  to  fall  into  line.  I  daresay  two 
reasons  may  account  for  that.  One  is  that  we  are  fairly  strong  and 
progressive.  I  believe  the  other  Churches  are  too — I  do  not  wish 
to  make  any  reflection  in  that  matt-er — ^but  when  I  remind  you  that 
we  have  200,000  members,  or  nearly  so,  and  half  a  million  children 
in  our  Sunday  schools,  and  church  property  worth  £4,000,000  sterling, 
you  will  see  that  a  Church  of  that  kind,  perhaps,  thinks  it  can 
carry  on  its  own  work.  But,  although  the  recent  proposals  for 
Union  between  our  Church  and  the  Bible  Christian  Church 
did  not  come  to  fruition,  as  some  of  us  desired,  there 
is  a  very  large  body  of  opinion  in  favour  of  Union  in  the 
Primitive  Methodist  Church.  I  am  not  sure  whether  one  cause  of 
failure  was  not  that  our  friends  thought,  "If  we  go  in  for  Union,  let 
us  go  in  for  a  Union  of  the  entire  Methodist  Churches  of  this  country." 
I  venture  to  think  that  if  the  suggestions  that  have  been  made  could 
be  carried  out,  and  the  authorities  of  the  Mother  Church  could  make 
some  friendly  overtures  to  the  smaller  branches  of  Methodism,  there 
would  be  a  ready  response,  and  I  think,  sir,  the  Church  which  you 
and  I  represent  would  be  ready  to  fall  into  line  with  a  large 
movement  which  would  mean  the  United  Methodisit  Church  of 
England. 

The  one  difficulty  we  had  in  the  way  was  the  power  of  the  laity. 
You  know  our  Primitive  Methodist  Church  has  two  laymen  to  one 
minister  in  its  District  meetings  and  in  its  Conferences.  I  am  not 
prepared  to  say  that  is  a  heaven-sent  principle.  I  do  not  know  that  I 
could  give  any  philosophical  reason  for  it.  I  have  had  it  explained 
on  the  principle  that  one  minister  is  equal  to  two  laymen  ;  and 
I  have  also  heard  it  explained  on  the  principle  on  which  elephants  are 
trained  in  India.  I  am  told  that  they  put  a  wild  elephant  between 
two  tame  ones,  in  order  that  they  may  keep  him  right.  I  do  not 
venture  to  say  what  is  the  reason — ^I  simply  state  the  fact.  Tou  will 
readily  see  the  point  of  difficulty  with  regard  to  a  Church  very  democratic 
in  its  general  constitution,  which  has  been  largely  governed  by  the  laity. 
I  have  never  known  a  case,  however,  in  a  ministry  of  thirty-five  vears 
where  there  has  been  a  question  where  the  laymen  have  been  all  on 
one  side  and  the  ministers  on  the  other,  and  I  think  I  should  speak 
for  my  brethren  if  I  said  that  if  any  of  them  had  to  be  tried  they 
would  as  soon  be  tried  by  a  committee  of  laymen  as  by  their  own 


BUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS.  135 

brethren.  I  gladly  state  that  on  behalf  of  the  laymen  of  our  Church. 
We  have  found  this  principle  to  work  in  perfect  harmony.  I  am  not 
prepared  to  say  but  that  some  concession  of  that  principle  might  be 
possible  if  the  results  were  felt  to  be  commensurate  with  what  our 
friends  would  feel  to  be  some  sacrifice.  I  am  heartily  in  sympathy 
with  the  proposal  for  a  United  Methodism,  and  I  should  welcome  with 
very  great  gratitude,  and  very  great  delight,  overtures  which  I  think 
would  come  with  most  grace  and  authority  from  the  Mother  Church. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  (Secretary  of  the  Business  Committee) 
then  gave  the  report,  and  the  followinfj  resolutions  were  passed  : 

The  invitation  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  to  the 
Western  delegates  to  visit  the  Bible  House  on  the  following  Monday 
at  the  close  of  the  aftemoon  siession  was  accepted. 

In  connection  with  the  Open  Session  at  St.  James's  Hall  to  meet 
representatives  of  the  Free  Cliurches  of  this  country,  the  Rev.  J. 
Luke  (Bible  Christian  Church)  was  appointed  to  preside  at  the 
meeting  and  reply  to  the  Deputation  on  behalf  of  the  Eastern  Sec- 
tion, and  Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  and  the  Rev.  C.  H.  Phillips,  D.D.  (Coloured  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church)  to  reply  for  the  Western  Section. 

The  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church)  was  requested  to  write  the  Introduction  to  the  Official 
Volume  containing  the  report  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Gonfer- 
enoe. 

The  suggestion  to  erect  a  tribune  in  front  of  the  platform,  to 
obviate  the  necessity  of  the  speakers  ascending  the  platform,  was, 
after  discussion,  not  adopted. 

In  regard  to  the  miusioal  arrangements,  the  Rev.  Albert  Clay- 
ton reported  th-at  a  Precentor  (Rev.  W.  Kaye  Dunn,  B.A.,  Plan 
Secretary  of  Sunday  services)  had  been  appointed.  As  to  the  use 
of  th-e  organ,  it  was  felt  not  to  be  desirable. 

Mr.  T.  Snape,  J.P.  (Secretary),  gave  the  report  of  the  Special 
Committee,  to  whom  was  referred  the  question  of  those  delegates 
who  had  died  since  their  appointment,  and  the  following  resolution 
was  passed  by  the  Conference  : 

"  That  this  Conference  hereby  records  its  sense  of  the  great  loss  in 
the  absence  of  those  beloved  and  honoured  men  who,  in  various  parts 
of  the  world,  had  been  chosen  as  Representatives  to  the  CEcumenical 
Conference,  but  who,  in  the  all-wise  Providence  of  God,  have  been 
called  from  the  work  ofthe  Church  on  earth  to  the  perfect  service  of 
the  Church  above." 

The  Doxology  having  been  sung,  the  Benediction  was  pronounced 
by  the  Rev.  H.  B.  Kendall,  B.A. 


136  ASSASSINATION    OF    PRESIDENT    McKINLEY. 


FOURTH  DAY,  Saturday,  Septemler  7,  1901,, 


TOPIC : 
MODERN    BIBLICAL    CEITICISM. 


The  Conferenoe  resumed  its  session  at  10  a.m.,  Bishop  B.  W. 
Arnett,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  presiding.  The 
first  hj-mm  Avas  announced  by  Bishop  M.  B.  Salter,  D.D.  (African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  prayer  was  offered  by  the  Rev.  P.  A. 
Hubbard,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  and  a  por- 
tion of  Scripture  was  read  by  Bishop  T.  H.  Lomax,  D.D.  (African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church).  Dr.  Beckett  (African  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church)  then  sang  a  hymn  asi  a  solo. 

The  President  (Bishop  Arnett)  gave  a  brief  presidential  address, 
and  also  referred  to  the  sad  calamity  that  had  befallen  the  United 
States  and  the  world  by  the  attempted  assassination  of  President 
William  McKinley.     He  said  : 

On  taking  the  Chair  this  mornhig  I  feel  thankful  and  grateful  for 
the  opportunity  of  Methodism  in  presenting  and  exemplifying  the 
principles  taught  by  the  fathers.  I  could  not  proceed  with  the  busi- 
ness without  extending  a  word  of  felicitation  on  my  part  at  the 
opportunity  which  is  afforded  to-day  to  exemplify  to  the  world  that 
Methodism  believes  her  own  doctrine,  and  that  to-day  it  exemplifies 
its  belief  in  the  brotherhood  of  man  in  my  assuming  tlie  Chair  of 
the  greatest  representative  body  of  the  family  of  Methodists.  The 
world  is  indebted  to  Methodism.  The  African  race  is  more  than 
indebted  to  Methodism  for  its  moral  and  religious  standing  in  the 
world  to-day.  Methodism  and  its  principles  are  the  hope  of  the  race, 
the  hope  of  the  nations,  the  hope  of  the  world. 

Before  we  proceed  to  the  regular  business  it  is  suggested  by  the 
Rev.  John  Bond  that  we  should  give  expression  to  our  feelings  upon 
the  sad  calamity  that  has  befallen  our  nation,  and  befallen  the 
civihsed  world.  The  President  of  the  United  States,  William  McKin- 
ley, is  a  man  who  exemplifies  in  his  life  the  Christian  religion  and 
also  the  principles  of  Methodism.  A  Christian  from  early  manhood, 
he  has  proceeded  through  all  the  mazes  of  our  political  life,  and  he 
stands  to-day  without  a  stain  on  his  character  or  on  his  fame.  We 
feel  that  we  ought  to  give  expression  to  something  of  the  kind,  and 
I  call  upon  Dr.  Davison,  as  the  representative  of  English  Methodism, 
t<i  si>cak. 


ASSASSINATION    OF    PRESIDENT    M' KTNLEY.  1 37 

The  Rov.  W.  T.  DAVii>0N,  M.A.,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  spoke  as  follows  : 

jMr.  Piesi  lent :  I  am  sure  you  liave  expressed  the  feeling  of  this 
whole  Council  that  we  cannot  proceed  to  the  business  of  the  day 
without  dealing  with  this  subject,  which  is  now  tilling  all  our  minds, 
anddteply  moving  all  our  hearts.  A  thrill  of  horror  has  been  passing  over 
the  civihsed  world  during  the  past  few  hours,  and  an  irrepressible  cry 
of  indignation  has  been  going  up  in  millions  of  homes  as  the  news 
of  this  morning  has  been  announced,  followed  by  the  deepest  possible 
sympathy  with  those  who  have  been  made  to  suffer  by  this  wanton 
and  cruel  outrage.  We  earnestly  hope  that  the  attempt  of  this 
assassin  will  not  indeed  prove  fatal,  and  our  jjrayers  go  up  at  this 
moment  most  earnestly  in  that  direction.  In  this  hour  of  deep  anxiety 
we  sympathise  with  the  nation  whose  President  has  been  thus  stricken, 
and  with  the  family  in  this  hour  of  trouble. 

We  in  this  country  particularly  feel  sympathy  at  this  moment 
with  our  kinsmen  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  ties  which 
bind  us  together  have  been  drawn  closer  and  closer  by  many  things, 
but  never  more  than  in  the  time  of  sorrow.  We  remember  the  feehng 
manifested  in  America  at  the  death  of  our  late  gracious  Queen  Vic- 
toria, and  we  desire,  as  Englishmen,  to  speak  at  this  moment.  We 
are  accustomed,  as  we  did  at  the  opening  of  our  meetings  a  few  days 
ago,  to  associate  together  the  names  of  our  King  and  the  President 
of  the  United  States  of  America  in  prayer,  and  in  this  matter  we  are 
all  one.  We,  as  Methodists,  have  our  own  speinal  share  in  this 
trouble.  Bishop  Arnett  has  already  referred  to  the  fact  that  President 
McKinley  is  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church,  and  has  exemplified 
in  his  life  the  principles  of  the  Christian  religion.  His  high  character, 
his  blameless  life,  and  the  tone  which  he  has  given  to  the  policy 
and  the  government  of  the  country  have  earned  universal  commenda- 
tion, and  that  such  a  man  should  be  thus  stricken  down  at  this 
moment  by  a  foreign  anarchist  stirs  our  souls  to  the  very  depths 

It  is  quite  true  that  words  can  do  verj^  little.  I  do  not  intend  to 
multiply  them,  but  words  have  their  meaning,  when  they  represent 
the  deep  feeling  of  a  nation  and  of  a  Church  ;  and  in  this  case  I 
am  sure,  of  world-wide  Methodism.  I  desire  to  propose,  if  it  'be 
the  will  of  the  Conference,  that  a  resolution  be  at  once  passed  ex- 
pressing our  intense  indignation  at  the  dastardly  attack  made  upon 
fr  •^^'f^a''  I^^^sident  McKinley,  our  profound  sympathy  with  the 
United  btates  of  America  m  its  deep  anxiety,  and  directing  that  a 
message  of  respectful  sympathy  be  sent  immediately  to  Mrs.  McKinlev 
and  to  the  distressed  family.  ^ 

The  Rev.  D.  J.  Waller,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  in  seconding  the  resolution,  said  : 

I  looked  round  the  Conference  hoping  that  I  might  see  Dr.  Rktct 
or  someone  else  more  worthy  to  speak  to  this  motion.  And  y^^t'^t 
IS  very  much  in  my  heart  to  say  a  word,  although  it  is  quite  impossible 
to  improve  upon  the  fehcitous,  pathetic,  and  beautifully  appropriate 
words  of  Dr.  Davison.  It  is,  indeed,  news  that  has  gone  throuc^h  the 
civilised  world,  and  has  evoked  a  feeling  of  horror,  indignation,  and 
deep  sympathy  with  the  American  nation.  All  the  English-speakiug 
nations  of  the  world  are  bowing  this  morning  with  a  feeling  of 
pathetic  sorrow  and  earnest  prayer  to  God  for  the  American  nation, 


138  ASSASSINATION   Of   PRESIDENT   MrKINLEY. 

for  the  wounded  President  of  that  great  people,  for  his  afflicted  and 
beloved  wife. 

While  it  touches  the  civilised  world  and  all  the  Churches,  it 
touches  peculiarly  the  Methodist  Cluirch.  In  conversation  with  Bishop 
Hurst  in  Washington  only  a  few  months  ago,  he  told  me  how  some 
hours  were  frequently  spent  by  him  on  Sunday  evenings  within  the 
sacred  precincts  of  the  Christian  home  in  the  Executive  Mansion.  In 
that  sacred  place  many  profitable  hours  were  spent  by  Bishop  Hurst 
in  the  presence  of  President  McKinley  and  Mrs.  McKinley.  We  have 
in  this  Conference  Dr.  Bristol,  who  is  the  Pastor  of  President 
McKinley,  and  I  hope  we  may  hear  his  voice.  When  visiting  Wash- 
ington the  President  wa^  good  enough  to  afford  me  an  interview,  and 
the  first  thing  he  spoke  of  was  the  great  stroke  of  bereavement  that 
had  come  to  the  British  Empire  in  the  death  of  our  honoured  and 
beloved  Queen.  Then  I  ventured  to  say  to  him,  first,  what  he  knew, 
that  Lord  Salisbury  had  expressed  what  was  the  feeling  of  the  British 
people  throughout  the  Empire,  a  feeling  of  great  satisfaction  at  his 
re-election  ;  and  I  presumed  to  say  that,  as  a  Methodist  and  as  an 
Ex-President  of  the  Wesleyan  Conference,  I  might  assure  him  that 
there  were  at  least  three  millions  of  people  in  the  British  Isles  who 
had  been  specially  and  peculiarly  gratified  by  his  re-election.  I 
shall  not  forget  the  tender  emotion  with  which  he  received  that 
message.  We  talked  together  a  little  while,  and  I  forgot  that  he 
was  the  President  of  the  United  States.  He  did  not  think  of  himself, 
I  am  eure,  at  that  moment,  as  the  President.  He  spoke  of  "  our 
beloved  Methodism."  He  spoke  of  "  our  dear  old  Church."  He  spoke 
of  the  marvellous,  almost  phenomenal,  progress  which  Methodism  had 
made  in  his  lifetime.  He  spoke  of  the  outlook  and  prospects  of 
Methodism  in  that  great  nation  in  the  time  to  come,  and -I  left  that 
room  in  the  Executive  Mansion  feeling  thankful  that  I  belonged  to 
a  Church  that  had  the  honour  of  having  the  President  of  one  of  the 
greatest  English-speaking  nations  as  a  member. 

I  cannot  express  what  I  feel,  or  what  you  feel,  but  I  know  that  I 
voice'  every  heart  this  morning  in  the  few  words  in  which  I  second 
this  motion  in  saying  that  our  prayer  is  to  the  God  and  the  Ruler  of 
nations,  that  the  Great  Head  of  the  Church,  in  His  infinite  mercy, 
will  touch  the  wounded  President  with  His  healing  hand. 

Bishop  C.  B.  Galloway,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,, 
South),  said  : 

I  am  sure  that  it  would  be  eminently  appropriate,  before  any  word 
is  said  from  our  side,  that  Dr.  Jenkins,  who  is  present,  and  who,  I 
believe,  moved  the  resolution  twenty  years  ago  when  President  Gar- 
field died,  should  say  a  word. 

The  Rev.  E.  E.  Jenkins,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church), 
then  spoke  as  follows : 

It  is,  as  Bishop  Galloway  has  just  said,  twenty  years  ago  when 
the  first  (Ecumenical  Conference  was  in  session,  that  I  proposed  a 
message  of  deep  condolence  and  sympathy  should  be  sent  to  Mrs. 
Garfield  on  the  death  of  her  husband  and  the  honoured  Chief 
Magistrate  of  the  United  States,  who  fell  by  an  assassin's  hand.  I 
am  looking  upon  the  event  now,  not  as  a  loss  to  Methodism  in  America,, 
but  as  a  loss  to  the  United  States  and  to  the  world.  Under  the 
influence  of  an  immediate  shock  it  is  diflScult  to  frame  words  of  calm- 


ASSASSINATION   OF    PRESIDENT   McKINLEY.  T39 

tiess  and  pnuloiico.  Our  American  l)rethrcn  Avho  are  here  will  know, 
as  I  cannni  t'xpress,  the  very  dodp  feeling  of  horror  and  sorrow  that 
wc  feel  this  morning,  as  representing  the  Methodism  on  this  side  of 
the  water.  We  feel  it  as  deeply  as  if  a  similar  event  had  happened 
in  our  own  land.  Affliction  cements  unity.  It  did  so  in  the  case 
of  President  Lincoln  ;  it  did  so  in  the  case  of  President  Garfield— and 
I  am  sure  that  a  mere  theoretic  sentiment  of  the  union  with  the 
ITnited  States  will,  throughout  England,  and  throughout  our  Empire, 
deepen  into  a  real  and  conscious  feeling  of  indignation  and  sorrow 
at  the  event  which  God  has  permitted  to  befall  the  United  States 
to-day. 

The  fervent  prayer  of  every  Wesleyan  and  every  Methodist  in  this 
and  other  countries  will  go  up  to  heaven,  to  the  Throne  of  Grace,  on 
behalf  of  the  President,  who  is  now  lying,  as  we  trust,  in  the  hope 
of  recovery  from  that  which  might  have  been  fatal.  God  grant  that 
our  prayers  may  be  auspiciously  heard  and  iounediately  answered. 
I  support  the  message  which  we  propose  to  send  now  to  Mrs. 
McKinley. 

Bishop  C.  B.  Galloway,  D.D.,  LL.D,  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South),  spoke  for  the  Ajnerican  Churches.     He  said : 

I  wish  I  could  command  my  feelings  this  morning  so  that  I  could 
speak  what  is  in  my  heart.  How  profoundly  grateful  we  are,  as 
brethren  of  the  other  side  of  the  sea,  and  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  for  the  sentiments  that  have  been  expressed  by  our  brethren 
here.  We  remember  twenty  years  ago,  when  our  President  was 
stricken  down  by  the  bullet  of  an  assassin,  how  earnestly  you  prayed 
for  his  recovery,  and  we  remember  that  your  Gracious  Queen  laid  a 
wreath  of  flowers  upon  his  cofiin,  and  this  whole  nation  followed  at 
his  bier,  and  joined  us  in  weeping  over  the  loss  of  our  honoured  dead. 

I  speak  for  the  Southern  section  of  my  great  country — that  section 
which  was  once  separated  from  our  brethren  in  the  North  by  clashing 
interests,  and  then  by  an  ever-to-be-lamented  jvar.  I  have  long 
been  glad  that  there  was  a  star  on  our  national  flag  that  answers  to 
the  name  of  Mississippi,  my  native  State.  I  live  in  the  State  of 
Jefferson  Davis,  who  will  go  down  to  history  as  the  chief  of  a  lost 
cause.  I  ajn  sure  there  is  jnot  a  citizen  in  that  great  Commonwealth 
to-day,  nor  has  there  been  for  many  years,  who  has  not  rejoiced 
that  we  have  been  restored  as  a  Union,  that  we  are  all  members  of  the 
same  great  national  family,  that  we  sit  at  the  same  bountiful  board, 
and  are  all  equally  members  in  our  Father's  house.  We  cannot  forget 
that  others  have  done  so  much  to  bring  us  close  together,  nor  foi-get 
the  years  of  stormy  war.  We  cannot  forget  the  words  spoken  by  this 
noble  Christian  President,  who,  in  visiting  our  Southern  section  not 
many  months  ago,  and  addressing  those  who  had  borne  arms  against 
the  great  principles  which  he  thought  to  be  right,  desired  that  all 
the  memories  of  the  struggle  should  be  wiped  away  from  the  feelings 
of  our  countrymen,  and  he  suggested  that  the  graves  of  the  Confederate 
soldiers  should  be  protected  and  decorated  by  the  Government,  along 
with  those  which  contained  the  fallen  on   the   Federal   side. 

We,  at  this  Conference,  talked  yesterday  about  peace.  William 
McKinley  was  the  incarnation  of  peace,  but  above  everything  else  he 
illustrated  those  private  and  domestic  virtues  which  have  made  our 
country  great,  and  which  make  all  civilisatioji  great.  President  Garfield, 
who  was  stricken  down  twenty  years  ago,  when  inducted  into  his  high 
office,    delivered   a   wonderful    Inaugural    Address,    which    took    th.' 


140  ASSASSINATION   OF   PRESIDENT   McKINLEY. 

wings  of  the  lightning,  and  went  round  the  wmid  and  was  very 
much  appreciated.  But  before  he  received  congratulation  from  any- 
representative  or  Slate,  or  those  who  were  to  be  his  counsellors,  Iio 
turned  from  that  great  throng  of  statesmen  to  receive  the  first  reccgnition 
from  his  noble  mother,  and  impress  a  kiss  upon  her  brow.  Some  years 
later,  when  our  Ex-President  Grant  .passed  away,  we  of  the  Sonth 
sat  by  his  bedside  for  weary  weeks  and  months,  and  saw  that  great 
life  go,  and  at  last,  when  he  was  carried  to  the  summit  of  Mount 
MacGregor  to  die,  one  could  almost  hear  the  pufling  of  the  little 
engine  that  drew  the  train  up  the  side  of  that  mountain,  where,  in 
its  pure  air,  the  great  warrior  could  fall  asleep.  Looking  down  to- 
wards the  beautiful  land  where  I  live,  he  lifted  his  thin,  bony  arms 
towards  heaven,  and  prayed  the  blessing  of  God  upon  our  section, 
and  in  the  gloom  of  the  grave  asked  that  they  should  never  again 
go  to  war.  But  what  made  him  so  great  were  those  bearutiful  pers.onal 
and  domestic  virtues,  illustrated  by  President  McKinley,  and  when  the 
cities  of  our  country  were  fighting  with  each  other  for  the  privilege 
of  guarding  his  dust  when  he  should  die,  unable  to  speak  he  motioned 
for  pen  and  paper,  and  wrote,  "  I  care  not  where  they  lay  me,  so 
Julia   sleeps   by  my    side." 

Now  our  President  McKinley  has  been  stricken  down,'  for  whose 
precious  life  we  so  pray.  Great  as  a  statesman,  distinguished  as  a 
leader,  lofty  in  his  patriotism,  devoted,  not  only  as  a  citizen  of  our 
great  country,  but  of  our  Methodism — we  know  how  he  has  illustrated 
these  virtues  in  turning  away  from  the  cares  of  State  to  minister 
during  her  illness  to  the  noble  woman  who  has  walked  by  his  side 
so  long.  The  country  that  has  pure  homes,  and  pure  fathers  and 
husbands,  must  be  a  great  country.  We  reciprocate  these  kindly 
expressions  from  our  brethren  on  this  side  of  the  sea,  and  I  would 
ask  that  not  only  should  we  send  this  message  to  Mrs.  McKinley,  but 
that  we  should  send  a  message  to  President  McKinley  himself,  saying 
that  .world-wide  Methodism  prays  for  his  speedy  recovery. 

The  Rev.  Professor  Charles  .Stewart,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church 
of  .Canada),  spoke  for  the  Canadian  Churches.    He  said : 

I  ask  the  privilege,  as  one  of  the  representatives  from  Canada,  to 
support  the  resolution  which  has  been  so  ably  and  tenderly  moved  and 
seconded  by  these  brethren  from  the  British  Wesley  an  Conference. 
We  are  next  neighbours  to  our  brethren  in  the  United  States,  and  I 
am  sure  of  this,  that  however  deep  may  be  the  sorrow  elicited  through- 
out the  British  Empire  it  will  find  no  greater  depth  of  feeling,  no 
greater  tenderness  of  thought  and  appreciation,  than  will  be  found  in 
the  Dominion  of  Canada.  We  are  brothers  all.  If  there  are  differ- 
ences, economic  and  otherwise,  between  the  United  States  and  Canada, 
we  feel  that  we  belong  to  the  brotherhood  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race, 
and  we,  as  British  subjects,  especially  in  our  loyalty  to  the  King, 
respect  our  brothers  to  the  south  and  west  of  us.  Therefore  I  take  it 
as  a  privilege  that,  on  behalf  of  my  brethren  and  on  behalf  of  the 
Dominion  of  Canada,  I  am  permitted  to  support  the  resolution  which 
is  before  you.  In  all  our  regard  for  the  nation,  in  all  our  regard  for  the 
family,  for  the  afilicted  wife,  in  all  our  prayers  for  the  beloved  Presi- 
dent, that  he  may,  if  God's  mercy  shall  will  it,  be  restored  again  to 
his  position,  and  to  his  usefulness,  we  are  behind  none  of  our  brethren 
anywhere. 

There  is  one  other  word  that  I  would  say.  This  is  not  the  time 
or  place  for  compliments,   but  our  esteemed  friend  Dr.  Jenkins  has 


ASSASSINATION    OF    PRESIDENT   McKINLEY.  141 

referred  to  the  fact  that  God  permitted  this.  There  may  be  question- 
ings somewhere  as  to  why  God  permitted  it.  "  His  work  is  .perfect : 
for  all  His  ways  are  judgment :  a  God  of  truth  and  without  iniquity, 
just  and  right  is  He."  May  we  .not  for  our  own  encouragement  and 
for  that  of  our  friends  and  brethren  everywhere,  Methodisits  and 
Christians  eveiywhere,  hear  again  the  voice  of  the  adora,ble  Redeemer 
who  said,  in  the  days  of  His  ilesh,  and  says  now,  "  Said  I  not  unto  thee 
that  if  thou  wouldest  believe  thou  shouldest  see  the  glory  of  God  ? " 
Even  omt  of  this  affliction  may  God  work  out  those  great  and  blessed 
purposes  of  redemjition  for  which  we  .are  met  ti:gethcr  hire  at  this 
time. 

The  Rev.  Frank  M.  Bristol,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
pastor  of  Pre'sident  McKinley's  Church  in  Washington,  was  the 
next  speaker.     He  said : 

I  doubt  my  ability  to  control  my  feelings  to  speak  to  you  this 
morniiig.  I  wish  devoutly  to  thank  God  tliat  this  is  not  a  menidrial 
service,  and  to  express  the  sincere  hope  that  we  may  not  be  called 
upon  to  engage  in  any  memorial  service.  It  is  my  faith  and  prayer 
that  this  good  and  great  man  may  be  spared  to  us,  and  to  you,  and  to 
the  world.  I  wish  that  you  all  knew  him  as  some  of  us  know  him — 
not  merely  as  a  great  man,  not  merely  as  President  of  the  United 
States,  but  as  William  McKinley,  a  brother  Methodist,  a  sincere, 
earnest,  genuine  Christian  gentleman.  Some  of  our  British  brethren 
know  him  as  such,  and  after  having  met  Mr.  McKinley  for  hve  minutes 
one  feels  that  he  has  known  him  all  his  life,  so  thoroughly  democratic 
and  sympathetic  and  Methodistic  is  he. 

President  McKinley  is  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
— the  only  President  in  the  history  of  the  United  States  who  has  been 
a  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Fur  many  years  he 
was  a  faithful  and  earnest  worker  in  the  Sunday  School,  for  many 
years  superintendent  of  the  Sunday  School  at  Canton,  a  trustee  of  tlie 
Methodist  Church  there,  and  a  leading  worker  in  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association.  Some  have  said  that  he  had  been  a  local 
preacher,  so  I  asked  him  one  day,  "  Mr.  President,  were  you  a  local 
preacher  ? "  He  replied,  with  a  smile,  "  No  ;  I  have  never  been  a 
local  preacher,  but  I  have  been  nearly  everything  else."  I  knew  that 
the  greatest  desire  of  his  Methodist  mother  was  that  he  should  become 
a  Methodist  preacher.  I  heard  that  from  the  lips  of  his  mother's 
sister,  who  told  me  in  Washington  that  was  his  mother's  ambition, 
Rud  that  she  once  said  she  "  would  rather  have  Will  become  a  Methodist 
preacher  than  have  him  become  President  of  the  United  States."  The 
spirit  of  that  dear  mother  animates  the  son.  He  is  a  faithful,  earnest, 
sincere  Christian  ;  and  I  appreciate,  and  I  am  sure  these  American 
bretliren  appreciate,  these  words  of  sympathy  and  eulogy  which  have 
come  from  our  British  and  Canadian  brethren. 

I  know  Mr.  McKinley's  love  for  the  English  people.  I  have  heard 
him  again  and  again  say  with  a  fine  flash  in  his  magnificent  eye, 
"They  are  a  great  and  a  wonderful  people."  I  know  Mr.  McKinley's 
feeling  for  the  brethren  who  are  represented  so  magnificently  by 
Bishop  Galloway  this  morning,  and  when  the  President  returned  with 
his  wife  to  Wasliington,  after  having  gone  through  the  sunny  south, 
he  told  me,  with  the  tears  filling  his  eyes,  that  there  was  nothing  in 
all  that  journey  of  his  so  touched  his  heart,  and  the  heart  of  his  wife, 
as  the  generosity  and  hospitality  of  the  Southern  people. 


142  ASSASSINATION    OF    PRESIDENT   McKINLEY. 

President  McKinley  is  a  man  of  faith  and  of  courage,  and,  as  the 
newspaper  tells  us,  he  picked  up  the  bullet  which  fell  from  his  own 
breast  and  smilingly  presented  it  to  his  physician.  He  is  a  fearless 
man,  and  is  not  attended  when  he  goes  to  church  by  any  guards  or 
detectives,  and  perhaps  no  Presideni  has  been  less  regardful  of  his 
own  personal  safety  tban  Mr.  McKinley.  He  has  never  imagined  it 
possible  that  anyone  should  attack  him;  his  own  generosity  "towards 
others,  his  own  love  for  his  fellow  men,  his  own  sincerity,  have 
banished  utterly  from  his  mind  any  thought  that  anyone  should  desire 
to  attack  him.  This  very  generosity  of  his  own  disposition  made  pos- 
sible the  attack  of  this  assassin,  and  yet,  knowing  his  disposition, 
knowing  his  absolute  lack  of  vindictiveness,  I  believe  that  William 
McKinley  will  be  the  first  one  to  say  this  morning,  "  God  forgive  him  ; 
he  knew  not  what  he  did." 

I  want  to  express  my  feelings  of  gratitude  as  his  pastor,  and  I  want 
to  express  feelings  of  gratitude  as  representing  my  American  brethren, 
for  these  resolutions,  for  the  beautiful  and  tender  remarks  that  have 
been  made,  and  to  express  once  more  my  faith  that  God  will  spare 
him  in  answer  to  our  prayers. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  (Secretary),  said : 

A  valuable  suggestion  was  made  by  Bishop  Galloway  in  which  I  think 
we  are  all  agreed — namely,  enlarging  the  scope  of  the  resolution. 
Would  it  not  be  better  to  refer  this  matter  to  the  Business  Committee, 
and  send  the  message  not  only  to  the  distressed  family  of  the  Presi- 
dent, but  to  the  President  himself,  and  to  the  American  people.  I, 
therefore,  suggest  that  when  we  come  to  the  vote  it  shall  be  by  a 
standing  vote  in  favour  of  an  expression  of  sympathy,  with  a  request 
that  the  Business  Committee  give  further  expression  to  our  feelings. 

The  Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
spoke  as  follows  : 

It  is  not  surprising  that  there  are  many  in  this  Conference  tha.t  desire 
to  speak.  All  lines  are  blotted  out  this  morning.  In  America  there 
is  no  North  and  no  South,  and  there  is  no  Atlantic  Ocean  that  can 
divide  the  hearts  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  people  to-day.  Personally,  I 
feel  almost  too  much  dazed  to  think  clearly,  and  too  indignant  to 
speak  distinctly.  I  have  enjoyed  a  personal  acquaintance  with  Mr. 
McKinley  for  many  years,  and  so  I  felt  that  I  could  desire  the  in- 
dulgence of  the  Conference  to  say  a  word. 

If  President  McKinley's  death  should  occur,  which  God  forbid,  there 
will  be  no  revolution  in  America  ;  there  will  be  no  outbreak  there. 
There  is  another  hand  that  will  take  the  helm,  and  the  matters  of 
State  will  go  on  as  heretofore,  but  the  time  has  come,  it  seems  to  me, 
when  the  civilised  nations  of  this  world  should  take  some  measures, 
if  possible,  that  wiU  make  such  tragedies  as  are  reported  this  morning 
practically  impossible.     The  sooner  that  time  comes  the  better ! 

My  heart  has  been  touched  this  morning  by  the  references  that  have 
been  made  by  brethren  on  this  side  of  the  water.  I  do  not  know 
how  old  the  little  papers  I  hold  in  my  hand  are  ;  they  have  been  in 
my  pocket-book  for  I  do  not  know  how  many  years,  but  they  are 
the  expressions  of  sympathy  that  came  from  your  gracious  Queen 
Victoria  when  President  Lincoln  was  assassinated,  and  when  President 
Garfield  was  assassinated.  I  take  the  privilege  of  reading  these  mes- 
sages that  came  from  this  side  of  the  water  to  the  wives  of  those 
Presidents    that    were     stricken     down.     When     Mr.     Lincoln     was 


ASSASSINATION    OF    PRESIDENT   McKINLEY.  1 43 

assassinated  the  Queen  sent  the  following  message :  "  I  am  .over- 
whelmed, dear  Mrs.  Lincoln.  What  can  any  earthly  being  say  to 
lessen  the  terrible  blow  that  has  come  upon  you  in  the  loss,  and  the 
loss  in  such  a  way,  of  your  great  and  noble  husband?  Accept  with 
this  my  heartfelt  sympathy  in  your  affliction,  through  which  the  good 
God  alone  can  guide  you  to  peace  and  resignation.  My  people  are 
shocked  by  this  calamity,  which  is  to  me  a  personal  grief.  My  tears 
and  prayers  are  yours.  May  He  comfort  and  protect  you  always." 
When  President  Garfield  was  assassinated  the  Queen  sent  this  mes- 
sage :  "  I  have  watched  during  the  last  few  sad  months  with  admiration 
the  patience  and  Christian  fortitude  of  your  gallant  husband,  and 
learn  with  great  grief  tliat  he  has  passed  away.  I,  too,  know  the 
sorrow  of  such  unhappy  desolation,  and  I  ask  you  to  accept  my  deepest 
sympathy  in  your  bereavement.  President  Garfield  was  a  noble  man. 
May  God  sustain  you  in  your  hour  of  trouble ! " 

How  much  the  American  people  appreciated  those  words  when  they 
came  to  us  across  the  water!  We  know  that  your  hearts  beat  in 
sympathy  with  the  American  people  this  morning,  and  this  calamity 
that  has  befallen  us  will  only  unite  these  two  great  peoples  more  than 
ever  before  in  affection,  and  in  a  purpose  that  a  civilisation  shall  come 
to  this  world  that  will  make  such  deeds  as  these  impossible.  God 
spare  the  life  of  our  noble  President ! 

Bishop  W.  J.  Gaines,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 

represented  the  African  Churches.     He  said : 

I  was  shocked  this  morning  with  greait  horror  and  indignation  when 
I  read  in  the  newspaper  that  our  President  was  shot.  No  class  of 
citizens  of  the  United  States  of  America  has  been  truer  to  this 
Government  than  the  class  which  I  represent,  whether  in  war,  m  peace, 
or  in  sorrow.  Our  hearts  are  always  open  and  touched  with  sympathy 
for  the  success  of  the  Government.  I  am  personally  acquainted  with 
President  McKinley,  and  thank  God  I  can  say  he  is  affable  to  any  of 
the  citizens  of  the  United  States,  irrespective  of  race  or  colour. 
Therefore,  the  coloured  Methodists  of  the  United  States  specially  join 
with  the  white  Methodists  in  prayer  to  God  that  his  life  may  be  spared. 
I  thought  it  was  proper  for  some  man  from  my  side  to  say  a  word  in 
behalf  of  him.  He  has  not  done  everything  that  we  could  wish  he 
had  done,  but  we  believe  he  has  done  his  duty  as  best  he  could  under 
the  circumstances,  and,  therefore,  we  pray  God  that  his  life  may  be 
spared.  I  say  further  that  if  any  country  will  not  protect  its  humblest 
citizens,  its  King  or  President  is  in  danger  of  death.  God  grant  that 
we  may  learn  the  lesson  by  our  sorrows  that  will  save  our  country, 
the  United  States,  from  destruction.     God  bless  you ! 

The  Rev.  D.  Brook,  M.A.,  D.C.L.  (United  Methodist  Free 
Churches),  represented  the  Minor  Methodist  Churches.     He  said  : 

I  have  come  at  the  President's  call,  and  at  the  wish  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  some  of  the  Minor  Methodist  Churches  in  this  country, 
to  make  it  perfectly  clear  how  heartily  and  earnestly  we  desire  to 
associate  ourselves  with  our  Wesleyan  brethren,  and  with  the  resolu- 
tion in  its  very  broadest  terms  which  has  been  proposed  to  the  Con- 
ference. I  will  not  detain  the  Conference  by  words,  because  well 
nigh  all  that  can  be  said  upon  such  an  occasion  has  been  said,  and, 
moreover,  I  think  we  ought  to  have  very  prominently  in  our  minds 
'  the  great  hope    there   is    of   the    President's   recovery.     One    of   the 


144  ASSASSINATION   OF   PRESIDENT  McKINLEY. 

grounds  for  that  hope  is  in  his  Methodism — I  mean  in  the  fact  that 
he,  as  a  good  Christian  man,  has,  through  the  whole  of  liis  lifetime, 
taken  such  care  and  made  such  a  temperate  use  of  his  body  thajb  it  has 
a  better  chance  of  passing  through  such  a  trial  as  this  than  it  would 
have  had  if  his  life  had  been  spent  cai'elessly  in  a  dissolute  manner, 
and  had  been  so  worn  down  that  he  could  not  endure  such  a  crisis 
as  this. 

Wliile  I  am  thankful  for  that  intensified  liope — and  everyone  will 
allow  it  is  an  intensified  hope — I  am  thankful  also  that  when  brought 
into  such  a  sudden  and  lurid  light,  attracting  for  one  moment  the 
attention  of  the  whole  world,  the  man  behaved  with  magnificent  bravery 
and  coolness.  I  felt  again  thankful  that  in  an  emergent  moment, 
when  there  was  no  opportunity  for  preparation  as  to  how  to  behave 
at  such  a  critical  juncture,  this  man  acted  like  a  Christian,  I  was 
proud  of  the  fact,  too,  that  it  was  his  very  approachableness  and  lov- 
ableness  that  brought  him  into  such  an  imminent  danger  as  this. 
Proud,  I  mean,  for  the  man's  character  shone  forth  in  so  many  different 
directions  at  a  moment  such  as  this.  Now,  having  passed  through 
such  an  experience,  I  am  glad  and  thankful  to  Almighty  God  that 
while  on  that  bed  of  sickness  and  suffering,  the  very  same  faith  that 
made  him  brave,  and  enabled  him  to  go  through  the  crisis,  will  give 
him  comfort,  and  consolation,  and  hope,  and  the  knowledge  that, 
whether  he  lives  or  is  called  away  from  this  earthly  scene,  it  is  well. 

Mr.  George  Lidgett,  B.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  repre- 
Bented  the  laymen  of  the  Conference.     He  said  : 

I  trust  our  lay  brethren  of  all  the  sections  of  Methodism,  at  any  rate 
of  our  Eastern  Section,  will  allow  me  to  speak  in  their  behalf.  I  have 
been  a  member  of  this  mercantile  community  of  London  now  for  fifty 
years.  I  have  had  various  personal  and  ofiicial  communications  with 
bodies  in  America.  Our  lay  brethren  from  that  side  will  know  the 
rivalry  both  in  trade  and  in  manufactures  which  exists  between  our 
mercantile  community  on  this  side  and  theirs  on  that.  But  they  will 
know  also  our  desire  for  hearty  co-operation  in  a  great  many  things. 
The  name  of  McKinley  has  been  very  frequently  upon  our  lips  in  that 
connection.  If  there  is  one  feeling  that  is  in  all  our  hearts — ^I  might 
say  it  of  this  mercantile  community  of  London,  as  well  as  of  our 
Methodist  lay  friends,  to-day — it  is  one  of  intense  indignation  at  this 
most  dastardly  attempt  on  a  most  useful  life.  I  hope  that  yet  the  life 
may  be  spared.  We  do  most  earnestly  pray  that  the  aims  of  this 
assassin  may  be  defeated,  and  that  God  in  His  mercy  may  spare  this 
life  to  us.  We  all  know  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  how  great  the 
influence  of  Mr.  McKinley  has  been  on  a  great  variety  -of  questions, 
and  we  all  most  eamesttly  hjope  that  his  life  may  be  ©pared.  We  most 
heartily  join  in  the  resolution. 

The  Rev.  H.  S.  Dotlb,  M.A.  (Coloured  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  represented  the  CoLoured  Methodist  Churches.     He  spoke 

asi  follows : 

What  shall  I  say?  We  have  heard  from  our  brethren  on  this  side 
of  the  water.  We  have  heard  from  our  brethren  from  both  sections 
of  our  country  across  the  water.  We  have  heard  from  a  representative 
of  our  people.  It  seems  that  in  the  sad  calamity  that  has  befallen 
our  President  all  of  us,  loving  each  other  when  we  came  here,  have 
already  learnt  to  love  each  other  better.     I  do  not  know  what  worse  thing  • 


ASSASSINATION    OF    PRESIDENT   McKINLEY.  I45 

could  have  happened  when  I  heard  this  morning  that  our  own  ])eloved 
President  had  been  shot.  When  I  say  "  Our  Presidernt,"  I  mean  that 
Wm.  McKinley  is  such  a  President  that  all  peoples  and  all  races 
of  our  common  country  can  claim  a  part  in  him,  I  have  known  Mr. 
McKinley  myself  for  some  years.  The  first  time  I  saw  him  or  .heard 
him  was  when  I  was  a  student  in  college,  and  he  was  pleading  for 
the  supremacy  of  his  party  in  the  affairs  of  his  own  State,  Ohio,  and 
closed  a  magnificent  address  with  words  that  appealed  for  equal  rights 
to  all  the  people  of  the  country  in  the  adminisitration  of  the  affairs  of 
the  Government. 

Mr.  McKinley  then  related  an  incident  that  in  the  battle  of  Fort 
Bodello,  when  the  armies  of  the  North  were  in  danger,  the  colonel 
called  his  colour-bearer,  who  was  a  negro,  and  said  to  him  :  "  Take  this 
flag  ;  carry  it  into  battle,  and  do  not  come  back  without  it."  That 
coloured  man,  with  tears  on  his  cheek,  said  :  "  Colonel,  if  I  do  not 
bring  back  the  old  flag  I  will  report  to  God  the  reason  why."  The 
battle  began  ;  it  raged  fiercely  and  furiously.  Ascending  the  fort  of 
the  enemy  and  planting  the  banner  upon  its  ramparts,  a  bullet  pierced 
the  body  of  the  colour-sergeant,  and  he  fell,  but  ere  he  expired  lie 
wrapped  the  folds  of  the  old  flag  about  him.  When  the  battle  ceased, 
as  they  walked  over  the  battle-field  to  collect  the  dead,  they  found  this 
colour-sergeant.  He  did  not  bring  back  the  flag,  but  he  reported  to 
God  the  reason  why.  President  McKinley,  then  Major  McKinley, 
narrated  that  incident,  and  said  that  people  who  had  been  so  loyal 
to  the  Government  as  that  must  have  all  the  rights  that  the  constitu- 
tion allowed.  It  was  then  that  I  began  to  love  Major  McKinley.  I 
have  not  ceased  to  love  him  since.  I  join  with  you  in  sorrow  and 
sympathy,  and  pray  that  God  may  speedily  restore  to  health  Wm. 
McKinley,  to  hold  with  such  pious  hands,  and  govern  with  such  wise 
counsels,  the  affairs  of  our  great,  and  growing,  and  beloved  country. 

Mr.  T.  Snape,  J.P.  (Secretary),  announced  that  a  telegram  had 
been  handed  up  by  a  representative  of  the  PresiSj  saying :  "  The 
physicians  are  hopeful." 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  (Secretary),  proposed  "that  the  reso- 
lution to  be  sent  to  the  President,  the  family,  and  the  people  of 
the  United  States  should  be  referred  to  the  Business  Committee  to 
put  in  proper  fonn."  The  motion  wa."  then  put  and  oaiTied  by  ,a 
standing  vote,  the  whole  Conference  rising  and  manifesting  much 
feeling  on  the  sad  occasion. 

A  special  prayer  on  behalf  of  President  McKinley  was  offered  by 
the  Rev.  J.  M.  Kino,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  D.  J.  Waller,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  suggested  that  as  many  as  possible  of  the  members  of  the 
Conference  should  call  at  the  United  States  Embassy  in  Carlton 
Terrace,  and  either  enter  their  naniies  in  the  Visitors'  Book,  or  leave 
their  cards,  as  an  indication  of  their  sympathy  with  the  American 
nation. 

Mr.  Thomas  Snape,  J.P.  (Secretary),  then  read  the  Daily  Record 
for  Friday,  which  was  confirmed. 
II 


14^  MODERN    BIBLICAL    CRITICISM. 

The  aiDpointed  topic  for  the  day  was  then  taken  up,  and  the  Rev. 
John  J.  Tigert,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South), 
gave  an  essay  on  "  Biblical  Critioism  and  the  Christian  Faith,"  as 
follows  : 

What  are  the  foundations  of  the  Christian  faith  in  its  Protestant 
form?  The  Reformers,  accepting  the  character  accorded  the  Bible  in 
both  the  Jewish  and  the  Romish  Churches,  substituted  for  the  infallible 
Church,  with  its  organ  of  Council  or  Pope,  the  infallible  Bible,  inerrant 
in  letter,  and  interpreted,  nominally  by  the  individual,  but  practically 
by  the  several  symbols  framed  by  the  Reformation  parties  anci  peoples. 
This  action  was  both  polemically  and  historically  justifia])le,  if  not 
inevitable  ;  since  it  was  an  appeal  to  a  pure  antiquity,  in  its  presumably 
authentic  records,  against  the  recognised  corruptions  of  a  degenerate 
present. 

Is  the  truth  of  Christianity  dependent  upon  the  preservation  of  an 
inerrant  record?  To  state  the  question  in  this  form  is  to  answer  it  with 
a  negative.  Christianity  is  an  historical  religion  which  arose  in  a  defi- 
nite time  and  place,  which  was  promoted  by  personal  agents, 
who  can  be  recognised  and  described,  and  which  left  behind  it 
concrete  and  world-wide  results,  distinct  and  determinate  in  our  day, 
and  capable  of  being  traced  to  their  origin.  If  inerrant  records  are  the 
necessary  base  of  the  science  of  history,  then  is  scientific  history,  in 
any  form  or  sphere,  civil  or  ecclesiastical,  impossible.  On  the  contrary, 
all  history  worthy  of  the  name  begins  with  documentary  criticism  and 
the  assortment  and  valuation  of  the  available  data.  Christianity  can 
be  no  exception  to  this  uniform  procedure  of  history.     Nor  need  it  be. 

Moreover,  the  distinction  must  be  definitely  made  between  history 
external  and  objective,  a  history  of  events  in  the  actual  order  of  the  life 
of  the  world,  and  history  as  mere  narrative  or  record.  The  criticism  cT 
history  as  record  is  expressly  that  we  may  arrive  at  history  as  fact. 
The  fact  is  antecedent,  the  record  consequent ;  the  fact  is  independent, 
and  exists,  so  to  speak,  in  its  own  right  and  by  its  own  force,  while 
the  record  is  dependent  and  relative,  produced  by  force  of  the  fact.  In 
the  sphere  of  historical  Christianity  the  recognition  of  this  self-evident 
13rinciple  is  not,  on  the  one  hand,  to  fall  into  the  Romish  error  of  exalt- 
ing tradition  to  an  equal  authority  with  Holy  Scripture,  nor,  on  the 
other,  to  accept  the  Anglican  High  Church  heresy  of  the  supremacy  of 
the  Church  because  the  Apostolic  Church  produced  the  New  Testament. 

In  the  presence  of  the  High  Anglican  it  may  be  freely  grjtnted  tliat 
the  Christian  Church  is  older  than  the  New  Testament,  and  has  existed 
as  a  concrete,  living  reality  in  the  world  from  the  beginning  till  now  ; 
but  to  these  obvious  facts  must  be  added  the  further  fact  that,  if  the 
first  generation  of  Christians  produced  the  New  Testament, 
as  a  record  of  the  source  and  spring  and  dominating 
type  of  Christian  life,  so  the  New  Testament,  not  bv  virtue 
of  any  ecclesiastical  definition  of  the  canon,  and  not 
by  any  dogmatic  assignment  of  exclusive  authority  or  inerrancy,  Lut 
because  against  all  claimants  it  asserts  hietorically  its  own  truth  as  a 


ESSAY   BY   REV.    J.    J.    TIGERT.  I47 

contemporaneous  record  and  as  the  living  Word  of  God,  has  begotten 
and  nourished  every  generation  of  Cliristians  since  the  first. 

In  the  presence  of  the  Romanist,  without  any  theoretical  denial  of 
his  principle  of  tradition,  we  may  show  him  that  in  view  of  the  achieve- 
ments of  modern  historical  science,  the  only  defensible  sense  of  this 
terra  tradition  is  history  ;  and  that,  without  any  dogmatic  determina- 
tion of  its  exclusive  authority,  or  its  canonical  limits,  or  its  inerrancy 
as  a  record,  the  New  Testament,  under  the  sifting  processes  of  oriti- 
cism,  effectively  transmits  to  the  present  generation  a  genuine  historical 
deposit  and  achieves  for  itself  the  character  of  an  authoritative  and 
exclusive  source.  These  same  principles  mutatis  mutandis,  apply  to 
the  Old  Testament.  Hear  the  conclusion  of  the  matter  considered  from 
the  historical  point  of  view :  Christianity  is  an  historically-founded  re- 
ligion, living  its  historically-traceable  life  in  the  world  since  the  day 
of  its  birth,  and  exhibiting  itself  as  the  most  real  and  stupendous  fact 
of  the  present.  Therefore,  historical  science  alone  can  primarily  trans- 
cend the  dogmatic  differences  of  Edmanist,  Anglican,  and  Protestant 
concerning  the  rule  of  faith  and  kindred  questions,  and  lay  solidly  and 
permanently,  not  indeed  in  the  realm  of  fact,  but  in  the  realm  of  con- 
viction and  personal  belief,  the  massive  foundations  of  the  Christian 
faith. 

So  far  as  the  Old  Testament — in  our  day  the  especial  subject  of 
literary  and  historical  criticism — is  concerned,  we  may  accept  the 
verdict  of  the  Rev.  S.  R.  Driver,  who  has  given  us  the  most  careful  and 
scholarly,  at  once  the  most  candid  and  the  most  modest,  treatise  '.n 
English  on  Old  Testament  Introduction.  "  It  is  not  the  case  that  criti- 
cal conclusions,  such  as  those  expressed  in  the  present  volume,"  says 
Mr.  Driver,  in  his  rewritten  sixth  edition,  "  are  in  conflict  either  with 
the  Christian  creeds  or  with  the  articles  of  the  Christian  faith.  These 
conclusions  aflfect  not  the  fact  of  revelation,  but  only  its  form.  Tney 
help  to  determine  the  stages  through  which  it  has  passed,  the  different 
phases  which  it  assumed,  and  the  process  by  which  the  record  of  ic  was 
built  up.  They  do  not  touch  either  the  authority  or  the  inspiration  of 
the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  Testament."  The  publication  in  the  last  few 
years  of  such  books  as  McCurdy's  "  History,  Prophecy,  and  the  Monu- 
ments," Rogers'  ■■  History  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,"  and  Sayce's 
"  Higher  Criticism  and  the  Monuments "  and  "'  Early  Israel  and  the 
Surrounding  Nations,"  with  others  that  might  be  mentioned,  has 
familiarised  the  popular  mind  with  the  fact  that  there  has  been  pre- 
served a  veritable  historical  record  parallel,  generally  speaking,  with 
that  contained  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  serving  valuable  ends  of 
elucidation  and  verification.  Savce  and  Hommel  may  have  consider- 
ably exaggerated  the  value  of  these  independent  historical  materials  for 
the  refutation  of  the  predominantly  literary  and  documentary  analyses 
of  higher  criticism,  having  assumed  such  refutation  to  be  in  itself  a 
wortliy  and  desirable  end.  But  historians  will  find  higher  aiid  more 
constructive  uses  for  these  records  unearthed  by  the  i):ck  and  the  spade 
than  those  of  mere  polemics. 

The  data  are  in  hand,  and  are  daily  increasing,  for  a  positive  his- 


148  MODERN    BIBLICAL    CRITICISM. 

torical  reconstruction  of  that  great  ancient  world  of  Western  Asia  of 
which  the  life  of  Israel  was  a  part.  However  the  relative  political  or 
commercial  importance  of  Israel  may  have  suffered  by  the  uncovering 
of  this  wider  world,  in  which  the  Hebrews  but  seldom  played  a  leading 
part,  there  is  incalculable  gain  in  the  securing  of  a  correct  historical 
perspective  and  in  the  illumination  and  completion  of  what  remains 
obscure  or  fractional  in  the  Old  Testament.  What  once  stood  alone  in 
that  ancient  record,  moreover,  is  now  vouched  for  by  many  witnesses, 
telling  of  the  same  events  from  the  standpoint  of  the  party  of  the  other 
part,  and  corroborating,  with  independent  freedom,  what  prophets  and 
historians  had  set  down  in  the  sacred  books  of  the  Jews.  Such  are  the 
priceless  gifts  which  the  science  of  history  is  now  bestowing  upon  the 
interpretation  of  the  Old  Testament  and  upon  the  origins  and  early 
developments  of  revealed  religion. 

In  the  second  place,  the  science  of  history  as  concerned  with  the  New 
Testament  has  surely,  if  at  times  slowly  and  painfully,  led  us  back  to 
the  historical  Jesus,  who  is  Himself  the  Alpha  and  Omega  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  A  great  body  of  Christ's  own  teaching  is  secure.  This 
teaching  is  not  only,  for  the  most  piart,  rationally  and  ethically  i-olf- 
evidencing,  apart  from  the  record  that  contains  it,  but  it  is  also  his- 
torically traceable  to  tlie  lips  of  Jesus,  and  becomes,  both  historically 
and  ethically,  the  norm  and  standard  of  all  revelation  contained  in 
Holy  Scripture.  The  notion  of  the  equal  value  of  every  part  of  Scrip- 
ture for  ethics  and  religion,  which  has  led  in  past  times  to  abominable 
practices  of  persecution  and  cruelty,  and  disfiguring  statutes  on  the  law- 
books of  Christian  commonwealths,  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  distortions 
of  incredible  and  horrible  dogma,  on  the  other,  is  no  longer  a  formula 
to  which  the  Christian  is  required  to  give  his  assent.  "  Holy  Scripture 
containeth  all  things  necessary  and  requisite  to  salvation."  The  ethics 
of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  cut  from  the  neck  of  the  Christian  Church 
the  millstone  of  the  ethics  of  the  Conquest  of  Canaan.  The  parable  of 
the  Lost  Son  is  the  uncovering  of  the  heart  of  God  by  the  hand  of  His 
Son  and  the  imperishable  apologetic  of  the  Christian  faith  framed  by 
its  Founder  and  Head.  The  Beatitudes  are  an  immeasurable  advance 
on  the  Tables  of  the  Law,  and  should  preferably  be  engraven  on  the 
heart  of  every  Christian  child.  Moreover,  while  Jesus  pronounced 
upon  no  modern  critical  question  of  date  or  authorship,  the  freedom  of 
His  attitude  toward  Moses,  everywhere  evinced  in  His  discourses,  may 
be  taken  as  the  warrant  of  the  privilege  and  the  duty  of  historical  criti- 
cism. At  the  same  time,  we  must  remember  that  the  Old  Tostaraent, 
with  which  we  deal,  is  the  Bible  of  Jesus's  personal  edification  and  of 
His  public  ministry,  and  that,  while  He  has  set  us  the  example  of  a 
great  "Discrimination,"  to  use  the  aptly  chosen  word  of  Professor  Geo, 
Adam  Smith,  "what  was  indispensable  to  the  Redeemer/'  if  I  may 
again  adopt  the  language  of  this  scholar,  "  must  always  be  indispensable 
to  the  redeemed.'' 

Let  us  remind  ourselves,  also,  that  the  body  of  teaching  traceable  to 
the  lips  of  Jesus  is  not  confined  to  the  Synoptical  Gospels.  More  and 
more  the  phenomena  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  attest  its  composition  by  an 


ESSAY   BY    REV.   J.   J.    TIGERT.  1 49 

c.ve-wii.iiess  of  the  minisfiy  of  Jesus,  and  fix  it.«  date  well  Avithhi  the 
limits  of  the  liryt  Christian  century.  I  am  not  unaware  of  the  radical 
attitude  towards  the  Evangelical  tradition  assumed  by  one  of  our  two  new 
Bible  Dictionaries.  Indeed,  I  exercised  the  privilege  of  transferring  to 
the  pages  of  the  journal  which  I  have  the  honour  to  edit  the  masterly 
expose  of  the  radical  positions  of  the  "  Encyclopsedia  Biblica,"  which  pro- 
ceeded from  the  able  pen  of  the  present  honoured  President  of  tTie 
British  Wesleyan  Conference,  and  recent  Fraternal  Delegate  to  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  But, 
despite  such  radical  defections,  and  the  grievous  hurt  to  the  common 
Christian  cause  resulting  from  such  publications,  the  Gospel  of  John — 
for  the  Gospel  of  the  Apostle  it  is — steadily  wins  its  way  to  a  wider 
and  more  assured  critical  acceptance. 

It  unites  two  apparently  irreconcilable  characters  :  (1)  a  marvellous 
minuteness  of  narrative  detail  and  vividness  of  picturesque  reproduction 
far  surpassing  anything  found  in  the  Synoptical  Gospels  ;  and  (2)  an 
absoluteness  of  universal  and  final  statement  of  the  profoundest  truths 
of  the  Gospel  which  befits  it  as  the  conclusion  and  crown  of  the  literature 
of  the  New  Testament.  Both  these  characteristics  equally  bespeak  first- 
hand knowledge  ;  while  its  independent  scheme  of  chronology,  and  the 
general  freedom  and  firmness  of  the  author's  deviations  from  the  Synop-, 
tical  tradition,  both  by  omission  and  addition,  attest  the  accuracy  and 
certainty  of  his  knowledge,  and  his  unchallenged  apostolic  position  and 
authority  in  the  closing  decades  of  the  first  century.  The  Eternal 
Divine  Word  Inenrnate,  Avhnse  nature  '"iid  reHtinns  witli  the  Father 
and  the  world  are  revealed  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  with  a  precision  and 
completeness  which  dogmatic  theology  may  imitate,  but  cannot  surp.'iss, 
and  yet  in  unfailing  harmony  with  the  lowlier  and  more  human  repre- 
sentations (if  the  Synoptical  traditidu.  bet'omes  the  sole  and  sure  and 
sufficient  foundation  of  the  Christian  faith.  "  Other  foundation  can  no 
man  lay  than  that  Avhich  is  laid,  which  is  Christ  Jesus."  He  is  the 
Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life. 

The  third  and  final  foundation  of  the  faith  to  which  I  would  invite 
attention  in  this  connection  is  Christian  experienca  I  may  introduce 
the  subject  with  the  words  of  the  late  Professor  W.  Robertson  Smitli : 
''  The  persuasion  that  in  the  Bible  God  Himself  sj^eaks  words  of  love 
and  life  to  the  soul  is  the  essence  of  the  Christian  conviction  as  to  the 
truth  and  authority  of  Scripture.  .  .  •  The  element  of  personal 
conviction,  which  lifts  faith  out  of  the  region  of  probable  evidence  into 
the  sphere  of  Divine  certainty,  is  given  only  by  the  Holy  Spirit  still 
bearing  witness  in  and  Avitli  the  Word."  We  might  suspect  that  ihi-se 
were  the  words  of  an  historical  sceptic  offering  us  stones  for  bread,  were 
i';  not  that  the  "  testimonium  Spiritus  Sancti,"  in  the  absence  of  all 
critical  controversy,  had  long  before  been  unanimously  appealed  to  by 
the  Reformers  as  the  supreme  and  final  warrant  of  Holy  Scripture  ;  and 
were  it  not  further  true  that  our  Methodist  doctrine  of  the  witness  of 
the  Spirit,  if  confined  to  the  single  point  of  our  knowledge  that  we 
are  the  children  of  God,  is,  by  common  consent  of  competent  theo- 
logians, too  narrow.     "He  that  is  spiritual  judgeth  all  things,"   and 


150  Modern  biblical  criticism. 

John  Wesley,  with  a  spirit  of  prophecy  in  this,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
lower  criticism,  as  indicated  by  a  comi)arison  of  the  text  of  his  Notes 
on  the  New  Testament  with  that  of  the  Eevisera  of  1881,  or  of  Westcott 
and  Hort,  anticipated  Schleiermacher  and  the  theologians  of  our  own 
day  who  would  verify  the  entire  dogmatic  system  by  analysis  of  the 
implicit  presuppositions  and  contents  of  Christian  experience. 

This  doctrine  is  no  city  of  refuge,  newly-founded  by  theologians  for 
whom  the  historical  foundations  have  given  way.  On  the  contrary,  the 
uniform,  definite,  and  permanent  elements  of  Christian  experience,  in 
the  conviction  and  forgiveness  of  sin,  the  impartation  of  life,  and  the 
purification  of  the  nature,  with  the  recognition  of  Father,  Son,  and 
Spirit,  as  the  Authors  and  Agents  of  this  great  salvation,  constitute  a 
scientifically  recognisable  and  definable  phenomenon  of  age-long  and 
world-wide  occurrence.  "Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither 
have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man,  the  things  which  God  hath  pre- 
pared for  them  that  love  Him  ;  but  God  hath  revealed  them  unto  us  by 
His  Spirit,  for  the  Spirit  searcheth  all  things,  yea,  the  deep  things  of 
God  ;  for  what  man  knoweth  the  things  of  a  man  save  the  spirit  of  man 
which  is  in  him,  even  so  the  things  of  God  knoweth  no  man,  but  the 
Spirit  of  God."  The  Spirit's  revelation  of  spiritual  things  to  the  spiri- 
tual man  is  thus  not  only  the  normal  privilege,  but  the  necessary  foun- 
dation of  Christian  faith  and  the  Christian  life.  This  truth,  which 
first  rose  on  my  soul  in  full-orbed  splendour  when,  as  a  young  Metho- 
dist preacher,  I  eagerly  perused  your  Dr.  Burt  Pope's  "  Compendium  of 
Christian  Theology,"  Methodism  has  a  special  commission  to  preach  and 
to  teach.  It  is  not  hers  by  right  of  discovery,  for  it  has  belonged  to 
all  the  Christian  Churches  and  centuries.  It  is  no  peculiar  depositum, 
but  it  harmonises  with  the  genius  of  Methodism  in  its  special  emphasis 
upon  Christian  experience,  and  in  its  assertion  of  that  large  liberty 
wherewith  Christ  makes  all  His  people  free.  The  Spirit's  work  in  the 
human  soul  is  in  perfect  conformity  with  the  Spirit's  work  in  the 
Word  ;  but  that  which  is  immediate  with  me  is  the  guarantee  of  that 
record  of  the  experience  of  prophet  and  apostle,  immediate  with  them, 
but  conveyed  to  me  through  the  medium  of  the  written  record. 

God  in  the  World,  God  in  the  Word,  God  in  Christ,  God  in  the  Soul 
— Creation,  Inspiration,  Incarnation,  Hegeneration — these  are  doubtless 
mysteries  all  containing  at  bottom  a  residuum  of  the  inexplicable.  But 
they  are  parallel  mysteries,  each  carrying  with  it  a  weight  of  analogical 
evidence  for  the  truth  of  all  the  others,  and  each  in  its  own  sphere  an 
example  of  that  mighty  working  whereby  God  is  able  to  subdue  all 
things  unto  Himself.  For  us  the  regenerating  act  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is 
indeed  private  and  personal ;  but  for  that  very  reason,  having  ex- 
perienced in  our  own  hearts  this  solitary  union  of  the  Divine  and  the 
human,  the  presence  of  God  in  nature,  in  Christ,  and  in  the  Bible, 
while  still  mysterious,  becomes  credible  and  certaia 

Thus  the  strands  of  historical  Christianity,  of  the  Divine  Christ, 
and  of  the  certainties  of  Christian  experience,  unite  to  form  a  three-fold 
cord  which  cannot  easily  be  broken.  The  time  for  readjustment  to  the 
main  conclusions  of  historical  criticism  has  almost  fully  come.     We  are 


ADDRESS    BY    REV.    MARSTTAI.T.    RANDLES.  tjl 

not  called  upon,  indeed,  for  a  final  judgment,  upon  them  all  ;  many 
things  ri'inain  in  doubt,  some,  from  the  insufficiency  of  the  materials  at 
command,  will  probably  always  remain  in  doubt.  But  the  main  pro- 
blems, such  as  those  of  the  Hexateuch  and  of  Isaiah,  appear  to  have 
been  satisfactorily  solved,  and,  amid  considerable  differences  on  details, 
there  is  essential  agreement  among  the  greater  critics  as  to  methods, 
grounds,  and  results.  So  far  as  I  can  see,  there  is  no  reason  to  antici- 
pate such  a  reaction  from,  and  repudiation  of,  the  historical  criticism 
of  the  Old  Testament  as  befell  the  Tiibingen  criticism  of  the  New  ; 
for  that  criticism  was  essentially  an  attempt  to  re-write  history  on  the 
basis  of  Hegelian  a  priuri  philosophy.  There  is  nothing  common  to 
these  two  schools  and  epochs  of  criticism,  and  it  is  unsafe  to  the  last 
degree  to  argue  from  the  fate  which  overtook  the  one  to  a  kindred  one 
which  must  speedily  befall  the  other.  No  ;  let  us  not  fight  as  those 
who  beat  the  air.  Eather,  possessing  the  precious  pearl  and  imperish- 
able treasure  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  sitting  at  the  feet  of  the  in- 
comparable Teacher,  the  Eternal  Divine  Word  Incarnate,  and  being 
guided  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  into  all  the  truth,  let 
us  hold  fast  the  profession  of  our  faith  without  wavering,  receiving  the 
Kingdom  which  cannot  be  moved,  even  though  this  same  profession 
carries  with  it  the  removal  of  those  things  that  are  shaken,  as  of  things 
that  are  made,  that  those  things  which  cannot  be  shaken  may  remain. 

The  Rev.  Marshall  Randles,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church), 
gave  the  first  appointed  address.  His  topic  was,  "  Recent  Corro- 
borations of  the  Scripture  Narratives."     He  said  : 

The  revelation  contained  in  the  Bible,  like  the  living  flesh  and  blood 
of  the  human  body,  has  for  its  anatomy  a  framework  of  history,  without 
which  it  were  unintelligible.  The  integrity  of  the  revelation  depends 
upon  the  authenticity  of  the  narratives.  The  principles  rest  on  the 
facts,  and  cannot  rest  on  a  basis  of  legends,  myths,  and  human  inven- 
tions. The  attempts  of  the  nineteenth  century  to  destroy  the  credit  of 
the  Biblical  history — especially  of  the  Old  Testament — have  been  met 
by  opportune  evidence  obtained  by  explorations  in  Egy])t,  Asia  Minor, 
Syria,  Palestine,  Babylonia,  Assyria,  Arabia,  and  other  lands,  remind- 
ing us  of  that  over-ruling  Providence  to  which  we  owe  the  marvellous 
preservation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  through  centuries  of  opposition, 
perversion,  and  neglect.  The  testimonies  to  the  historicity  ol  Old 
Testament  books,  hidden  for  thousands  of  years  in  the  ruins  of  Pifcle 
lands,  whose  authors  could  have  no  idea  of  the  future  evidential  value 
of  their  work — testimonies  so  numerous,  so  varied  in  form,  of  such 
different  dates,  found  in  so  many  different  localities,  and  given  to  us 
by  so  many  trustworthy  explorers  and  decipherers,  just  at  the  lick  of 
time  for  Christian  apologetics — are  surely  nothing  less  than  a  mani- 
festation of  the  finger  of  God.  The  references  of  recently  unearthed  in- 
scriptions, on  papyrus,  stone,  and  baked  clay,  to  events  recorded  in  the 
sacred  volume,  go  to  show  that  the  Bible  accounts  are  not  fiction,  but 
history. 


152  MODERN    BIBLICAL    CRITICISM. 

I.  Brr/inninf)  of  Hw  icorld  and  man. — On  fragments  at  Ninoveli, 
George  Smith  discovered  a  legend  of  creation  supposed  to  date  2,550 
years  B.C.,  although  it  is  silent  as  to  successive  acts  of  creation.  It 
tells  us  the  god  Merodach  "  bound  together  a  foundation  before  the 
waters."  "He  made  dust,  and  poured  it  out  witli  the  flood."  "He 
made  mankind.  '  "  He  made  the  beasts  of  the  field  ;  "  "  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates  ;  "  '"  grass,  the  marsh  plant,  the  reed,  and  the  forest."  Other 
accounts  tell  of  the  watery  abyss  out  of  which  the  Kosmoa  came. 
Another  speaks  of  the  god  changing  man  from  the  form  of  a  beast  to 
erectness,  and  changing  his  food  and  raiment,  of  man  being  offered 
"the  food  of  life,"  and  "the  water  of  life,''  and  of  his  being  charged 
with  disobedience.  Another  speaks  of  the  "holy  tree."  Again,  the 
"  wicked  serpent "  is  named,  and  the  Fall  alluded  to  in  Babylonian 
tablets,  found  by  Boscawen.  "  In  sin  one  with  another  in  compact 
joins  ;  the  command  was  established  in  the  garden  of  God.  The  Asnam 
tree  they  ate,  they  broke  in  two.  ■.  .  great  is  their  sin,  .  .  . 
Themselves  they  exalted."  "To  Merodach,  their  redeemer,  He  ap- 
pointed their  fate."  (Sayce  Monuments.)  It  is  more  rational  to  be- 
lieve these  several  reports  of  the  Hebrew  and  other  nations  confirm 
each  other  than  that  they  are  all  false.  If  the  Mosaic  accounts  were 
derived  from  Babylonian,  or  other  ethnic  tradition,  we  have  still  so 
many  different  witnesses  to  the  same  events.  If  the  Mosaic  writer 
had  his  materials  by  special  revelation,  the  historicity  of  his  record  is 
confirmed  by  the  other  accounts,  although  they  are  overlaid  by  mytho- 
logic  absurdities  from  which  the  Mosaic  account  is  absolutely  free. 

II.  The  Deluge. — A  Babylonian  story  of  the  Flood  was  found  by 
George  Smith  in  1870,  which,  like  several  other  recently-discovered 
heathen  stories  of  it,  is  sufficiently  identical  to  confirm  the  historicity 
of  the  Genesis  account. 

III.  The  campaiijn  of  the  confederate  kings  (Gen.  xiv.)  has,  to  some 
extent,  its  correspondence  and  confirmation  in  the  cuneiform  inscrip- 
tions. Experts  believe  they  find  Chedorlaomer  in  Kudur-Lagamar  of 
the  inscriptions — Arioch  in  Eri-Aku — and  Ellassar  in  Larsa.  The  Tel- 
el-Amarna  inscriptions  give  some  reasoii  to  think  Melchizedec  was 
priest-king,  under  Egypt,  in  the  place  where  Abraham  is  said  to  have 
met  him  and  done  him  honour. 

IV.  Hebrews  in  Egypt. — An  inscription  lately  discovered  tells  of 
the  expulsion  of  the  Asiatic  shepherd  (Hyksos)  kings  from  Egypt,  under 
whom  Joseph  jDrobably  lived,  which  agrees  with  the  statement  concern- 
ing a  later  Pharaoh  that  he  "  knew  not  Joseph"  (Exod.  i.  8),  and  with 
the  enslavement  of  the  Asiatic  Israelites.  The  two  treasure  cities, 
Pithom  and  Raamses,  have  been  discovered  by  Naville.  "They  are 
very  strongly  constructed.  .  .  the  bricks  being  sun-baked,  and 
made,  some  with,  and  some  without,  straw.  In  these  strawless  bricks," 
says  Professor  Sayce,  "  we  see  the  work  of  the  oppressed  people  when 
the  order  came,  *  Thus  saith  the  Pharaoh,  I  will  not  give  you  straw ' " 
('•  Fresh  Light,"  72).  Ancient  Egyptian  inscriptions  recently  discovered 
testify  to  beliefs,  customs,  and  conditions,  which  show  how  the  ten 


ADDRESS  BY  REV.  MARSHALL  RANDLES.  I53 

plagues  must  have  been  especially  terrible  to  the  Egyptians,  and  pecu- 
liarly fitted  to  bring  their  gods  and  religion  into  contempt  as  compared 
with  the  religion  of  Jehovah. 

V.  The  Sabbath. — "  The  Sabbath  was  a  Babylonian  institution.  Even 
its  name  is  found  in  the  cuneiform  texts  "  (Sayce).  It  is  there  described 
as  "  a  day  of  rest  for  the  soul.''  Notwithstanding  the  astronomical  and 
polytheistic  associations  which,  of  course,  are  not  found  in  the  Penta- 
teuch, the  Babylonian  inscriptions  testify,  not  only  to  the  existence 
of  a  pre-Mosaic  Sabbath,  but  also  to  the  historic  character  of  the  Penta- 
teuchal  account  of  it. 

^I^ — High  level  of  ancient  civilisation. — Recent  discnverics  have 
falsified  the  modern  assumption  that  the  ancients — particularly  about 
the  time  of  Moses — were  semi-barbarous  ;  too  backward  in  education 
to  have  practised  or  understood  the  religious  cult  of  the  Pentateuch. 
We  now  know  the  contrary.  "  A  discovery  made  in  Egypt  in  1887,'' 
says  Sayce,  "  has  revolutionised  all  our  old  conceptions  of  ancient 
Oriental  life  and  history,  and  has  proved  that  the  populations  of 
Western  Asia  in  the  age  of  Moses  were  as  highly  cultured  and  literary 
as  the  populations  of  Western  Europe  in  the  age  of  the  Renaissance. 
This  discovery  was  that  of  the  cuneiform  tablets  of  Tel-el-Aniania." 
It  is  proved  that  the  Hittites  were  a  great  civilised  nation,  and  con- 
temporary with  nations  equally  advanced.  This  accords  with  the  state 
of  literature  and  intelligence  implied  in  the  Mosaic  records,  and  proves 
it  needless  to  bring  their  authorship  down  to  a  late  date  in  order  to 
make  them  synchronise  with  the  stage  of  intelligence  which  they  imply. 

VII.  Kings  of  Judah  and  Israel,  and  their  times. — Their  history  in 
relation  to  contemporary  history  from  about  B.C.  950  to  750,  as  given  in 
the  Old  Testament,  is  confirmed  by  the  inscriptions.  At  some  points 
the  accounts  differ.  Each  historian  was  probably  predisposed  to  omit 
what  reflected  discredit  on  his  own  country.  Yet  there  is  identity 
enough  to  make  the  Gtntile  accounts  cnnfiriaatory  of  the  He])icw.  The 
story  of  the  invasion  of  Palestine  by  Assyria  during  Hezekiah's  reign 
has  its  counterpart  in  the  Assyrian  records.  "  Ahab  of  Israel  "  is  men- 
tioned in  the  Assyrian  monuments  as  having  sent  a  contingent  against 
his  Assyrian  assailants.  ("Records  of  the  Past.")  One  of  the  most 
remarkable  finds  was  the  Moabite  stone  at  Dhiban  (Dibon)  over-written 
in  language  closely  akin  to  the  Hebrew.  An  edition  of  the  inscription, 
so  far  as  deciphered,  was  published  in  1886.  It  is  the  declaration  of 
Mesha,  King  of  Moab,  concerning  his  victory  over  Israel,  to  whom  he 
had  been  subject.  It  shows  the  historical  character  of  2  Kings  iii.  in 
reference  to  the  same  events.  Biblical  persons,  places,  and  occurrences 
are  frequently  found  in  the  ethnic  monuments — e.g.,  Lachish  is  promi- 
nent in  both.  Mention  is  made  of  Hazor,  Dibon,  Hamath,  Gaza,  Ash- 
dod,  Ekron,  Ashkelon,  Edom,  Nineveh;  of  Benhadad,  Tiglath-Pile.jer, 
Shalmaneaer,  Cyrus  ;   and   of  international  affairs. 

VIII. — The  New  Testament. — This  also  has  .similar  corioburations, 
not  to  mention  recent  discoveries  of  versions,  fragments,  and  ancient 


154  MODERN    BIBLICAL    CRITICISM. 

Christian  writings,  or  the  light  shed  on  the  geography,  civil  and  politi- 
cal government,  language,  manners,  and  customs  of  New  Testament 
countries  and  peoples  which  goes  far  to  confirm  the  authenticity  of  the 
narratives.  A  strong  case  has  been  made  out  for  the  historic  truthful- 
ness of  the  Acts  by  Professor  W.  M.  Ramsay  ("  Christian  Church  in  the 
Roman  Empire  before  a.d.  170")  and  by  F.  C.  Conybeare  ("Monu- 
ments of  Early  Christianity "),  founded  on  the  story  of  Paul  and 
Thekla.  Arguments  to  similar  eflEect  are  adduced  by  G.  B.  Harris  and 
B.  H.  Cowper  in  the  Christian  Evidence  series.  Mr.  J.  T.  Wood  has 
unearthed  much,  of  the  ruins  of  the  temple  of  Diana  of  the  Ephesians, 
the  site  of  which  had  been  long  unknown,  and  thus  produced  evidence 
that  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is  reliable  history.  ("  Modern  Discoveries 
on  the  Site  of  Ephesus.") 

There  is  no  necessity  to  contend  that  the  Bible  is  always  rigidly  snd 
infallibly  exact  in  its  chronological  order  of  events,  or  in  its  names, 
dates,  and  numbers.  .That  is  not  necessary  to  its  doctrine  of  inspira- 
tion, nor  to  its  main  purpose  as  a  revelation  from  God  to  man,  nor  to 
its  being  an  infallible  guide  to  salvation.  Its  design  was  to  supply 
such  a  record  of  facts  and  their  import  as  was  fitting  and  adequate  to 
those  ends.  The  Divine  message  is  couched  far  less  in  dates,  lames, 
and  numbers  than  in  the  significance  of  the  events  which  compose  its 
historic  framework,  and  which  archaeology  has  done  so  much  to  T>rove 
"cannot  be  shaken." 

The  Rev.  CLancellor  D.  S.  Stephens,  D.D.  (Methodist  Protestant 
Church),  gave  the  second  appointed  address  on  "  The  Appeal  of  the 
Old  Testament  to  the  Life  and  Conscience  of  To-day  "  as  follows  : 

The  distinctive  characteristic  of  the  ancient  Hebrew  was  God-con- 
sciousness. The  supernatural  was  a  reality  to  him.  He  no  more 
doubted  his  intuitions  of  God  than  he  did  his  intuitions  of  nature. 
He  approached  the  supernatural  in  a  realistic  spirit.  It  is  this 
which  makes  the  Old  Testament  unique  in  literature.  Its  message 
to  the  world  is  the  declaration  of  an  open  thoroughfare  betweeii 
human  life  and  the  supernatural.  It  assumes  that  the  intuitive 
experience  of  human  consciousness  testifies  as  truly  of  "God  as  it 
does  of  the  presence  of  the  outward  world.  The  truth,  to  which  the 
weight  of  Old  Testament  testimony  is  given,  is  above  the  reach  of 
historic  criticism.  Its  existence  is  not  dependent  on  events  in  time. 
While  it  makes  history,  it  is  superior  to  history.  It  is  a  truth  that 
by  its  nature  must  find  confirmation  in  the  present  facts  of  human 
life,  as  well  as  in  those  preserved  by  history.  The  real  criticism 
by  which  men  will  receive  or  reject  this  message  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment is  not  so-called  Higher  Criticism,  but  the  criticism  of  present 
personal  experience.  If  the  human  heart  finds  no  verifying  experi- 
ence of  the  unseen  in  its  own  life,  tlien  historic  evidence  is  useless. 
If  it  does  find  a  verification  in  its  own  spiritual  consciousness,  ^then 
historical  criticism  is  a  matter  of  supreme  indifference.  The  spiritual 
consciousness  of  men  is  the  tribunal  by  which  each  age  will  settle  for 


ADDRESS    BY    REV.    CHANCELLOR   D.    S.    STEPHENS.  I55 

itself  its  belief  or  disbelief  in  the  declaration  of  the  Old  Testament  that 
God  enters  into  the  lives  and  destinies  of  men.  But  does  this  truth 
of  the  commerce  of  human  life  with  unseen  supernatural  life  appeal 
to  the  life  and  conscience  of  to-day?  We  must  admit  that  there  are 
currents  of  life  and  thought  in  the  world  to-day  that  are  not 
hospitable  to  the  message  of  the  Old  Testament.  There  are  charac- 
teristics in  the  types  of  mind  developed  amid  the  conditions  of  modern 
life  that  array  the  intelligence  against  the  assertion  that  human 
experienice  embraces  a  knowledge  of  the  supernatural. 

First  among  these  difficulties  is  the  almost  exclusive  attention 
given  to  our  sense  intuitions — to  percepts  of  material  things.  Men 
have  studied  carefully  those  phases  of  their  experience  that  relate 
them  to  the  outward  world.  They  have  learnt  much  about  external 
nature,  but  they  know  yet  but  little  comparatively  of  human  nature. 
They  know  something  about  physical  forces  and  the  laws  controlling 
them,  but  they  know  but  little  of  the  energies  that  play  upon 
their  own  inward  life.  Of  the  changes  that  take  place  in  outward 
nature  they  can  give  some  explanation,  but  of  the  marvellous  changes 
that  are  going  on  in  human  conscious  life  they  can  give  no  account. 
Where  the  energies  that  constitute  personal  life  come  from,  to  what 
they  relate  us,  what  laws  control  them,  how  they  may  be  directed 
so  as  to  minister  to  man's  spiritual  perfection — these  are  inquiries 
that  modern  science,  with  all  her  boasted  achievements,  has  barely 
begun  to  consider.  Man  has  investigated  other  things  more  than  him- 
self. He  has  a  reasoned  knowledge  of  almost  every  phase  of  nature 
except  human  nature. 

A  second  difficulty  that  stands  in  the  way  of  the  acceptance  of 
the  Old  Testament  message  is  the  excess  of  emphasis  that  modern 
life  places  on  intellectual  development.  An  intellectual  awakening 
followed  irancis  Bacon's  announcement  that  all  valuable  knowledge 
must  be  firmly  grounded  in  human  experience.  The  intellect  is  the 
instrument  by  which  the  experiences  of  men  are  correlated  and  made 
coherent  in  knowledge.  The  importance  of  that  faculty  which  thus 
interprets  experience  is  exalted  above  the  value  of  the  intuitive 
powers  which  furnish  the  material  of  experience.  The  intellect  has, 
therefore,  been  trained  with  care,  while  the  intuitive  powers  of  the 
soul  have  been  overlooked.  Men  are  disposed  to  disregard  those 
deliverances  of  their  intuitive  natures  which  the  intellect  has  not 
clearly  and  definitely  interpreted.  Intellect  has  been  put  above 
insight.  We  have  forgotten  that  the  truth  that  is  but  dimly  shadowed 
in  the  intuitive  life  of  the  soul  may  be  greater  than  the  truth  whose 
measure  has  been  accurately  taken  by  the  logical  faculties  of  the 
mind.  This  disproportionate  emphasis  placed  upon  the  logical  pro- 
cesses and  analytical  powers  of  the  mind  obscures  our  vision  to  the  finer 
deliverances  of  spiritual  intuition.  Our  spiritual  intuitions  are  eva- 
siye — they  elude  the  grasp  of  the  intellect.  The  intellect  finds  easier 
work  in  the  interpretation  and  synthesis  of  the  lower  sense  percepts. 
Intellectual  culture  and  discipline  are  of  but  little  avail  in  laying  hold 
of  the  great  foundation  truths  of  religion.     It  is  not  by  logic,  but 


156  MODERN   BIBLICAL   CRITICISM. 

by  spiritual  discernment  that  the  elements  of  supernatural  life  will 
be  laid   hold  of  in  human,  experience. 

A  third  difficulty  in  the  way  of  clear  apprehension  of  the  super- 
natural meaning  of  man's  spiritual  intuitions  is  the  impatience  of 
modern  life  with  half-perceived  truths,  with  unreasoned  intuitions. 
Men  are  unwilling  to  know  in  part.  They  are  intolerant  of  those 
higher  intuitions  of  the  spirit,  the  deep  significance  of  which  they 
have  not  yet  apperceived.  They  want  no  half-truths,  no  fragments. 
The  spiritual  experiences  of  men  are  so  hard  for  the  intellect  to  get 
a  firm  grip  upon,  they  arc  not  correlated  with  each  other  into  a 
beautiful  and  coherent  system.  They  cannot  be  dovetailed  together 
and  snugly  tucked  away  into  a  dogmatic  system,  and  hence  the 
temptation    is    to    ignore    them  entirely. 

These  are  some  of  the  tendencies  of  modern  life  that  predispose 
men  to  incredulity  in  regard  to  the  supernatural  as  a  factor  in  man's 
experience.  Even  the  Christian  world  feels  the  influence  of  these 
tendencies,  and  consents  to  lay  just  as  little  emphasis  as  possible 
on  the  supernatural  claims  of  Christianity.  Christians,  too,  often 
consent  to  relegate  the  supernatural  back  to  the  early  ages  of 
Christianity,  and  hence  it  is  that  historical  criticism  strikes  such 
terror  to  their  souls.  But  we  may  rest  assured  that  if  God's  life 
touched  men  ages  ago,  it  touches  human  experience  to-day.  Tradi- 
tional testimony  alone  to  the  reality  of  the  supernatural  will  not 
suffice.  It  will  not  satisfy  the  exacting  spirit  of  to-day.  If  we  get 
the  ear  of  this  critical  age  we  shall  have  to  show  that  the  present 
experience  of  men  is  pitched  in  the  unseen.  The  world  must  realise 
that  the  message  of  the  Old  Testament  is  a  message  that  fits  the 
experience  of  men  in  all  time. 

Notwithstanding  the  difficulties  I  have  mentioned,  there  are  some 
more  hopeful  indications.  There  are  some  developments  in  modern 
thought  and  life  that  prepare  us  to  receive  and  better  interpret  our 
intuitions  of  God.  What  appealed  to  the  ancient  Hebrew  simply  as 
an  intuition  may  appeal  to  the  wider  knowledge  of  to-day  on  the  ground 
of  reasoned  conviction.  I  can  note  but  briefly  two  or  three  of  these 
hopeful   developments. 

First,  there  is  an  increasing  recognition  of  the  spiritual  nature  in 
man.  Our  civilisation  at  every  point  is  more  and  more  recognising 
the  reality  of  those  spiritual  forces  that  constitute  personal  life. 
The  thought  of  men  is  turning  from  outward  things  to  those  greater 
realities  that  are  found  in  the  inner  life.  The  inner  forces  that 
make  character  are  becoming  the  objects  of  serious  reflection.  These 
inward  forces,  which  men  are  beginning  to  comprehend,  are  far  more 
worthy  of  their  study — have  a  far  greater  practical  value — than  the 
things  of  the  outer  world.  He  who  has  found  the  secret  springs  of 
love,  of  faith,  of  hope,  has  achieved  a  greater  mastery  than  he  who 
has  subdued  the  forces  of  nature.  The  thought  of  the  world  is  busy 
about  the  activities  and  energies  that  concern  man's  s])irilnal  life 
as  never  before.  The  literature  of  the  spirit  was  never  so  abundant. 
Even   science   ventures  within    ihc   threshold   of   this   domain.     What 


ADDRESS    BY    REV.    CHANCELLOR    D.    S.    STEPHENS.  I57 

forces  enter  into  mans  personal  life,  whence  do  these  forces  come, 
Avhat  are  the  laws  that  govern  them,  how  may  they  be  reinforced  or 
hold  in  check?— such  questions  as  these  arc  pressing  themselves 
upon  the  attention  of  men,  and  when  they  approach  these  questions  in 
sincerity  and  candour,  they  are  brought  face  to  face  with  the  Divine 
source  of  all  life. 

Secondly,  along  with  this  consciousness  of  man's  spiritual  nature 
comes  the  consciousness  of  that  supernatural  life  to  Avhich  it  relates 
man.  The  knowledge  that  men  have  gained  of  the  biology  of  the 
natural  life  has  prepared  them  to  grasp  the  biology  of  the  soul.  Christ 
recognised  the  essential  analogy  that  exists  between  the  conditions  of 
the  bodily  life  and  those  of  the  spiritual  life.  Because  of  this  analogy 
our  enlarged  knowledge  of  the  biology  of  the  natural  life  enables 
us  to  state  anew  the  Bible  message  in  terms  approved  by  science, 
and  in  language  that  forces  itself  upon  the  reason  as  consistent  and 
logical.  Biology  defines  life  as  the  correspondence  of  the  internal 
organism  with  an  external  environment.  Biology  assures  us  that 
life  is  impossible  without  relation  to  a  supporting  kindred  environ- 
ment. What  is  true  of  the  physical  life  must  equally  be  true  of  the 
spiritual  life.  The  energies  which  constitute  personal  life  must  be 
related  to  an  environment  of  unseen  life,  from  which  the  spirit 
receives  its  energies,  even  as  the  body  finds  its  renewal  from  its 
physical  environment.  There  can  be  but  one  explanation  of  the 
personal  energies  that  enter  into  human  life,  and  that  is  to  be 
i'ound  in  the  environing  life  of  God.  A  scientific  necessity  will  compel 
us  to  seek  for  an  explanation  of  the  transforming  energies  that  come 
into  the  moral  life  of  man,  in  the  superior  life  of  God.  No  other 
explanation  is  left.  If  love  enters  into  the  heart  and  with  its  mighty 
power  transforms  the  life — if  a  new  born  hope  takes  possession  of  the 
soul  that  was  cast  down — it  is  because  this  love,  this  hope,  has  been 
imparted  from  a  life  that  is  above.  It  lias  established  correspondence 
with  the  environing  life  of  God.  It  has  within  its  reach  soul  energies 
of  dynamic  power,  that  are  as  real  as  light  or  heat  in  the  physical 
realm.  The  enthusiasm  for  truth  and  for  goodness  that  uplift  us  and 
purify  us  are  the  invasions  of  supernatural  life  into  human  experience. 
Man  is  a  citizen  of  two  worlds.  He  not  only  breathes  the  air  of 
earth,  but  he  inspires  |;he  atmcsphere  of  heaven.  The  logic  of  science 
at  last  leads  us  to  the  position  of  the  Hebrew  prophet,  and  assures 
us  that  only  through  commerce  with  an  environing  life  can  the 
personal  life  of  man  be  explained  and  supported. 

Thirdly,  the  knowledge  that  men  have  gained  of  human  psychology 
furnishes  a  basis  in  experience  for  an  apprehension  of  the  reality 
of  supernatural  life.  Psychology  acquaints  us  with  the  fact  that  all 
knowledge  consists  of  interpreted  intuitions.  The  raw  material  of  our 
intuitions  has  but  slight  value  for  the  mind  until  the  intellect  has 
woven  it  in  with  the  fabric  of  our  past  experience.  The  human  race, 
through  ages  of  inherited  experience,  has  gained  such  a  skill  in  the 
interpretation   of   our   sense   intuitions,    that   now  we  instantly  give 


158  MODERN   BIBLICAL    CRITICISM. 

ihem  an  ohjective  meaning  far  beyond  what  they  themselves  possess. 
When  we  bring  the  same  skill  to  the  interpretation  of  our  spiritual 
intuitions  that  we  now  bring  to  our  sense  intuitions,  we  shall  liavo 
the  same  definite  and  positive  cognitions  of  our  spiritual  environment. 
We  shall  find  the  same  foundations  for  a  knowledge  of  God  in  our 
spiritual  intuitions  that  we  now  have  for  a  knowledge  of  the  world 
in  our  sense  experiences.  As  external  things  are  revealed  to  us 
through  the  changes  which  they  produce  in  our  senses,  so  will  God 
be  revealed  to  us  in  the  impulses  which  He  awakens  in  our  being. 
When  an  exalted  life-energy  enters  into  our  being  through  the  prayer- 
opened  portals  of  the  heart,  when  it  lifts  us  up  out  of  ourselves  to  a 
higher  plane,  it  has  an  objective  meaning  ;  it  is  evidence  that  a 
higher  life-environment  has  touched  the  spirit.  Just  as  resistance  to 
touch  is  evidence  of  the  presence  of  a  material  body,  so  a  transforming 
love  is  evidence  of  the  presence  of  God.  The  conviction  of  the  pre- 
sence of  a  reality  rests  upon  the  same  foundation  in  each  case. 

The  Apostle  gives  the  psychological  foundation  for  the  knowledge 
of  God  as  revealed  in  present  experience  when  he  says :  "  Hereby  we 
know  that  He  abideth  in  us  by  the  Spirit  which  He  hath  given  us." 
If  you  have  the  Spirit  whom  God  has  given  you,  you  may  know  Him 
as  certainly  as  you  know  yourself.  The  transformed  disposition  which 
Divine  life  implants  in  the  human  heart  evidences  the  reality  and 
character  of  the  environment  of  invisible  life  that  surrounds  us. 
From  the  spiritual  reactions  of  our  nature  in  response  to  the  touch  of 
unseen  life  the  intellect  may  form  some  idea  of  the  nature  of  that 
superior  life  which  transforms  us.  We  form  our  judgments  of  the 
qualities  of  outward  things  from  the  character  of  the  impressions 
they  make  on  our  senses.  This  is  the  only  basis  of  our  knowledge. 
In  the  same  way  the  spiritual  energies  that  fill  the  soul  when  it 
opens  itself  towards  God  are  revelations  of  God's  nature.  They  dis- 
close the  lineaments  of  the  Heavenly  Father. 

This  descent  of  power,  of  life,  from  above,  that  awakens  kindred 
response  in  man's  life— that  transforms  his  dispositions  and  purposes 
into  heavenly  patterns — this  is  the  revelation  of  God  to  and  in  human 
life.  This  is  experimental  religion.  This  is  the  essential  truth  of 
the  Old  Testament.  This  is  the  truth  that  Christ  elaborated  and 
presented  anew  to  the  world.  This  is  the  truth  that  gave  Methodism 
its  early  power,  and  that  has  inspired  every  true  reform  in  the  world. 
This  is  the  truth  the  world  needs  to-day.  The  problem  is  how  to 
present  it  so  that  it  will  take  hold  of  the  hearts  of  men. 

The  religious  world  is  in  a  state  of  unrest.  Traditional  forms  and 
ideas  are  breaking  up.  The  vitalities  of  Christianity  are  eternal  and 
will  survive  the  forms.  The  verities  of  religion  will  outlast  the 
speculations  of  men.  Men  have  lost  their  way  amid  speculations,  and 
need  to  come  back  to  the  intuitions  of  a  God-given  experience. 
Ecclesiasticism,  formalism,  tradition,  may  pass  away, '  but  religion 
based  upon  the  intuitions  of  God  must  last  while  hum>an  nature 
remains. 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  I59 

The  general  discussion  was  opened  by  the  Rev.  W.  T.  Davison, 
M.A.,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church).    He  said  : 

First,  let  me  bear  my  humble  testimony  as  a  represcnlative  on  the 
Eastern  side  to  the  remarkably  able  paper  of  Dr.  Tigert  to  which 
we  have  had  the  opportunity  of  listening.  I  will  not  try  at  this 
moment  to  characterise  in  detail  that  timely,  able,  helpful,  and  sug- 
gestive production.  I  am  quite  sure  that  when  we  come  tu  read  it 
carefully  we  shall  find  how  much  it  contains.  We  had  some  idea 
as  the  paper  was  somewhat  rapidly  read,  but  it  needs  to  be  much 
m9re  carefully  read  in  order  to  be  appreciated. 

God  is  trying  to  teach  His  Church,  I  believe,  at  this  hour  by  means 
of  historical  and  literary  criticism  as  He  has  taught  and  guided  Hia 
Church  by  other  means  outside  the  Church  in  the  course  of  past  ages. 
We  often  hear  the  phrase  of  John  Robinson  quoted,  that  God  has 
more  light  to  break  out  of  His  Holy  Word,  and  it  is  true  that  we  shall 
continually  find  more  and  more  to  study  in  the  Book  itself.  But 
God  teaches  us  by  light  from  outside  shining  upon  the  Word.  We 
have  learnt  a  great  deal  from  the  relation  between  Scripture  and  pure 
science,  and  we  have  learnt  a  great  deal,  or  we  might  have  learnt 
a  great  deal,  from  the  relation  between  Scriptural  teaching  and  social 
theories.  God  has  intended  to  teach  His  Church  by  means  of  these 
movements  round  about  us,  and  I  hope  that  we  have  had  grace  to  learn 
some  lessons.  With  regard  to  the  subject  of  historical  and  literary 
criticism  and  the  examination  of  the  Bible  as  a  record  which  is  now 
proceeding,  God  has  many  things  to  teach  us.  Some  of  them  we  have 
already  iearnt — that  human  faith  as  such  is  an  amalgam,  and  we  have 
to  find  out  by  a  process  of  trial  how  much  of  that  faith  is  human  and 
how  much  Divine.  When  we  examine  the  historical  criticism  of  the 
Old  Testament,  and  that  still  more  destructive  criticism  of  the  New 
Testament,  which  is  now  causing  so  much  attention,  we  shall  not  find 
it  a  difficult  thing  to  separate  between  those  elements  which  are 
transitory  and  those  which  are  permanent.  Dr.  Tigert  has  led  us  very 
largely  upon  the  right  lines  in  those  two  matters.  I  do  not  myself 
think  that  we  should  be  too  anxious  about  confirmations  of  the 
accuracy  of  the  Scripture  history  in  all  details,  whether  from 
archaeology  or  from  other  sources.  We  welcome  them,  but  I  do  not 
think  that  we  need  to  be  anxious  about  the  matter,  nor  to  put  out 
eager  hands  to  clutch  hold  of  every  possible  confirmation  and  dwell 
upon  it,  any  more  than  we  need  fear  on  the  other  side  here  and  there 
a  discrepancy.  Rather  I  believe  that  attention  is  being  drawn  to 
the  spiritual  character  of  that  Book  which  is  for  us  the  ultimate 
ground  of  appeal,  and  the  authoritative  rule  of  faith  and  practice — 
the  character  of  it,  the  spiritual  power  of  it,  and  the  relation  between 
the  Bible  and  the  Church,  and  between  the  Bible  and  Christian  con- 
sciousness. All  these  truths  are  being  illustrated  more  clearly  than 
they  ever  have_  been  before,  on  account  of  the  historical  and  literary 
criticism  to  which  the  Bible  has  been  subjected  in  our  generation. 

As  we  meet  from  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  I  hope  that  we  shall 
co-operate  in  Biblical  study.  I  hope  that,  those  who  are  interested 
in  topics  of  this  kind  will  co-operate  in  the  defence  of  our  faith.  I 
dare  not  speak  for  others — and  vet  I  think  I  may  ;  but  we  upon  our 
side  welcome  the  co-operation  of  scholars  and  Bible  students  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic  as  represented  by  Dr.  Tigert  and  many  more. 
I  hope  that  this  (Ecumenical  Conference  will  not  pass  away  without,' 
in  somie  fashion  or  anotther,  so  bringing  us  nearer  together  that  in 


i6o 


MODERN   BIBLICAL    CRITICISM. 


the  next  decade,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  more  good  work  may  be  done 
for  Biblical  scholarship  than  ever  has  been  done  in  the  past. 

The  Rev.  J.  Agak  Beet,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church), 
spoke  as  follows : 

I  wish  to  express  my  strong  agreement  with  the  admirable  paper 
which  we  have  just  had  from  Dr.  Tigert ;  but  I  Avish  to  supplement 
it  by  a  few  remarks  which  I  think  ought  to  be  made  in  this  Con- 
ference. 

_  If  we  chH  attention  to  recent  corroborations  of  the  Scriptural  narra- 
tive, we  are  bound  to  admit  that  in  some  cases  recent  research  has, 
in  some  small  details,  contradicted  that  narrative,  and  has  gone  far 
towards  disproving  its  absolute  verbal  accuracy.  Nay,  more.  Recent 
and  careful  study  of  the  Bible  has  compelled  us  to  modify  a  theory 
of  inspiration  held  by  our  fathers  in  the  middle  decades  of  the  last 
century.  Not  that  we  have  changed  our  doctrines.  We  Jiold  firmly  and 
unanimously  the  Gospel  which  Wesley  preached,  and  the  glad  tidings 
of  salvation  which  kindled  the  flame  of  the  Methodist  Revival,  Some- 
one said  the  other  day  that  Methodists  were  unanimous  in  holding 
fast  the  teaching  of  Wesley.  He  might  have  gone  further  and  said 
that  wherever  to-day,  in  the  Anglo-American  race,  there  is  aggressive 
evangelism,  it  is  inspired  by  the  same  teaching.  The  theology  of 
Wesley  is  the  saving  faith  of  the  millions  who  speak  the  English 
language.  But  some  sixty  years  ago,  good  men,  in  their  wish  to  pay 
honour  to  the  Book  of  God,  propounded  a  theory  of  its  origin  a,nd 
inspiration,  derived  not  from  study  of  the  Bible,  but  from  a  priori 
reasoning  about  it,  a  theory  which  went  far  beyond  the  evidence. 
From  the  untenable  position  then  taken  up  we  have  retreated  to  ani 
impregnable  position  by  careful  study  of  the  Bible  itself.  Such  re- 
treat has  saved  many  an  army.     It  is  our  only  safety. 

We  must  ask  you  to  have  patience  with  Biblical  scholarship.  It 
has  done  much  for  the  spiritual  life  of  the  servants  of  Christ.  It 
has  given  to  us  a  purer  text  of  the  Bible  itself,  and  a  more  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  languages  in  which  it  was  written,  and  has  thus 
brought  us  nearer  to  the  still  small  Voice  which  speaks  therein.  It 
has  given  to  us  a  more  intelligible  Bible,  and  the  Bible  thus  inter- 
preted is  the  only  safe  theological  text-book.  I  cannot  deny  that  not 
a  few  able  Biblical  scholars  reject  all  the  disitinctive  elements  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ.  These  men,  in  spite  of  many  services  in  the  details 
of  Biblical  scholarship,  we  must  meet  with  resolute  opposition,  but  in 
our  opposition  we  must  discriminate.  If  we  shut  our  eyes  and  strike 
out  right  and  left  we  shall  strike  our  friends,  mistaking  them  for  foes. 
For  instance,  some  scholars  deny,  simply  because  it  conflicts  with  their 
theory  of  the  universe,  the  possibility  of  a  dead  man's  return  to  life, 
and  therefore  refuse  to  discuss  the  abundant  and  overwhelming  evi- 
dence that  Christ  rose  from  the  dead.  The  dogmatism  of  rationalists 
is  no  reason  why  we  should  revile  a  man  because  after  careful  study 
he  does  not  think  that  the  last  twenty-six  chapters  of  the  Book  of 
Isaiah  come  from  the  same  pen  as  do  the  earlier  chapters.  After  all, 
qiiestions  of  date  and  authorship  must  be  left  to  those  who  have  made 
them  their  special  study.  Such  questions  we  cannot  settle  by  ap- 
pealing either  to  the  tradition  of  the  Church  or  to  our  own  religious 
experience. 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  l6l 

The   Rov.    n.    J.    Cooke,   D.D.    (MotIi,odi»t  Episcopal   Cliurch), 
continuing-  the  discussion,  said : 

I  do  nol,  approach  this  subject  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  spcnialist. 
I  simply  plead  m  our  Metliodism  for  liberty  of  thought.  This  subject 
has  agitated  the  minds  and  hearts  of  religious  people  on  both  sides 
of  the  At  antic  It  has  disturbed  the  thoughts  of  ministers  and  the 
prayers  of  the  laity,  but  I  cannot  see,  and  never  have  been  able  to 
see,  why  there  should  be  any  agitation  among  Christian  people  over 
this  subject  Out  of  English  deism  sprang  magnificent  apolo- 
getics from  Warburton's  "Divine  Legation"  down  to  the  present  time 
—to  the  last  of  the  Bampton  Lectures.  Out  of  German  rationalism 
sprang  the  magnificent  work  begun  by  Schleiermac'her.  Had  there 
been  no  Strauss,  there  had  been  no  Neander's  great  "  Life  of  Christ  " 
and  I  am  satisfied  that  out  of  this  question  there  will  come  greater 
blessing  to  the  Church  of  God  than  the  fearful  saints  of  the  present 
day  now  dream  of.  At  the  back  of  Wesley's  Chapel  lies  Adam  Clarke  I 
venture  to  say  that  when  the  whole  substance  of  Biblical  criticism 
IS  reduced  to  its  ultimate,  there  wUl  not  be  found  a  more  drastic 
iconoclastic  critic  of  the  Old  Testament  than  Adam  Clarke,  as  everyone 
knows  who  has  read  his  "Notes  on  Chronicles  and  Kings"-  and 
Methodism  has  iiever  yet  disowned  him.  Of  .all  the  great  ecclesiastical 
systems,  Methodism  alone  enjoys  the  proud  distinction  of  never 
having  sent  a  heretic  to  the  dungeon  or  a  martyr  to  the  stake  It 
IS  too  late  to-day  to  stir  the  ashes  of  Sraithfield  or  to  disturb  the  rusty 
locks  on  the  doors  of  the  Inquisition.  We  could  not  do  it  if  we  wanted 
to,  and  we  would  not  if  we  could. 

Tlie  danger  of  destructive  criticism  is  this  :  it  is  the  boldest  attack  on 
Protestantism  that  has  ever  been  formulated  by  the  intrenuity  of  the 
human  intellect.  Neither  Bossuet  nor  Manning,  nor  °that  splendid 
character,  John  Henry  Newman,  ever  made  a  bolder  stroke  at  Pro- 
testantism than  this  destructive  criticism.  The  revolt  in  the  sixteenth 
century  was  not,  as  was  stated  from  this  platform  yesterday,  a  revolt 
from  ecc  esiastical  polity,  from  the  rule  of  Bishops,  for  England  re- 
tained the  episcopacy,  and  the  Scandinavian,  the  Helvetic,  and  the 
^rench  Churches  retained  the  superintendency.  No,  the  revolt  of  the 
Reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  not  from  a  hierarchy ;  it  was 
from  an  infalhble  Church  to  an  infallible  Book.  Destroy  the  infallible 
Book,  and  you  cannot  stop  by  any  logic  this  side  of  an  infallible 
hu  "l^  ^  Destructive -criticism  plays  consciously  or  unconsciously  into 
the  hands  of  Romanism,  and  Romanism  can  stand  aside  and  see  the 
foundation  of  Protestantism  dug  from  underneath  us. 

The  Rev.  Geo.  Elliott,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  C?hurch),  spoke 
as  followsi : 

I  suggest  that  as  Methodists  we  can  more  freely  and  easily  recognise 
the  system  of  scholarship  than  almost  any  other  people  in  the  world 
Basing  at  least  a  large  part  of  our  ground  of  Christian  certainty  upon 
the  fact  of  the  reality  of  the  Divine  life  in  the  soul  of  man,  we  are 
prepared  to  investigate  the  more  freely  and  with  the  larger  libertv  the 
external  foundations  of  our  faith.  ^ 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  results  of  the  critical  study  of  the 
Word  of  God   as  to  much  of  the  outworks  of  the  whole  history  of 
Revelation,  it  has  left  at  least  more  certainly  that  irreducible  minimum 
the  spiritual  facts  of  Revelation.    Years  ago,  when  I  first  read  the 

12 


1 62  MODERN   BIBLICAL    CRITICISM. 

Bampton  Lectures  on  the  Psalter,  by  Professor  Cheyne,  I  can  remem- 
ber how  appalling  the  results  were  to  me.  They  are  still  in  many  ways, 
for  I  must  confess  that  I  find  myself  standing  more  closely  to  the 
jH-esent  distinguished  President  of  the  British  Wesleyan  Conference 
than  to  that  audacious  scholar  of  Oxford.  Nevertheless,  there  came 
to  me  at  the  end  of  the  vision  of  that  appalling  iconoclast  as  he  swept 
away,  one  by  one,  every  traditional  notion  I  had  with  regard  to  the 
Praises  of  Israel — that  there  remained,  after  all,  the  true  Praises 
of  Israel,  the  spiritual  fact  of  them,  whatever  their  source,  whatever 
their  authorship,  wherever  they  came  from.  That  which  was  in  them 
which  answered  to  my  own  spiritual  life  did  abide.  There  is  a  deep 
in  Holy  Scripture  which  calls  to  the  deep  in  the  human  soul,  and  it 
may  happen  that  steady  diapason  will  be  more  clearly  heard  when  we 
no  longer  listen  to  the  surface  washings  of  the  waves,  or  to  the  cry 
of  the  sea-bird  over  the  lonely  waters. 

May  I  suggest  another  thing — that  the  post-Reformation  doctrine  of 
inspiration  is  really  born  of  rationalism,  is  real  rationalism.  It  begins 
by  postulating  a  priori  what  would  be  a  worthy  revelation  of  God, 
and,  having  concluded  that  it  will  have  to  be  an  infallible  and  unerring 
record,  immediately  tries  to  prove  that  the  Bible  is  such  a  thing, 
instead  of  reverently  and  humbly  asking  what  sort  of  revelation,  in 
fact,  God  has  given  us.  I  shall  not  soon  forget  how  twenty  years 
ago,  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati,  I  heard  a  man  you  honour  on  this  side 
of  the  water,  Frederic  W.  Macdonald,  say  in  substance — he  must 
not  be  made  responsible  for  my  paraphrase  of  his  words — that  we  are 
not  judges  to  know  on  what  mountain  tops  God  has  distilled,  or  through 
what  rivulets  He  has  gathered,  the  waters  of  the  River  of  Life.  It 
is  well  for  us  humbly  to  take  the  revelation  which  God,  in  fact,  has 
given  us. 

One  great  name  there  is  that  I  would  like  to  mention,  that  of  Mr. 
Gladstone,  that  white  rose  of  our  Anglo-Saxon  chivalry,  who  passed 
away  without  one  petal  soiled  because  of  sin,  and  hardly  one  fallen 
because  of  age.  He  wrote  a  book,  "  The  Impregnable  Rock  of  Holy 
Scripture."  With  the  conclusions  of  that  book  I  am  frequently  at 
variance,  but  I  find  myself  more  at  variance  with  his  title  than  with  the 
book  itself.  "  The  Impregnable  Rock "  is  not  Holy  Scripture,  but 
that  deeper  foundation,  than  which  no  other  can  be  laid.  The  impreg- 
nable rock  is  that  rock  which  Jesus  saw  in  Peter,  that  of  a  spiritual 
consciousness,  a  spiritual  fellowship  with  Almighty  God,  which  sees 
the  things  of  God  apart  from  flesh  and  blood. 

The  Rev.  A.  E.  P.  Albert,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Churoh), 
concluded  the  discussion.    He  said : 

The  question  of  "Biblical  Criticism  and  the  Christian  Faith"  is 
one  that  admits  of  no  colour,  race,  nor  sex.  It  recognises  no  sectional 
difference  and  no  latitudinal  nor  longitudinal  complexion.  It  appeals 
to  the  awakened  consciousness  of  the  human  intellect,  the  human 
heart,  the  human  faith  and  purpose,  and,  as  such,  is  entitled  to  our 
profoundest  thought  and  consideration.  It  concerns  man,  and  what- 
ever concerns  man  concerns  me. 

I  rejoice  to  say  in  this  great  Parliament  of  Universal  Methodism 
that  the  question  of  Biblical  Criticism,  higher  or  lower,  does  not 
disturb  the  faith  of  the  great  body  of  Christian  believers  which  I  have 
the  honour  to  here  represent.  I  do  not  mean  that  our  people  are 
entirely  ignorant  of  the  severe  criticism  to  which  the  sacred  Scriptures 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  163 

are  being  subjected,  on  both  sides  of  the  Athmtic,  by  the  ripe  scholar- 
ship and  searching  investigation  of  many  of  the  greatest;  minds  that 
have  ever  tested  the  elements  of  fundamental  truths.  But  I  mean 
to  declare  that,  with  full  knowledge  of  every  point  that  has  been 
raised  against  the  genuineness,  authenticity,  and  credibility  of  every 
Book  in  the  Sacred  Canon,  and  of  every  fact  recorded  therein,  our 
people  continue  to  believe  that  "  All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration 
of  God,  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for 
instruction  in  righteousness,  that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect, 
thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good  works,"  'and  that  "  Holy  men  of 
God  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  We  continue  to 
"  contend  for  the  faith  which  was  once  delivered  unto  the  saints," 
regardless  of  all  criticism.  Our  weakness  lies  not  in  the  assaults  of  any 
adverse  criticism  against  the  integrity  of  the  Scriptures,  but  in  our 
failure  to  more  fully  demonstrate  in  our  lives  the  doctrines  which  we 
teach  and  profess  to  '"believe. 

Bishop  Galloway  sounded  the  key-notes  of  the  bugle  blast  when  he 
called  upon  Universal  Methodism  to  accept  h\  sincerity  the  facts  of 
experimental  religion  as  expressed  by  St.  John,  the  beloved  apostle, 
and  St.  Peter,  the  heroic  missionary.  Bishop  Wilsun  but  emphasised 
the  same  great  truths  when  he  declared  that  the  permeation  of  the 
principles  of  our  haly  religion  in  human  hearts  and  lives  would  trans- 
form our  sin-cursed  humanity  into  actual  living  epistles  of  the  Prince 
of  Peace,  who  taught  us  that  God  was  our  Father,  Jesus  Christ  our 
Redeemer,  and  that  every  man  was  our  brother.  Could  iMethodism 
and  Christianity  lift  itself  above  its  prejudices,  and  take  its  stand 
on  the  housetop  with  Peter,  aind  say,  "  Of  a  truth  I  perceive  that  God 
is  .no  respecter  of  persons,  but  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  Him 
and  worketh  righteousness,  is  accepted  with  Him,"  it  would  need  no 
longer  to  fear  any  harm  that  could  come  from  any  form  of  Biblical 
criticism,  that  the  world,  the  flesh,  the  devil,  or  even  some  of  our 
theological  professors  too  often  entertain  and  suggest.  It  would  enter 
upon  such  a  march  of  conquest  of  the  world  for  Clirist  as  would  stagger 
the  faith  of  the  most  ardent  believer. 

What  we  need,  and  must  have,  for  the  final  conquest  of  the  world 
is  the  vitalising,  energising,  regenerating  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
We  need  another  Pentecost,  wherein  "  Pai*thians,  and  IVIedes,  and 
Elamit&s,  and  the  dwellers  in  iMesopotamia,  and  in  Judea  and  Cappa- 
diocia,  in  Pontus  and  Asia,  Phrygia,  and  Pamphylia,  in  Egypt,  and  in 
the  parts  of  Libya  about  Cyrene,  and  strangers  of  Rome,  Jews  and 
proselytes,  Cretes  and  Arabians,"  shall  unite,  as  an  undivided  and 
indiA'isible  brotherhood,  in  one  accord  in  the  service  and  worship  of 
God,  and  in  testifying  to  the  wonderful  works  of  God. 

I  am  at  present  pastor  of  Wesley  Chapel,  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  in  New  Orleans,  the  largest  oaloured  Church  in  our  section  of 
country.  It  is  the  church  of  which  the  venerable  Bishop  Keene,  the 
honoured  Senior  Bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South, 
was  for  many  years  the  pastor,  in  the  days  of  his  ministration  to  the 
slaves  in  our  country.  As  such,  I  thank  God  for  the  magnificent  work 
done  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  for  my  people  during 
those  dark  days,  and  I  thank  God  for  what  she  is  now  doing  for  her 
children  of  the  Coloured  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  I  thank  God, 
too,  for  our  civil  war  that  thundered  into,  and  broke  daylight  into  our 
night  of  darkness,  and  that  made  my  presence  possible  here  to-day. 
I  thank  God  for  the  glorious  achievements  of  our  coloured  brethren 
in  the  African   Methodist  Episcopal   Church;   the  African  Methodist 


164  BUSINESS   PROCEEDINGS. 

Episcopal  Zion  Church,  and  the  Coloured  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  ; 
but  as  a  repiresentaltive  of  the  cnluurcd  meinhcrship  of  the  iii.other 
American  Methodist  Episcopal  Ohurch,  Iiaving  an  abiding  faith  in  the 
ultimate  Iriumpli  of  the  Gospel  whicli  we  preacli,  1  express  the  hope 
and  prayer  that  the  day  may  not  be  far  distant  wlien  all  these  several 
branches  of  American  Methodism  may  be  so  divested  of  all  race  and 
colour  prejudice  as  to  find  common  ground  upon  which  to  stand 
unitedly,  federated  or  otherwise,  for  the  conquest  of  our  great  continent, 
without  the  sacrifice  of  a  single  principle,  or  the  humiliation  of  a 
single  member.  This  much  achieved,  we  shall  then  lie  fully  prepared 
to  join  hands  and  hearts  with  the  Methodism  of  the  world  to  reclaim 
this  planet,  upon  whose  surface  God  has  seen  fit  to  place  one  conquering 
white  and  four  great  coloured  races. 

I  had  a  dream  last  night.  I  dreamed  that  all  the  people  in  the 
neighbourhood  in  which  I  was  living  were  putting  weather  vanes  not 
only  upon  their  residences,  but  on  their  barns,  their  outhouses,  and 
upon  all  their  possessions.  I  suppose  that  was  only  a  dream.  I  could 
sincerely  hope  that  it  was  a  pledge  and  a  prophecy  that  every  Church 
represented  in  this  assembly  shall  speedily  put  forth  the  weather  vanes 
of  a  mighty  faith  that  will  catch  the  impetus  of  the  "  rushing  mighty 
wind,"  and  that  with  "  tongues  like  as  of  fire,"  inspired  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  they  may  go  forth  conquering  unto  conquest,  until  our 
humanity  the  .world  ovar  shall  unitedly  give  undivided  glory  arud 
honour  to  our  God,  and  until  every  knee  shall  bow  and  every  tongue 
"  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father." 

The  report  of  the  Business  Committee  was  then  given  by  the 
Secretary,  and  the  following  restolution  in  reference  to  the 
attempted  assassination  of  President  William  MoKinley  was  adopted 
by  the  Conference  : 

"  This  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference  expresses  its  intense  indig- 
nation at  the  dastardly  attempt  made  on  the  life  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  and  its  profound  sympathy  with  the 
nation  in  its  deep  anxiety,  and  directs  that  a  message  of  respectful 
and  heartfelt  sympathy  be  sent  immediately  to  the  President,  to  Mrs. 
McKinley,  and  to  the  American  people." 

The  following  telegrams,  signed  by  the  Revs.  John  Bond  and 
J.  M.  King  (Secretaries)  were  agreed  to : 

To  Wm.  McKinley,  President  of  the  United  States  of  America : 
"The  Eepresentatives  of  all  the  branches  of  Methodism  throughout 
the  world,  assembled  in  CEcumenical  Conference  in  Wesley's  Chapel, 
London,  on  this  7th  day  of  September,  1901,  desire  most  earnestly  to 
express  their  profound  sympathy  with  you  in  your  sad  and  bitter  pain, 
suffered  at  the  hand  of  an  assassin.  Our  prayers  have  gone  up  to 
God,  and  we  shall  continue  to  pray  for  your  speedy  recovery." 

To  Mrs.  McKinley,  Buffalo:  "Methodism,  in  (Ecumenical  Con- 
ference assembled,  in  London,  most  respectfully  sends  its  message  of 
heartfelt  sympathy  in  this  day  of  your  distress.     Our  hearts  are  moved 


BUSINESS   PROCEEDINGS.  165 

within  us  so  that  we  cannot  refrain  from  this  utterance  of  our  fellow- 
ship with  you  in  |this  dreadful  sufiEering.  May  the  consolations  of  God 
abound  to  ,you." 

To  the  Honourable  John  Hay,  Secretary  of  State,  and  through  him 
to  the  American  people :  "  In  accordance  with  action  taken  on  thia 
7th  day  of  September,  this  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference,  as- 
sembled in  Wesley's  Chapel,  London,  expresses  through  you  to  the 
American  people  its  intense  indignation  ^t  the  dastardly  attempt  upon 
the  life  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and  its 
profound  sympathy  with  the  nation  in  its  deep  anxiety." 

It  was  further  agreed  that  a  copy  of  the  resolution  of  the  Con- 
ference should  be  sent  to  the  Ambassador  of  the  United  States 
in  London,  the  Honourable  J.  H.  Choate. 

The  Secretary  read  the  followinp^  letter  which  he  had  received 
from  Dr.  Parker,  the  distinguished  minister  of  the  City  Temple : 

"Dear  Mr.   Bond, 

"I  resume  my  Thursday  morning  service  on  the  12th  inst. ,  and, 
therefore,  dare  not  be  out  on  Wednesday  night  at  St.  James's  Hall. 
I  am  very  much  run  down,  and  need  all  the  rest  I  can  get.  I  regret 
my  absence  the  less  that  the  list  of  Free  Church  representatives  is  in 
every  respect  so  strong.  I  need  not  tell  you  that  I  always  thrive 
in  the  warm  atmosphere  of  Methodism,  and  that  my  heart  is  with  you 
in  all  this  sacred  festival.     My  love  be  with  you  all  in  Christ  Jesus. 

"Ever  sincerely  yours, 

"Joseph  Parker." 

The  Doxology  having  been  sung,  the  Benediction  was  pronounced 
by  tbe  President  (Bishop  B.  W.  Arnett,  D.D.). 


1 66  BUSINESS   PROCEEDINGS. 


FIFTH  DAY,  Monday,  September  9,  1901. 


TOPIC : 
PEOTESTANTISM    VEBSU8    MODERN    SACERDOTALISM 


FIRST     SESSION. 

The  Conference  resumed  its  sessions  at  10  a.m.,  the  Rev.  E.  J. 
Watkin,  D.D.  (Australasian  Methodist  Church),  presiding.  The 
Rev.  I.  B.  Scott,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  read  a 
portion  of  Scriptui-e  and  offered  prayer. 

The  President,  in  a  brief  introductory  address,  said : 

On  Saturday  morning  we  joined  in  prayer  to  Almighty  God  for  the 
recovery  of  the  President  of  the  United  States.  This  morning  we 
ought  to  join  in  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God  for  the  favourable  in- 
telTigence  which  has  come  ;  and  we  should  continue  in  prayer  and 
supplication  with  thanksgiving  to  Almighty  God  that  Hie  may  spare 
the  life  of  a  man  so  admirably  fitted  for  the  eminent  position  which 
he  has  occupied.  We  will  continue  to  pray  for  his  wife,  a  rnag- 
nanimous,  great,  Christian  lady,  and  we  ought  to  pray  that  the  nations 
may  learn  the  lesson  which  a  tragedy  like  this  teaches — not  to  allow 
the  liberty  of  the  Press,  nor  the  liberty  of  the  platform  lecturer,  to 
degenerate  into  licence. 

The  Rev.  Professor  W.  I.  Shaw,  D.D.  LL.D.  (Secretary),  read 
the  Daily  Record  for  Saturday,  which  was  confirmed. 

The  Rev.  J.  Bond  (Secretary)  said  :  1  have  received  the  follow- 
ino-  telegrami  in  relation  to  President  McKinley,  which  was  received 
in  this  country  at  6.12  a.m.  this  morning:  "The  nine  o'clock 
bulletin,  signed  by  six  physioians,  says,  'The  President  is  resting 
comfortably,  and  there  is  no  special  change  since  the  last  bulletin. 
Pulse  130.'" 

The  Rev.  John  Bond  also  read  the  following  letter  from  the 
Rev.  Hugh  Price  Hughes,  M.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church) : 

"Penrheol,  Barry, 

"September  7,   1901. 

"Dear  Mr.  Bond, 

"  Your  telegram  arrived  too  late  this  afternoon  for  me  to  reply  at 
once  in  the  same  way.     Please  assure  my  fellow  Mctliodists  from  all 


ESSAY   BY    REV.    F.    W.    BOURNE.  167 

lands  that  I  value  more  highly  than  I  can  express  their  sympathy 
and  their  prayers.  But  by  obeying  the  doctors  now  I  hope  to  be 
at  the  next  (Ecumenical  Conference.  Still,  my  inability  to  take  part 
in  this  gathering  is  a  great  and  bitter  disappointment  to  me.  I  follow 
the  proceedings  day  by  day  with  the  deepest  interest,  and  am  specially 
encouraged  by  the  tone  and  tendency  of  the  conversation  on  Friday 
afternoon.  I  have  long  been  convinced  that  Methodist  Union  every- 
where is  the  essential  condition  of  complete  success  in  our  world-wide 
conflict  with  sin  and  superstition.  May  the  richest  blessing  of  God 
rest  on  the  (Ecumenical  Conference. 

"  Yours  very  sincerely, 

"Hugh  Price  Hughes..'* 

The  Rev.  A.  B.  Sanford,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Cliutch), 
made  some  suggestions  in  reg.ard  tO'  the  Official  Report  of  the  Con- 
ference. The  Rev.  John  Bond  (Secretaiy)  replied  that  the 
Editorial  Committee  would  unquestionably  attend  to  the  points 
raised. 

Certain  communications  which  had  been  addressed  to  the  Presi- 
dent of  this  Conference  were  referred  to  the  Business   Committee 

The  topic  for  the  morning  session  was  "Principles  of  Protestant- 
ism versus  Modern  Sacerdotalism."  It  was  opened  by  an  essay 
by  the  Rev.  F.  W.  Bourne  (Bible  Christian  Church)  as  follows  : 

D'Aubignd's  famous  "Three  onlys"  define  clearly  enough  for  our 
purpose  on  this  occasion  the  essential  principles  of  Protestantism. 

The  Word  of  God  only  ; 
The  Grace  of  Christ  only  ; 
The  Work  of  the  Spirit  only. 

First,  the  Word  of  God  only.  The  Holy  Scriptures,  whose  inspira- 
tion all  sacerdotal  Churches  acknowledge— the  Eoman  Catholic  Church 
not  excepted— affirm  in  numerous  familiar  passages  which,  therefore, 
need  not  be  repeated,  "  that  they  contain,"  to  use  the  phraseology  of 
the  Sixth  Article  of  the  Church  of  England,  "  all  things  necessary  to 
salvation :  so  -that  whatsoever  is  not  read  therein,  nor  may  be  proved 
thereby,  is  not  to  be  required  of  any  man,  that  it  should  be  believed 
as  an  article  of  Faith."  The  Bible  all  true  Protestants  hold  to  be 
the  sole  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  and  the  only  standard  of  appeal  in 
all  cases  of  controversy.  "  To  the  law  and  to  the  testimony  ;  if  they 
speak  not  according  to  this  word,  it  is  because  there  is  no  light  in 
them."  The  fearful  denunciation  with  which  the  Bible  closes,  "  and 
which  forms,  as  it  were,  the  clasp  and  seal  of  all  its  books,"  should 
ever  be  ringing  in  our  ears.  With  the  example  of  Luther  before  us 
we  should  watch  against  the  two-fold  danger  of  retaining  any  dogma, 
like  that  of  consubstantiation,  which  cannot  be  proved  from  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, or  denouncing  any  letter  of  the  New  Testament  as  an  "  epistle  of 
straw "  in  an  excess  of  zeal  for  a  particular  doctrine  even  one  as 
important  as  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith.     But  the  right  of 


1 68         PROTESTANTISM  VERSUS  SACERDOTALISM. 

private  judgment — the  ultimate  principle  of  Protestantism  it  has 
been  termed — is  a  precious  part  of  our  sacred  inheritance.  The  Scrip- 
tures do  not  merely  testify  of  Christ  as  Creation  and 
Providence  testify  to  their  Creator  and  Upholder ;  they 
are  most  prized  by  us  because  they  are  "full  of  Christ," 
and  the  Saviour  Himself  declares  they  were  given  for  an 
express  purpose.  "  They  are  they  which  testify  of  Me."  If  this  were 
not  so,  the  Bible  might  remain  the  most  wonderful  book  in  the  world, 
but,  to  use  Henry  Ward  Beecher's  simile,  what  a  babe's  clothes  are 
to  the  mother  when  the  babe  has  slipped  out  of  them  into  death,  that 
would  the  Bible  be  to  us  if  the  Babe  of  Bethlehem  and  the  truths 
of  deep-heartedness  which  clothe  His  life  were  to  slip  out  of  it. 

We  next  speak  of  the  Grace  of  Christ  only.  The  God  and  Father  of 
us  all  has,  in  the  Gospel  of  His  Son  and  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ,  secured  for  man  as  man,  that  is  for  sinful  men  in  every  age  the 
wide  world  over,  the  right  of  approach  unto  Himself  through  Him 
and  Him  alone,  "  who  is  the  Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life."  "  For 
there  is  one  God  and  one  Mediator  between  God  and  men,  the  Man 
Clirist  Jesus,"  "  and  in  none  other  is  there  salvation :  for  neither  is 
there  any  other  Name  under  heaven  that  is  given  among  men,  wherein 
we  must  be  saved."  "No  one,"  Christ  declares,  "cometh  unto  the 
Father  but  by  Me."  and  the  converse  of  this  is  also  blessedly  true, 
that  by  the  shedding  of  His  own  blood  "  a  new  and  living  way  "  into 
the  "  holiest  of  all "  hath  been  made  manifest. 

In  the  New  Testament  there  is  no  official  human  priesthood  acknow- 
ledged in  name,  and,  ranging  ourselves  by  the  side  of  Dr.  Enoch 
Mellor,  we  dare  affirm  that  the  only  po,ssible  reason  for  the  absence  of 
the  term  is  the  absence  of  the  thing.  "We  have  letters  to  Jews  and 
to  Gentiles,  and  to  both  combined,  but  throughout  them  all  the  con- 
ception of  a  priest  as  a  Christian  functionary — subordinate  or  supreme, 
stationary  or  itinerant,  inspired  or  uninspired — is  not  even  suggested  in 
the  faintest  degree."  The  key  to  the  whole  of  the  great  argument 
of  the  writer  to  the  Hebrews,  "  is  to  be  found  in  the  contrast  so  sharply 
defined  and  so  continuously  maintained  between  many  priests  and  one 
Priest,  many  sacrifices  and  one  Sacrifice,  oftentimes  and  once  ;  and  any 
interpretation  which  disturbs  the  unity  which  constitutes  one  member 
of  the  contrast  utterly  destroys  the  conclusiveness  of  the  argument 
which  is  pursued  with  such  elaborateness  of  detail.  Introduce  '  two ' 
priests,  '  two '  propitiatory  sacrifices,  and  '  twice '  instead  of  '  once,* 
and  the  whole  structure  of  reasoning  falls  to  pieces.  It  is  the  perfection 
of  the  Saviour's  Person,  and  the  completeness  of  the  Saviour's  work, 
which  are  here  affirmed,  and  these  must  of  necessity  be  prospective 
as  well  as  retrospective.  If  they  terminate  one  series  of  priests  they 
must  preclude  another."  Christ  has  put  away  what  else  had  been 
for  ever  an  impassable  barrier,  namely,  the  barrier  of  sin — against 
which  men  had  in  vain  reared  "government,  education,  philosophy, 
system  after  system  of  religion,"  in  vain,  because  sin,  "the  longest, 
heaviest  drift  in  human  history,"  has  again  and  ap;ain  easily  "  over- 
whelmed them  all." 


ESSAY   BY   P.EV.    F.    W.    BOURNE.  169 

Lef  it.  be  remembered  that  wbat  all  the  Jewish  sacrifices,  although 
of  Divine  appointment,  were  unable  to  accomplish,  because  they  did 
not  show,  on  the  one  hand,  the  infinite  evil  of  sin,  and,  on  the  other, 
the  infinite  love  of  God,  the  Saviour  Himself  only  accomplished  by 
the  sacrifice  of  Himself.  Having,  as  the  Lamb  of  God,  "slain  from 
the  foundation  of  the  world,"  actually  died  unto  sin  once,  and 
having  by  His  one  offering  "  perfected  for  ever  them  that  are  sancti- 
fied," He  is  now  alive  for  evermore,  and  is  therefore  able,  as  our  ever- 
lasting High  Priest,  "  to  save  them  to  the  uttermiost  that  come  unto  God 
by  Him,  seeing  He  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for  them."  No 
Protestant  worthy  of  the  name  can  be  unconcerned  while  the  priests 
of  an  apostate  and  corrupt  Church,  and  their  followers,  and,  sadder 
far  to  my  mind,  a  large  section  of  the  ministers  or  priests  of  an 
avowedly  Protestant  Reformed  Church,  supported  by  hosts  of  zealous 
laymen  are  working  most  strenuously  and  stealthily — or  most  stealthily 
.and  strenuously,  whichever  form  more  accurately  desciibes  their 
method — to  filch  altogether  from  redeemed  humanity  its  most  precious 
possession,  or  by  fencing  it  round  with  elaborate,  burdensome,  and 
costly  rites  and  restrictions  to  greatly  lessen  its  chiefest  value  and  con- 
solation. 

The  Work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  only  is  the  third  essential  principle  of 
our  common  Protestantism.  His  two-fold  mission  is  to  convince  the 
world  of  sin,  of  righteousness,  and  of  judgment,  and  to  implant  in  all 
penitent  and  believing  souls  the  new  and  abundant  life  which  Christ 
came  to  bestow.  A  Methodist  preacher  and  scientist — a  combination 
all  too  rare^proved,  even  to  the  satisfaction  of  so  eminent  a  man  as 
Professor  Huxley,  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  spontaneous  generation 
in  the  natural  world,  nor  is  there  in  the  spiritual  world.  The  only  way 
of  entrance  from  a  lower  into  a  higher  kingdom  is  by  being  born  into 
it.  Said  Christ  to  Nicodemus,  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  except 
a  man  be  born  again  " — from  above — "He  cannot  see  " — he  is  not  even 
aware  of  the  existence  of,  much  less  can  he  enter  into — "  the  Kingdom  of 
God."  The  one  baptism  is  the  baptism  of  the  Spirit,  for  only  "  that  which 
is  bom  of  the  Spirit  is  spirit,"  and  therefore  baptism  by  water  can  only 
be  t'he  sign  and  seal  of  the  blessed  reality.  A  homely  and  familiar 
verse  in  a  Methodist  revival  hymn  is  as  true  to  Scripture  as  it  is  to 
experience : 

"Soon  as  my  all  I  ventured 
On  the  atoning  blood, 
The  Holy  Spirit  entered, 
*  And  I  was  born  of  God." 

"Te  are  all  sons  of  God  through  faith  in  Christ  Jesus,"  says  St.  Paul, 
and  again,  "  The  Spirit  Himself  beareth  witness  with  our  spirit  that 
we  are  children  of  God."  I  for  one  am  grateful  beyond  measure 
that  while  men  would  search  in  vain  to  find  the  "  dissidence  of  dissent " 
within  the  pale  of  Methodism,  they  would  easily  find  many  striking 
examples  of  "the  Protestantism  of  the  Protestant  Religion."    The 


170         PROTESTANTISM  VERSUS  SACERDOTALISM. 

early  MethodisI  s    appealed    directly  to   Holy   Scripture.     "  Let    me " 
said  one  of  the  Oxford  Bible  bigots, 

"  Search  the  oracles  Divine, 
Till  every  heartfelt  word  be  mine." 

His  exclamation  when  brimming  over  with  joy  was: 

"  O  for  a  thousand  tongues  to  sing 
My  great  Redeemer's  praise  !  " 

He  set  the  core  of  his  creed  to  music : 

"For  all  my  Lord  was  crucifiedj 
For  all,  for  all,  my  Saviour  died." 

Necessity,  he  said  with  Paul,  is  laid  upon  me,  yea,  more,  woe  is 
unto  me  if  I  preach  not  the  Gospel,  for 

"  The  love  of  Christ  doth  me  constrain 
To  seek  the  wandering  souls  of  men." 

No  true  happiness  was  his  unless  with  his  "  latest  breath  "  he  might 
gasp  the  only  Name,  and  his  mission  in  life  and  triumph  at  the  end 
could  only  be  complete  if  he  were  allowed  to 

"  Preach  Him  to  all,  and  cry  in  death, 
"  Behold,  behold  the  Lamb." 

So,  indeed,  said  or  sang  they  all — 

"  We,  by  His  Spirit,  prove 
And  know  the  things  of  God  ; 
The  things  which  freely  of  His  love, 
He  hath  on  us  bestowed. 

Protestantism  and  modern  sacerdotalism  negative  and  contradict  each 
other.  They  are  as  wide  asunder  as  the  poles.  They  are  as  distinct 
as  noonday  light  and  midnight  darkness.  They  are  as  wholly  unlike 
and  as  utterly  antagonistic  as  Christ  and  Belial.  Even  a  serious  and 
old-fashioned  Methodist  might,  if  so  disposed,  make  himself  contro- 
versially merry  with  the  fantastic  and  ludicrous  claims  which  the 
sacerdotalists  set  up,  with  the  sometimes  amusing,  sometimes  offen- 
sive, and  always  baseless  assumptions  in  which  they  indulge.  Suffice 
it  to  say  that  a  number  of  sharp  contrasts  might  easily  be  drawn. 

I  know  nothing  more  unlike,  or  irreconcilable  with  the  Saviour's 
taking  the  little  children  in  His  arms  and  blessing  them,  or  Paul's 
declaration,  "  Christ  sent  me  not  to  baptize,  but  to  preach  the 
Gospel,"  than  the  authoritative  teaching  of  sacerdotalism — the  figment 
of  apostolical  succession  being  first  interpolated,  and  a  duly  ordained 
priest  being  the  indispensable  actor — that  a  mysterious,  inward  and 
spiritual  change  is  effected  by  the  performance  of  an  external  rite.  I 
know  nothing  more  unlike  and  irreconcilable  with  the  Lord's  Supper 
as  instituted  by  Christ,  and  the  simple  manner  in  which  Christ's  "  last 


ESSAY    BY    RKV.    F.    W.    ROURNR.  171 

and  kindest,  word "  was  observed  by  the  early  Oliristians,  than  the 
sacrifice  of  the  Mass  which  Romanists  declare  to  be  "  a  true  and 
proper  propitiation,"  yet  without  blood,  with  its  imposing  and  goi'geous 
ceremonial,  and  those  celebrations  to  which  we  have  become  accus- 
tomed in  this  country,  and  which  the  practised  eye  can  hardly  dis- 
tinguish from  the  celebration  of  the  Roman  Mass.  I  know  nothing 
more  unlike  and  irreconcilable  with  the  spirit,  attitude,  and  conduct 
of  the  Apostle  Peter,  who  expressly  disclaimed  hirdship  over  God's 
heritage,  and  who  so  earnestly  exhorted  his  fellow-elders  to  be  an 
example  to  the  flock,  than  the  spirit,  attitude,  and  conduct  of  proud 
ecclesiastics  who  verily  usurp  the  place  of  Christ.  I  have  read,  since 
this  Conference  assembled,  that  Archbishop  Ryan,  of  Philadelphia, 
preached  a  sermon  at  the  recent  ceremonies  in  Baltimore,  when  the 
red  hat  was  conferred  on  Cardinal  Martinelli,  and  said,  "  In  the 
delegate  we  behold  Leo,  and  in  Leo  Peter,  and  in  Peter  Christ,  and 
in  Christ  God."  If  this  be  not  the  man  of  sin  sitting  in  the  Temple 
of  God  and  setting  himself  forth  as  God,  what  is  iti 

I  must  refer  to  the  New  Testament  teaching  respecting  the  Church, 
which  is  so  entirely  in  harmony  with  the  oft-quoted  saying  of  Ignatius 
that  where  Christ  is  there .  is  the  Church,  even  where  two  or  three 
meet  together  in  His  name.  Rome,  however,  declares  that  the 
Church  is  always  outwardly  visible,  and  many  Anglicans  strongly 
insist  that  a  particular  form  of  Church  government  is  essential  to 
its  well-he'ing.  Tlie  sturdiest  Protestant  I  know  might  be  willing  to 
forgive  an  innocent  superstition  like  that,  but  when  they  insist  that 
this  particular  form  of  Church  government  is  essential  to  the  very 
existence  of  the  Church  we  can  but  marvel  at  their  amazing  credulity, 
and  the  spiritual  blindness  with  which  they  are  afflicted,  so  that  the 
bigotry   and   intolerance   thus   created   remaineth. 

In  1764  John  Wesley  pleaded  for  an  open  and  avowed  union 
between  all  those  who  preached  the  fundamental  truths  of  the 
Gospel.  He  made  it  plain  that  he  was  not  pleading  for  union  in 
regard  to  outward  order.  "iSome,"  he  said,  "may  remain  quite 
regular,  some  quite  irregular,  and  some  partly  regular  and  partly 
irregular."  He  was  ready  to  establish  a  slightly  modified  Presby- 
terianism  in  the  United  Kingdom,  and  Episcopacy  in  America.  It 
may  be  heresy  or  presumption  in  me  to  have  an  opinion  on  the 
matter  at  all,  but  I  cannot  help  saying  if  the  glorious  irregularities  of 
John  Wesley  have  any  lesson  for,  and  his  charitable  and  clearly 
expressed  opinions  any  weight  with,  his  followers,  the  Mother  Church 
of  Methodism  ought  to  be  large  enough  and  elastic  enough  to  embrace 
ministers  and  Churches  whose  views  on  infant  baptism,  the  Lord's 
Supper,  and  the  pastoral  office  are  not  exactly  identical  with  her 
own.  i  need  hardly  say  with  such  a  large  number  of  Bishops  present 
that  I,  "  who  am  also  an  elder,"  have  no  quarrel  with  Episcopacy  as 
6uch  ;  and  I  am  sure  they  will  all  readily  acknowledge  the  truth  of 
Bishop  Lightfoot's  dictum,  "  that  it  is  a  fact  now  generally  recognised 
by  theologians  of  all  shades  of  opinion  that  in  the  language  of  the 
New  Testament  the  same  officer  is  called  indifferently  '  bishop '  and 


172  PROTESTANTISM   VERSUS    SACERDOTALISM. 

'elder'  or  'presbyter.'"  And  again:  'The  most  exalted  office  in 
the  Charcb,  the  highest  gift  of  the  Spirit,  convej^ed  no  sacerdotal 
right  Avhich  was  not  enjoyed  by  the  humblest  member  of  the  Chris- 
tian community." 

We,  in  this  country  at  least,  have  a  threefold  danger  to  combat. 
A  latent  scepticism,  an  active  and  aggressive  sacerdotalism,  and  a 
profound  indifference  which  often  speEs  death.  Sacerdotalists  are 
for  the  most  part  much  better  men  than  sacerdotalism  is  as  a  creed. 
They  are  zealous,  kindly,  active,  saintly,  devout ;  and  if  we  are 
to  neutralise  their  influence  in  town  and  village  so  far  as  it  is  sec- 
tarian and  hurtful,  Methodist  ministers  must  strive  to  excel  them  in 
all  that  is  good  and  praiseworthy  in  the  sight  of  God.  Tenderer  if 
possible  to  tHe  sick,  more  diligent  workers,  more  faithful  pastors, 
more  efficient  preachers,  more  humble  Christians,  more  kind  and 
patient  and  helpful  to  all. 

I  have  a  great  dread,  it  may  be  groundless,  of  that  incipient  sacer- 
dotalism which  strangely  enough  tinds  a  hiding  place  in  our  own 
and  other  Protestant  Churches.  Even  so  distinguished  a  Protestant 
champion  as  Dr.  Dale  says  in  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  ''  the 
communicants  receive  something ;  and  what  they  receive  is  given  to 
them  by  the  authority  of  Christ."  "  Sacerdotalists,"  as  the  Rev.  W.  F. 
Slater  acutely  observes,  under  this  new  term  "will  be  able  to  bring 
in  'anything."  A  very  little  leaven  is  sufficient  to  leaven  the  whole 
lump.  A  tiny  seed  may  grow  into  a  mighty  tree.  A  fearless,  impar- 
tial, and  full  application  of  our  own  principles  would  shatter  this  and 
many  anotFer  false  conception,  lead  to  the  possible  modification  of 
some  of  our  forms,  and  a  general  improvement  in  our  spirit  and 
methods.  Forgive  me  if  I  say  I  am  jealous  over  the  Methodist 
Church  with  a  godly  jealousy.  I  am  intensely  desirous  that  it  should 
faithfully,  grandly,  and  swiftly  fulfil  its  mission.  The  twentieth 
century  is  begun.  If  I  may  adapt  and  alter  and  amplify  a  phrase 
of  the  late  Lord  Beaconsfield,  I  will  dose  this  essay  by  boldly 
declaring  that  the  claims  of  the  future  are  represented  by  the  thousand 
millions  of  unsaved  souls,  "who  neither  food  nor  feeder  have,"  and 
the  Methodists  of  the  world,  with  their  spiritual  fervour  and  stirring 
traditions,  with  their  glorious  theology  and  magnificent  triumphs, 
with  their  almost  inimitable  resources  and  great  army  of  workers, 
ought  to  constitute  themselves  the  trustees  of  posterity,  and  at  least 
resolve  to  te-ke  a  foremost  place  in  the  evangelisation  of  the  world. 

The  Rev.  Professor  Charles  Stewart,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church 
of  Canada),  gave  the  first  appointed  address.     He  said  : 

Protestantism  and  modern  sacerdotalism  aie,  I  judge,  properly  placed 
the  one  over  and  against  the  other.  They  are  mutually  exclusive,  and 
yet,  as  I  imderstand  them,  there  are  certain  great  points  in  which  they 
agree,  and  the  recognition  of  these  points  is  essential  in  order  to  a  prac- 
tical understanding  of  this  question.  In  the  first  place  they  agree,  so 
far  as  man  is  concerned,  that  he  has  the  power  of  self-determination, 
that  he  is  a  sinner,  that  there  is  within  him  the  law  written  upon  the 


ADDRESS   BY   REV.    PROFESSOR    CHARLES   STEWART.  1 73 

heart,  a  power  not  of  himself  which  makes  for  righteousness,  bo  that 
when  he  discovers  sin  he  himself  is  on  the  side  of  right  and  of  justice, 
and  feels  that  reparation  ought  to  be  made,  and  that,  as  reparation  in 
his  own  power  and  from  himself  is  impossible,  therefore  it  is  desirable, 
it  is  necessary,  that  there  should  be  a  Daysman  betwixt  him  and  the 
Holy  God,  one  who  can  lay  His  hand  upon  us  both.  I  believe, 
secondly,  that  Protestantism  and  sacerdotalism  are  aUke  in  the  admis- 
sion of  the  great  and  glorious  fact  that  the  contents  of  revelation  are 
exactly  set  over  against  man's  need,  and  present  us  with  a  Saviour,  a 
Priest,  a  High  Priest,  who  has  a  sacrifice  to  offer,  and  who  has  authority 
to  bless. 

Thus  far  we  are  agreed,  and  in  the  presence  of  a  materialistic  philo- 
sophy we  ought  to  stand  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  defence  of  these  prin- 
ciples. But  here  the  paths  diverge.  If  it  l)e  sujiposed  that  the  at  >ning 
sacrifice  of  the  Redeemer  in  all  its  blessed  results,  and  His  High  Priest- 
hood, are  put  in  commission,  and  that  to  a  certain  man  or  to  a  certain 
order  of  men  is  entrusted  the  mysterious  power  to  repeat  that  sacrifice, 
and  the  power,  through  that  sacrifice,  both  for  the  living  and  for  the 
dead,  to  open  or  to  close  the  doors  of  paradise — to  admit  a  human  soul 
to  the  felicities  of  heaven,  or  shut  it  out  from  the  presence  of  God  for 
ever — if  it  be  understood  that  the  claim  is  made  that  from  this  human 
tribunal  there  can  be  no  appeal  to  a  higher  source,  then  we  say  that  we 
must  protest  with  vehemence  and  indignation.  Why?  First,  because 
of  the  claims  of  our  adorable  Saviour  Himself.  It  is  from  heaven  that 
the  word  comes,  "  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  hath  been  slain  to  receive 
the  power,  and  riches,  and  wisdom,  and  might,  and  honour,  and  glory,  rnd 
blessing."  If  this  be  so,  then  it  is  ours  to  render  to  Him  all  the  power 
that  He  has  entrusted  to  us,  all  adoration^  all  trust  itself.  It  is  on 
behalf  of  humanity  also  that  we  make  this  claim  ;  for  if  you  admit  the 
principle  that  a  human  being  has  this  mysterious  power  extending  into 
the  illimitable,  the  eternal  future — that  he  has  this  power  in  his  hand — 
then  what  becomes  of  the  oracles  of  God?  They  must  necessarily  be 
set  aside,  or  they  must  be  explained  away  ;  because  they  know  of  no 
such  system,  and  they  protest  against  any  such  system.  Again,  if  this 
power  be  entrusted  to  a  fallible  man,  or  order  of  men,  then,  necessarily, 
we  must  obey  men  rather  than  God,  and  even  where  reascm  may  ]  rates'. 
or  the  Word  of  God  itself  may  protest,  we  must  come  under  the  appal- 
ling threats  which  men  may  make  with  reference  to  the  duties  which 
they  exact  from  us  toward  themselves.  Hence  are  found  the  wonderful 
extent  and  variety  of  the  claims  of  all  who  believe  in  sacerdotalism. 

How  shall  we  meet  this  matter?  We  are  obligated  to  meet  it.  How 
shall  we,  as  Methodists,  take  our  part  in  meeting  it?  I  would  fain 
bring  it  home,  especially  to  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  my  younger 
brethren  in  the  ministry,  that  the  first  and  the  great  essential  to  meet 
this  monstrous  fraud,  this  monstrous  caricature  of  the  priestly  power  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  is  the  renewing  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  a 
far  greater  spiritual  power  that  we  have  possessed.  In  this  alone  our 
safety  as  a  Church  and  our  safety  as  Christians  consist.  Spiritual  adap- 
tation is  necessary.     It  is  no  mere  academical  question  ;  it  is  a  question 


174  PROTESTANTISM  VERSUS  SACERDOTALISM. 

for  the  people,  and  to  the  people  it  must  go.  We  must  take  the  people 
as  we  find  them  ;  we  must  first  reach  them,  secure  their  attention,  and 
arouse  the  conscience.  We  must  endeavour,  and  we  must  succeed  in 
grasping,  somehow  or  other,  if  they  are  to  be  saved,  these  vast  aggrega- 
tions of  humanity  that  are  crowding  from  the  country  and  filling  our 
cities,  and  are  without  God  in  the  world.  We  must  reach  them,  we 
must  get  their  attention,  we  must  bring  before  them,  and  bring  out 
clearly  their  own  responsibilities  before  God,  and  the  certainty 
of  the  Revelation  which  is  given  us  concerning  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Oh,  that  upon  us  and  upon  our  Church  may  descend,  as  in  former  days, 
the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit !  It  is  only  a  continual  baptism  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  that  will  set  this  matter  rigTit,  and  that  will  keep  it  right. 

Let  me  say,  secondly,  that  I  believe  one  of  the  most  essential  things, 
in  order  to  meet  the  demand  that  is  before  us,  is  to  preach  a  full-orbed 
and  positive  Gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  I  know  that  in 
these  days  the  words  "  theology "  and  "  theologian "  have  become 
rather  words  of  reproach  than  otherv/ise.  I  do  not  know  why  they 
should  be.  True  philosophy  and  Christian  theology  go  hand  in  hand 
together.  I  have  no  sympathy  with  the  theology  that  is  dry  and 
musty,  that  has  arisen  from  metaphysical  speculations,  and  then  has 
sought  to  introduce  itself,  to  fit  itself,  some  way  or  the  other  into  the 
oracles  of  God.  I  have  just  as  little  sympathy  with  that  kind  of  theo- 
logy that  goes  up  in  sky-rockets,  and  may  make  a  kind  of  impression 
for  a  time,  but  brings  light  and  vitality  to  no  one  ;  but  certainly  there 
is  a  theology  that  we  need  not  be  ashamed  of.  God  and  man,  and  sin, 
and  the  redemption  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
and  the  judgment  seat,  and  eternity — these  are  things  that  never  grow 
old,  and  never  lose  their  power  ;  and  it  will  be  a  very  poor  matter 
indeed  if  we  be  tempted,  because  of  the  ill-repute  that  may  for  the  time 
being  attach  to  a  name,  merely  to  play  with  the  fringes  of  Christianity, 
with  its  ethics  or  its  sesthetics.  What  we  want  is  Christ  crucified — 
Christ  the  wisdom  of  Godj  and  Christ  the  power  of  God. 

May  I  say  one  other  word  ?  I  believe  our  call  especially  is  to  the 
children  and  young  people  of  our  own  flocks  and  of  our  own  congrega- 
tions— to  get  their  minds  imbued  and  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  God 
in  Christ  Jesus.  This  is  the  best  preservative  we  can  give  them 
against  the  heresies  of  the  age,  and  the  worldliness  of  the  age,  and  the 
evils  with  which  they  may  have  to  contend.  This  is  the  best  to 
secure  them  for  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  secure  them  for  Metho- 
dism. 

The  Rev.  Profess.ov  John  Shaw  Banks  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  gave  the  second  appointed  address,  as  follows  : 

In  dealing  with  a  controversial  topic  like  the  present,  I  should  wish, 
to  do  so  in  the  spirit  of  the  very  clear  and  comprehensive  paper  that  has 
been  read,  and  the  speech  to  which  we  have  just  listened.  To  me,  one 
of  the  most  mysterions,  almost  tragical,  things  is  that  the  priestly  view 
of  the  Christian  ministry  was  allowed  by  Providence  to  arise  so  early 
in  Church  history,  and  to  remain  the  general  belief  of  the  Church  for 


ADDRESS   BY   REV.    PROFESSOR    BANKS.  1 75 

SO  many  ages.  On  the  other  hand,  it  sliould  never  be  forgotten  that 
the  first  two  centuries  are  as  clear  of  it  as  the  New  Testament.  We 
know  the  history  of  those  days,  perhaps,  as  well  as  we  shall  ever  know 
it,  and  the  result  is  that  there  are  as  few  traces  of  it  during  those  two 
centuries  as  in  the  New  Testament  itself. 

Sacerdotalism  first  begins  to  appear  in  the  first  half-century  of 
Church  history.  I  think  it  is  exceedingly  important  that  we  should 
use  language  on  this  subject  in  its  natural  meaning.  The  term  "  sacer- 
dotal "  is  often  used  in  a  very  loose  sense.  One  speaker  last  week  told 
us  that  there  are  good  people  who  think  that  the  doctrine  of  a  separated 
ministry  is  sacerdotalism.  Now,  if  we  understood  by  a  priest  one  who 
offers  to  God  a  sacrifice  for  sin,  then  we  should  mean  by  sacerdotalism 
the  view  that  makes  the  Christian  ministry  a  priestly  ministry — and  if 
we  use  words  in  that  sense  I  believe  that  we  shall  avoid  a  great  deal 
that  is  misleading. 

A  word  or  two  on  the  position  of  the  question  in  this  countrv.  Tlie 
early  Tractarians,  with  their  great  leader,  Dr.  Pusey,  held  together  two 
positions — one  the  apostolical  succession,  or.  as  it  hns  come  to  ])p  cTlled 
the  historic  episcopate  with  a  certain  interpretation,  and  sacerdotalism 
proper.  The  Ritualist  party  to-day,  which  is  very  powerful,  especially 
in  the  southern  counties  of  England,  still  maintains  those  positions, 
but,  so  far  as  I  can  understand  the  present  situation,  it  is  this  :  The 
great  High  Church  party,  while  earnestly  maintaining  the  theory  of 
apostolical  succession,  does  not  hold  the  sacerdotal  doctrine  in  its 
proper  sense.  Take  such  a  representative  High  Churchman  as  Canon 
Gore.  In  his  volume,  "  The  Church  and  the  Ministry,"  in  which  he 
makes  out  as  good  a  case  as  can  be  made  out  for  apostolical  succession, 
Canon  Gore  expressly  repudiates  the  sacerdotal  view  of  the  Christian 
ministry  as  we  understand  it.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  great  change 
that  has  been  brought  about  in  this  respect  in  that  very  powerful  party 
is  due  to  the  teaching  of  the  three  great  Cambridge  teachers,  Lightfoot, 
Westcott,  and  Hort  ;  and  may  I  say,  further,  that  Dr.  Lightfoot,  in  his 
great  essay  on  the  Christian  ministry,  which  everyone  here  will  know, 
not  only  shatters  to  pieces  the  sacerdotal  theory  in  the  proper  sense, 
but,  so  far  as  I  understand,  does  not  even  argue  for  the  episcopate  on 
the  ground  of  apostolic  succession.  He  argues  for  it  simply  on  the 
New  Testament  principle,  "By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  His 
argument  throughout  is  based  upon  a  very  high  view  of  historic  expedi- 
ency and  advantage. 

I  think  that  this  change  in  thought,  in  the  atmosphere,  on  this  sub- 
ject in  tl^s  country  makes  for  peace,  goodwill,  niulual  sympathy,  and 
co-operation  between  the  different  Churches  of  Christ  in  England  ;  and 
everything  that  helps  to  reduce  the  bitterness  which  has  been  so 
grievous  a  feature  in  religious  life  in  this  country  is  something  that  we 
ought  to  be  thankful  for. 

The  previous  speakers  have  referred  to  several  safegviards  that  we 
have  against  sacerdotalism.  I  should  like  to  nuntion  two  lo  whic'i  i^\^■v 
have  not  referred.  One  is  the  position  of  laymen  in  the  Christian 
Church  in  the  matter  of  legislation  and  administration.     So  far  as  I 


176  PROTESTANTISM    VERSUS    SACERDOTALISM. 

know,  laj-men  had  no  position  whatever  with  respect  to  tlie  government 
of  the  Church  up  to  the  time  of  the  Eeformation.  Ecclesiastics  might 
rule  in  the  State,  but  laymen  could  not  rule  in  the  Church  ;  they  had 
no  part  or  lot  in  it.  Anyone  who  attempted  to  do  such  a  thing  was 
branded  as  an  Uzziah.  Now,  how  anyone  can  read  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  and  the  Epistles,  and  think  that  is  the  proper  position  of  the 
vast  mass  of  believers  in  the  Church  of  Christ,  1  cannot  understand.  I 
know  that  laymen  do  not  need  defenders.  They  are  pretty  well  able  to 
take  care  of  themselves,  but  if  they  should  need  at  any  time  any  help 
of  this  kind  they  will  find  no  stouter  defenders  of  their  rights  than 
Christian  ministers.  Then  another  strong  safeguard  that  we  have 
against  sacerdotalism  is  found  in  the  doctrine  that  has  always  formed  an 
integral  part  of  the  teaching  of  the  Reformed  Churches — namely,  that 
religion  is  essentially  personal  experience,  persti'al  life,  and  personal 
fellowship  with  God.  Reference  has  been  made  to  the  most  priestly 
Epistle  of  the  New  Testament — the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  It  is  the 
one  which  most  strongly  insists  on  the  right  of  every  Christian  to  draw 
near  to  God.  "  Let  iis  therefore  come  Ixikllv  unm  the  Throne  of  (irai-f. 
"  Having  boldness  to  enter  into  the  Holiest."  No  one  who  knows  by 
experience  that  he  has  always  and  everywhere  the  right  of  free  access 
to  God  in  prayer  can  ever  feel  the  need  of  a  human  priest  as  a  means 
of  access.  The  thousands  of  Protestant  Christians,  and  especially 
Methodist  Christians,  who  enjoy  the  sense  of  personal  salvation  know 
by  experience  that  no  human  priesthood  is  necessary.  Let  a  religion 
of  personal  experience  be  preached  and  enjoyed,  and  the  danger  of 
sacerdotalism  is  shut  out. 

The  Rev.  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South), 
opened  the  disioussiion.     He  said  : 

I  am  very  much  obliged  to  Professor  Banks  for  the  sharp  discrimina 
tion  which  he  has  drawn  between  the  two  doctrines  of  apostolical 
succession  and  sacerdotalism — doctrines  which  are  often  confused  by 
unthinking  people,  but  which  are,  nevertheless,  entirely  distinct  from 
each  other.  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  also  to  hear  that  in  this  country, 
while  the  former  doctrine  is  still  stoutly  maintained  by  the  leaders  of 
the  Church  of  England,  the  latter  one  is  somewhat  discredited  or,  at 
any  rate,  is  not  emphasised  so  much  as  it  was  in  former  years.  I 
wish  I  could  say  the  same  thing  were  true  in  the  United  States.  We 
have  learnt  there  that  just  in  proportion  as  our  brothers  of  the  Pro- 
testant Episcopal  Church  repudiate  the  Protestant  position  of  the 
founders  of  that  Church  in  regard  to  the  true  nature  of  the  Christian 
ministry,  they  also  assert  the  doctrine  of  apostolical  succession.  These 
two  things  are  so  tangled  up  together  that  advance  in  one  of  them 
carries  a  forward  movement  in  the  otlier  also.  It  is  nothing  less  than 
a  marvel  to  a  man  bred  in  an  American  atmosphere  that  any  intelligent 
man  could  believe  in  the  doctrine  of  apostolical  succession  as  it  is 
held  by  the  High  Church  leaders  in  the  Church  of  England.  I  remem- 
ber when  I  was  a  boy  to  have  read  that  wonderful  essay  of  Lord 
Macaulay's,  a  review  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  "Church  and  State,"  and  it 
liad  very  much  the  same  effect  upon  nic  that  Lord  King's  "  Constiiution 
of  the  Christian  Church"  had  upon  Mr.  Wesley.     Ever  since,  I  have 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  IW 

been  obliged  to  adopt  and  endorse  the  view  of  Bishop  Pierce,  who  said 
that  this  doctrine  of  apostolical  succession  is  an  old  wife's  fable  that 
does  not  deserve  the  name  of  "cunningly  devised." 

I  think  that  one  thing  for  which  American  Methodists  ought  to  be 
devoutly  thankful  is  that  the  Bishop  of  London  refused  to  ordain 
Mr.  Wesley's  American  preachers.  If  he  had  ordained  aa  many  aa 
half-a-dozen  of  them  wf  should  have  been  inoculated  with  the  succes- 
sional  virus,  a  catastrophe  the  very  thought  of  which  is  almost 
appalling.  Not  having  suffered  a  calamity  of  that  sort,  we  have  been 
put  upon  the  necessity  of  proving  our  descent  from  the  apostles  by 
the  purity  of  our  doctrines,  the  diligence  of  our  labours,  and  the 
holiness  of  our  lives.  Charles  Wesley  was  something  of  a  High  Church- 
man himself,  but  he  never  quite  reached  the  catholic  position  of  hid 
brother  John,  and  yet  Charles  Wesley  asserted  the  whole  truth  when 
he  declared  that  "  the  Church  is  where  the  Christians  are,"  and,  I 
may  add,  it  is  nowhere  else. 

In  regard  to  the  other  doctrine  of  sacerdotalism,  the  only  thing  that 
needs  to  be  said  is  that  it  is  equally  amazing  that  any  man  with  a 
New  Testament  in  his  hand  can  possibly  hold  it.  The  atonement  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  cancellation  and  the  annihilation  of  all  human 
priesthood  and  mediatorship  whatever.  I  think  that  we  cannot  too 
strongly  assert  what  a  distinguished  and  honoured  layman  in  my  own 
delegation  said  to  me  the  other  day :  "  Not  only  would  I  refuse  to 
allow  any  mere  man  to  come  between  me  and  Almighty  God,  but  I 
should  refuse  to  allow  the  Archangel  Gabriel  himself  to  do  it." 
Religion  is  intensely  personal.  Every  man  has  to  do  with  Almighty 
God  on  his  own  account,  and  it  is  possible  for  every  man  under  our 
dispensation  to  come  into  the  immediate  Presence  of  Almighty  God. 
The  separating  veil  has  been  rent  away,  and  we  may  follow  in  the 
blessed  tracks  of  the  Lord  Himself,  until  we  come  into  the  true 
Tabernacle  which  the  Lord  pitched. 

The  Rev.  Samuel  M.  Dick,  Ph.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Churob), 
spoke  as  foUows  : 

I  wish  to  say  a  word  on  what  seems  to  me  to  constitute  the  difference 
in  principle  betweein  Protestantism  and  sacerdotalism.  Chrisfbianity 
ia  a  Jife,  and  not  .a  philK)sophy.  As  soon  as  we  reduce  Cluristianity 
to  a  philosophy,  we  have  but  little  improved  in  our  system  of 
philosophy  over  the  great  religions  of  the  world.  The  whole  tendency 
of  sacerdotalism  is  to  centre  our  teaching  in  a  philosophy,  and  to  de- 
prive the  membership  of  the  Church  of  a  personality  as  expressed  in 
a  religious  life.  The  great  end  of  Protestantism  is  not  to  destroy 
but  to  develop  personality.  When  Christ  said  to  Nicodemus,  "Te  mtist 
be  born  again,"  He  did  not  mean  that  it  would  change  the  life  of 
NicoJemus  or  the  personality  of  Nicodemus — only  that  it  would  con- 
secrate the  elements  that  were  in  him  to  a  better  and  higher  purpose 
in  life.  So  is  it  in  our  Protestantism.  The  whole  principle  of  our 
doctrine  is  to  take  the  individual  and  make  of  him  a  personality  in 
which  his  power  and  talents  are  consecrated  unto  God. 

There  is  a  danger  in  the  world  of  puffering  from  what  we  may  be 
pleased  to  call  truism.  In  the  whole  round  of  sacerdotalism  that 
principle  finds  its  working  ground.  It  has  been  said  that  truth 
crushed  to  earth  will  rise  again  ;  but  It  has  been  said,  with  equal  wis 
dom,  that  truth  crushed  to  earth  will  never  rise  again  until  there  is 
«  personality  under  the  truth  that  lifts  it  up  and  starts  it  on  its  way 
ft|i*in.     Right  IS  right,   and  right  will  prevail ;  but  right  will  never 

13 


l-jK  PROTESTANTISM    VERSUS    SACERDOTALISM. 

prevail  until  there  is  the  personality  of  a  man  linked  with  Almighty- 
God  at  the  back  of  the  right  to  push  it  forward.  God  is  on  the  side 
of  right,  and  therefore  right  must  dominate.  We  remember  that 
Christ  isaad :  "I  am  the  Vine,  je  are  t'he  branches,"  and  if  the 
branch  be  cut  awaj^  from  the  vine  it  withers,  and  you  can  gather  no 
fruit.  We  are  equally  conscious  that  if  every  branch  be  cut  away 
from  the  vine,  the  vine  bears  no  fruit.  It  is  the  branch  engrafted 
into  the  vine  that  produces  the  fruitage.  It  is  humanity  working  with 
Christ,  co-operation  between  man  and  God,  that  is  to  bring  this 
world  into  a  saving  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Master. 

I  went  into  an  old  museum  in  Paris  the  other  day,  where  there 
was  a  large  collection  of  musical  instruments  dating  back  for  several 
hundred  years,  and  among  those  musical  instruments  I  notiped  two 
or  three  old  violins,  rather  crude  in  form  and  elementary  in  their 
construction,  that  had  a  single  string — I  believe  all  they  ever  had. 
I  immediately  reasoned  within  myself  that  th«  men  who  fiddled  on 
them  three  or  four  hundred  years  ago  fiddled  on  one  string.  But 
to-day  we  cannot  fiddle  on  one  string.  We  must  touch  humanity  in  a 
larger  -nay.  We  do  not  go  to  entertainments,  to  concerts,  now,  to 
hear  a  man  play  on  one  string,  but  to  hear  the  great  orchestra  that 
touches  every  phase  of  harmony,  that  exalts  humanity  in  its  sympathy 
and  its  power.  In  like  manner,  in  touching  humanity  we  have  problems 
that  come  before  us  that  need  the  personality  of  every  man,  that  need 
the  indiwUiality  developed  in  such  a  way  as  to  m'aJ^e  it  efficient  in 
reaching  out  and  building  up  the  Kingdom  of  God  among  men.  "  By 
their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them."  So  I  say  that  the_ great  principle 
of  difference  underlying  sacerdotalism  and  Protestantism  is  this :  In 
sacerdotalism  the  tendency  is  to  centre  everything  in  the  priesthood, 
and  for  the  personality  of  the  members  of  the  Church  to  be  destroyed, 
so  far  as  work  in  Christ's  Kingdom  is  concerned ;  while  in  Protestant- 
ism it  is  not  to  take  the  individual  in  excess,  but  to  take  the  personality 
of  every  man,  find  the  place  for  it,  and  direct  it. 

The  Rev.  J.  E.  Radclifpji  (Methodist  New  Cannexion)  was  the 
next  s-peaker.     He  said : 

Face  to  face  with  this  question  of  sacerdotalism  in  this  country 
we  are  face  to  face  with  the  Established  Church  of  the  country.  We 
have  heard  once  and  again  about  lawlessness  in  this  Church.  Doubt- 
less there  is  a  great  deal  of  lawlessness,  but  much  that  we  have  called 
lawlessness  is  not  lawless.  That  is  the  matter  I  want  to  call  attention 
to.  Knowing  the  history  of  that  Church,  we  know  that  it  was  the_  out- 
come of  a  compromise — ecclesiastically,  theologically,  ceremonially, 
the  outcome  of  a  compromise.  There  is  much  in  it  that  has  come 
from  Eomanism.  There  is  much  in  it  which  is  of  the  nature  of 
Protestantism, 

Since  we  have  in  that  Church,  and  have  had,  two  distinct  elements, 
we  have  had,  and  still  have,  two  distinct  parties,  each  having  a  legal 
position  within  the  Church.  There  have  been  times  when  one  of  these 
parties  has  been  in  the  ascendancy ;  there  have  been  times  when 
the  other  party  has  been  in  the  ascendancy.  We  go  back  to  the  times 
of  Charles  I.  and  Archbishop  Laud  ;  we  think  of  the  sacerdotal  party, 
the  dominating  party  of  the  Church.  When  Puritanism  had  done 
its  work  in  England  during  the  course  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
another  party,  the  Evangelical  party,  dominated;  but  the  ninetseaih 
century  witnessed  a  wonderful  revival  of  sacerdotalism  in  this  country, 
and  the  forces  of  that  revival  are  with  us  stilL 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  17f 

As  to  lawlessness,  and  what  we  have  thought  to  be  lawless,  hn'c 
which  is  not  so,  let  us  not  forget  that  baptismal  regeneration  is  a  doc- 
trine of  the  Established  Church.  Let  us  not  forget  that  the  present 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  in  an  official  deliverance,  has  made  a  state- 
ment which  has  not  been  contradicted  officially,  that,  although  tran- 
substantiation  is  not  a  permissible  doctrine,  consubstantiation  is  per- 
missible. With  consubstantiation  it  is  not  a  difficult  thing  for  the 
ordinance  of  the  Lord's  Supper  to  be  made  to  assimilate  somewhat 
closely  to  the  Mass  of  the  Roman  Church,  including  the  worship  of  the 
elements,  and  the  idea  that  in  that  ordinance  there  is  a  continuation 
of  the  sacrifice  of  Calvary.  Then,  again,  not  only  is  the  clergyman 
called  a  priest,  but  we  come  to  see  that  word  "priest"  is  not  a  simple, 
innocent  abbreviation  of  the  larger  word  "presbyter."  Priestly  func- 
tions are  associated  with  this  office.  It  is  enjoined  upon  him  that  he 
shall  enjoin  upon  others,  under  certain  circumstances,  to  make  auri- 
cular confession  of  sin,  and  he  is  empowered  with  the  authority  to 
grant  remission  of  sin.  We  know  what  the  High  Church  party  make 
of  all  this — that  since  it  is  enjoined  upon  them  under  certain  circum- 
stances to  do  this,  at  other  times  it  is  permissible  to  do  it,  and  there 
is  nothing  to  prohibit  them  doing  it. 

That  leads  me  to  another  matter.  I  call  to  mind  how,  some  years 
ago,  there  was  a  revival  in  this  country  of  an  old  ecclesiastical  court. 
It  was  at  a  time  when  charges  were  brought  against  one  of  the  Bishops, 
the  Bishop  of  Lincoln.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  presided 
over  the  proceedings,  came  to  this  conclusion,  that  the  Established 
Church  ,of  England  is  a  continuation — (The  bell  was  here  rung.) 

Oh!   the  bell, 
It  sounds  my  knell; 
I  leave  you  to  think 
What  I  cannot  tell. 

The  Rev.  George  Whelpton  (French  Methodist  Cburoh)  spoke 
as  follows : 

I  hesitate,  as  a  simple  evangelist,  to  follow  so  many  wise  professors, 
but  I  would  like  to  give  you  one  or  two  facts  touching  two  principles. 
I  think  we  all  of  us  love  every  true-hearted  Romanist  who  loves  our 
Saviour,  and  we  are  sure  of  it  that  there  are  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  such.  On  the  other  hand,  we  every  one  of  us  here  have  the  deepest 
detestation  and  horror  of  what  we  may  call  political  Rome.  My  ex- 
perience as  an  evangelist  is  that,  unfortunately,  it  is  very  difficult  to 
separate  the  twOj  for  the  principles  of  Rome  act,  not  only  on  the 
theology  of  its  individual  members,  but  on  their  personal  experience 
of  salvation. 

May  I  illustrate  this  ?  I  was  once  told,  if  ever  I  had  to  deal  with  a 
devout  Catholic,  to  at  once  attack  him  on  the  question  of  his  assurance 
of  salvation.  Not  very  long  afterwards,  on  a  boat,  I  met  a  very 
thorough  Franciscan  monk,  whom  I  recognised  as  coming  from  London. 
I  entered  into  conversation  with  him,  and  asked  him  the  question. 
He  was  horrified  when  he  found  I  was  a  Methodist  preacher  preaching 
to  French  people,  while  he  was  sent  away  from  his  country,  and  the 
response  was  not  satisfactory.  lit  aiiay  interest  some  here  to  learn 
that  monk  is  now  at  the  licad  of  the  Franciscans  in  Paris,  is  attached 
to  the  Church  of  St.  Antoine  de  Padue,  and  has  been  one  of  the 
special  preachers   at   the  Madeleine.     I  thank  God  that  I  had  the 


1 8c         PROTESTANTISM  VERSUS  SACERDOTALISM. 

opportunity  of  putting  the  question  to  him  of  his  own  joyful  assurance 
of  salvation. 

Not  long  ago  I  was  in  an  Episcopal  chapel  when  a  former  Dominican 
monk,  a  most  able  preacher,  and  one  of  my  intimate  friends,  thrilled 
the  congregation  by  the  description  of  a  scene  which  took  place  when 
he  was  a  young  man  concern inor  a  most  holy  nun  on  her  deathbed 
in  the  convent.  She  was  tortured,  actually  in  despair,  as  regards  her 
own  acceptance  of  God.  He  offered  her  his  crucifix  to  kiss  ;  he  said  all 
the  prayers  he  could  think  of  ;  but  he  had  to  leave  her.  Oh,  how  our 
hearts  thrilled  when  he  said,  "  If  only  I  had  known  then  what  I  know 
now,  and  could  have  told  it  to  her  1 " 

The  answer  to  sacerdotalism  is  the  joyous  and  glorious  assurance 
that  we  are  the  children  of  God.  We  see  it  in  our  French  Methodist 
Church.  Thank  God,  I  have  seen  lovefeasts  where  one  after  another 
converted  Roman  Catholic  brother  has  risen  and  testified  of  the 
glorious  assurance  of  sins  forgiven,  I  met  only  a  monlth  ago  a  poor 
colporteur  just  across  the  Channel  who  told  me  how  one  after  another 
of  the  Breton  people  are  coming  to  him,  and  telling  him  of  their  glad 
assurance  of  salvation.  I  am  struck,  whenever  I  have  the  time  to  go 
into  the  Salvation  Army  preaching  hall  near  the  Opera,  Paris,  to  see 
respectable,  well-dressed  people,  demi-mondaines  and  others,  listening 
to  the  simple  testimony  of  those  who  have  found  salvation.  "We  are 
having  conversions  in  France,  and  that  is  the  answer  to  sacerdotalism. 

There  has  been  for  the  last  sixty  years  a  gradual  reaction  in  France 
towards  spiritual  religion.  Why?  Because  Frenchmen  feel  that  this 
divorce  between  character  and  rite,  between  authority'  and  justice, 
putting  authority  before  justice,  and  putting  rite  before  character,  is 
a  lie.  When  priests — and  they  have  told  me  so  again  and  again — 
tell  me  that  not  half  of  their  number  are  pure  men,  when  a  priest  has 
to  go  to  a  family  and  sits  down  at  a  table,  and  the  father  knows  that 
priest  alone  can  receive  his  little  girl  into  the  Church,  can  give  her 
that  which  is  necessary  for  her  salvation,  how  can  he  believe  it? 
He  does  not  believe  it.  But  they  have  found  what  has  been  spoken 
of  this  morning — ^that  personal  loving  trust  in  the  Heavenly  Father, 
and  the  joyousness  of  sanctification.  They  have  found  that  Methodism 
is  the  key;  and  a  small  key  will  open  a  great  door. 

Bishop  B.  T.  Tanner,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church) 
continued  the  dis-oussion.    He  s.aid : 

Those  for  whom  I  speak  could  not  be  expected  to  enter  very 
largely  into  such  discussions  as  are  taking  place  this  morning,  the 
reason  of  which  need  not  here  be  stated  ;  only  we  have  sufficient 
common  sense  to  appreciate  the  fact  that  on  this  occasion,  as  upon 
many  others,  it  may  possibly  more  benefit  us  to  listen  than  to  speak. 
We  are  of  those  whom  Methodists  very  often  speak  of  as  "  On  the 
receiving  hand."  The  Christianity  we  have  we  received  from  you. 
You  made  choice  of  Methodism.  Methodism  made  choice  of  us.  That 
is  just  the  difference.  On  the  receiving  hand,  therefore,  you  will  at 
least  allow  us  to  be  particular,  or,  if  not  particular,  at  least  to  be  on 
the  look-out,  as  to  what  we  shall  receive.  You  certainly  cannot  allow 
us  less  than  that — a  choice  as  to  the  reception  of  the  great  truths  which 
our  common  religion  proclaims. 

A  good  brother  this  morning  made  a  remark  which,  from  our  stand- 
point, at  least,  needs  an  explanation.  He  made  the  statement  that 
truth  crushed  to  earth  would  never  rise  unless  there  was  some  gi**i 
human  personality  behind  it.     We  beg  to  dissent.     We  believe,^  too, 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  ifti 

that  behind  every  great  truth  there  must  be  a  personality  ;  but,  a«  we 
see  it,  tliat  Pettsoaiality  is  God.  Foi-  wo  htavo  seen  people  rejoice  in 
truths  crushed  to  earth,  and  we  have  seen  these  truths  rise  without 
any  human  personality  behind  them— only  God.  We  have  infinite  faith 
in  the  Divine  statement  that  "  My  Word  shall  not  return  to  Me  void," 
human  personality  or  no  human  personality  to  the  contrary  notwith- 
standing. God's  Word  is  dominant,  God's  Word  is  omnipotent.  If 
the  venerable  brethren  of  this  most  venerable  body  call  for  witnesses 
as  we  Methodists  sometimes  say,  we  have  them  here— that  God,  upon 
more  occasions  than  one,  without  any  human  personality  behind  these 
truths,  has  insisted  that  these  truths  shall  come  to  the  front,  that  they 
shall  remain  at  the  front,  and  conquer  at  the  front— of  the  which  we 
are  witnesses.  There  are  truths  to-day,  spiritual  truths,  which  have 
no  human  leadership,  which  have  no  human  backing,  but  God  is  in 
them.  Our  faith  is  the  faith  of  our  fathers,  they  who  knew  what  it  was 
to  sing  in  the  midst  of  the  darkness,  they  wh.o  knew  what  it  was  to 
trust  when,  as  we  are  wont  to  say,  "  There  was  no  eye  to  pity  and  no 
arm  to  save."  Our  faith  is  the  faith  of  our  fathers,  and  althou<^h  these 
truths  Beem  crushed  to  the  earth,  and  have  no  human  backing  to  push  them 
to  the  front,  our  glory  and  our  joy  is  that  God  is  behind  them,  and  that, 
in  His  own  time,  as  in  the  past,  so  now,  and  so  in  the  days  to  come, 
these  truths  shall  be  made  to  triumph,  although  even  the  Church  of 
God  and  the  men  of  God  deny  them  and  push  them  aside.  God 
reigns  m  the  affairs  of  man,  and  whether  truth  has  human  assistance 
or  not,  that  same  truth  will  yet  dominate  ;  a  lesson  to  which  all  good 
people  ought  to  give  a  good,  hearty  Methodist  "Amen." 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Champnbss  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church) 
spoke  as  follows : 

I  should  like  to  say  a  word  which  will  reach  the  people  called 
Methodists  in  the  villages  of  the  country.  Some  time  ago  an  accom- 
plished young  gentleman  wrote  to  me  and  said,  "Mr.  Champness,  what 
am  I  to  believe  about  ritual  ? "  I  knew  that  he  came  in  contact  with 
men  who  were  not  Methodists,  and  who  were  teaching  him  that  which 
was  not  according  to  our  doctrines.  I  said,  "  My  friend,  get  your  Bible  ; 
go  through  the  New  Testament ;  make  a  mark  against  every  word  that 
gives  you  any  direction  about  ritual— about  the  dress  of  the  ministers, 
about  the  way  in  which  they  should  conduct  the  services — and  if  you 
do  that,  and  follow  it,  I  have  no  fear  what  your  future  views  will  be." 
I  should  like  Methodists  to  bring  their  common  sense  to  bear  upon 
these  questions.  For  instance,  let  any  man  look  at  the  paintings 
of  the  Lord's  Supper,  either  painted  by  the  great  masters  of  the  distant 
ages  or  painted  by  the  great  men  of  to-day,  and  let  them  compare 
those  paintings  of  genius,  picturmg  the  Last  Supper,  with  the  Mass. 
We  have  only  to  look  on  that  upper  chamber,  and  that  simple  service, 
and  contrast  it  with  the  ritual  of  the  sacerdotalists,  to  see  that  it 
has  not  the  mark  of  Divinity  upon  it,  but  the  mark  of  the  beast. 

I  would  make  another  remark,  suggested  by  what  my  mother  used 
to  call  "gumption,"  A  great  deal  is  made  of  baptismal  regeneration, 
and  the  rights  of  certain  men,  however  gifted,  however  godly,  and 
however  scholarly,  to  administer  holy  baptism.  According  to  the 
teaching  of  the  Bible,  as  I  know  it,  no  order  of  men  has  the  monopoly 
of  baptising  little  children.  1  say  to  my  own  brothers,  as  well  as  to 
the  priests,  the  more  I  study  the  New  Testament  the  more  I  am  per- 
suaded that  it  is  possible  for  parents  to  enter  into  covenant  relationship 
with  God  whenever  they  bring  their  children  to  holy  baptism.    I  often 


1 82  PROTESTANTISM    VERSUS    SACERDOTALISM. 

tell  parents  that  it  is  not  I,  nnr  any  other  minister — even  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  if  he  were  here — whn  can  make  it  a  sacrament. 
You  cannot.  If  you  come  with  tlic  sincere  desire  to  link  your  child  on 
to  Divinity,  j-ou  can  do  it  now.  God  will  join  His  hand  in  yours, 
not  in  mine  nor  the  minister's.  It  is  the  parent  that  makes  it  a 
sacrament,  and  not  a  ceremony.  I  have  only  to  appeal  to  any  rural 
policeman  to  find  out  if  there  is  any  truth  in  High  Church  principles 
about  baptismal  regeneration.  He  ought  to  be  able  to  pick  the  boys 
out  that  have  been  regenerated.  Is  that  so  or  not?  Can  he  distinguish 
between  the  children  that  have  been  baptised  in  the  Church  of  England 
or  baptised  by  a  Nonconformist  minister,  or  the  child  of  a  Quaker  that 
has  not  been  baptised  at  ajl?  I  would  appeal  to  all  the  local  preachers 
of  Methodism  and  say,  Prove  that  you  are  in  the  apostolical  succession 
by  making  men  feel  that  you  can  bind  up  the  broken  heart,  and  that 
you  can  win  men  to  leave  sin  and  come  to  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Rev.  G.  Armstrong  Bennetts,  B.A,  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  said: 

I  think  that  the  Papal  question  is  as  much  a  burning  question  for 
the  men  of  this  period  as  it  was  for  the  men  of  the  period  of  Elizabeth, 
Raleigh,  and  Drake.  I  feel  that  there  has  been  a  tendency  of  late 
years  to  imagine  that  there  is  no  need  for  us  to  throw  ourselves  with 
ardour  into  the  defence  of  our  Protestant  principles,  and  into  the 
antagonism  of  the  errors  of  the  Papacy.  There  is  a  sort  of  idea  abroad 
in  some  quarters  that  the  Pope  is  really  the  head  of  Christendom, 
and  the  eyes  of  Protestants  are  being  pointed  in  the  direction  of 
a  Reformed  Pope  as  tilt  instrument  for  the  regeneration  of  the  world. 
He  must  cease  to  ije  Pope  if  he  is  to  succeed  as  an  instrument  for 
regenerating  mankind. 

I  feel  that  there  is  intense  need  at  the  present  time  for  calling 
attention  to  the  general  scope  and  meaning  of  that  great  book  of 
William  Arthur's  which  has  been  allowed  to  be  too  much  neglected, 
"  The  Pope,  the  Kings,  and  the  People."  Events  are  proving  that  in 
that  wonderful  book  i\Ir.  Arthur  had  almost  prophetic  foresight.  He 
tells  us  in  that  book  that  the  syllabus  of  Pope  Pius  IX.  meant  a 
deliberate  attack  upon  the  foundations  of  modern  society,  that  it 
meant  a  reorganisation  of  the  Roman  Church  under  the  leadership 
of  a  so-called  infallible  Pope  for  the  abolition  of  the  institutions  of 
modern  democracy.  Fifty-two  years  ago  this  magazine,  a  copy  of  which 
I  hold  in  my  hand,  and  which  I  read  regularly  every  moiith,  the 
"  Civilta  Cattolica,"  was  established  for  the  purpose  of  drilling  especi- 
ally the  priests  of  the  Roman  Church  into  a  solid  army  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  what  it  calls  the  civilisation  of  the  Revolution  and  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  civilisation  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Anyone  who 
reads  this  magazine  will  know  that,  not  only  in  Italy,  but  throughout 
Europe,  especially  in  all  the  countries  of  Protestant  Christendom, 
there  is  a  desperate,  secret,  well-organised  plot  to  endeavour  to  restore 
the  temporal  authority  of  the  Pope.  This  magazine  makes  it  plain 
that  the  ideal  of  the  Papacy  is  monarchical  despotism,  with  the  Pope 
as  the  despot  of  all  the  monarchs. 

This  is  not  only  an  intensely  serious  religious  question;  it  is  an 
intensely  serious  political  question,  and  a  question  not  of  party  politics, 
but  of  the  politics  which  lie  at  the  very  foundations  of  the  principles 
of  Christianity.  In  every  country  of  Protestant  Christendom  these 
men  are  working  to  endeavour  to  destroy  in  the  minds  of  the  people 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  183 

the  idea  that  lies  at  the  very  foundation  of  modern  Parliamentary 
government,  and  to  lead  the  nations  to  look  to  the  Pope  as  the  leader 
of  the  Avorld.  If  we  were  in  the  times  of  Raloi<^li  and  Dx'ake,  wo 
should  not  have  seen  what  we  have  seen  durini^  the  last  few  weeks 
in  the  British  Parliament,  with  respect  to  the  exemption  from  inspec- 
tion of  the  laundries  connected  with  monasteries  and  convents.  It  is 
a  disgrace  that  such  privileges  should  be  given  to  the  Papacy  in  a 
Protestant  country.  I  cannot  understand  liow  it  is  that  now  Mr. 
Newdegate  has  gone  from  our  midst  there  is  no  other  voice  raised 
among  us  to  insist  upon  what  is  bare  justice,  that  all  these  monasteries 
and  convents  should  everywhere,  in  all  respects,  be  open  to  public 
inspection. 

The  Rev.  R.  Abbrcrombie,  M.A,  (United  Methodist  Free 
Churches),  continuing  the  discussion,  said  : 

One  thing  that  seems  to  me  to  have  a  practical  bearing  on  this 
question  is  whether  there  is  anything  that  we  can  learn  from  our  High 
Church  friends.  I  hold  there  are  some  lessons  that  we  can  learn  from 
them.  I  hold  that  we  have  ,not  alway.s  given  sufR.i'ient  empliasi.s  to 
the  idea  of  the  Church.  We  have  to 'bear  in  mind  that  throughout 
the  New  Testament,  in  the  writings  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  great  emphasis 
is  given  to  the  idea  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  we  Methodists  hold 
an  ancestral. theory  of  that  Church  that  has  come  to  us  from  John 
Wesley  himself,  who  laid  very  great  emphasis  upon  everything  that 
belongs  to  the  Christian  Church,  especially  the  communion  of  saints. 

Another  practical  question  is  as  to  our  attitude  towards  the  High 
Church,  as  to  the  way  in  which  we  are  to  indoctrinate  our  people. 
I  hold  that  we  should  endeavour  to  indoctrinate  our  young  people. 
We  should  teach  them  the  history  of  the  Reformation.  When  I  was 
in  a  Sunday  school,  in  my  early  days,  my  Sunday  school  teacher  went 
through  the  history  of  the  Reformation  with  his  boys,  and  every  one 
of  them  is  a  good  Protestant. 

The  last  piece  of  practical  counsel  I  have  to  give  is  this  :  Let  us 
avoid  all  high  pastoral  theories  that  tremble  on  the  borderland  between 
ourselves  and  the  High  Church.  Let  us  hold  no  spiritual  intercourse 
with  those  ghostly  figures  that  shimmer  and  disappear,  and  ghmmer 
again  upon  the  borderland. 

The  Rev.  George  Parkin,  M.A.,  B.D.  (Primitive  Methodist 
Church),  was  the  next  speaker.     He  said  : 

There  are  two  points  in  this  conversation  which  I  am  anxious  to 
emphasise.  The  first  is  the  attitude  of  our  Master  with  jespect  to  the 
word  "priest."  We  have  only  to  think  of  Him  confronted  by  a  power- 
ful Church,  which  for  fifteen  centuries  fed  the  piety  of  men,  and  being 
confronted  by  a  powerful  priesthood  ;  and  yet  when  we  would  naturally 
expect  Him  to  use  the  word  "priest"  He  always  avoided  the  word. 
He  never  called  His  followers  "  priests."  I  know  that  the  argument 
from  silence  is  a  dangerous  argument,  but  when  I  think  of  Christ's 
surroundings  I  am  driven  to  this  conclusion,  that  He  had  a  reason 
for  not  using  the  word  "priest."  His  followers  were  disciples,  not 
priests.     As  He  fought  shy  of  the  word,  I  think  we  should,  too. 

In  the  next  place,  it  is  only  just  to  our  friends  on  the  other  side 
to  notice  what  truth  there  is  in  their  system,  and  I  cannot  for  one 
think  that  a  system  which  commands  the  assent  of  so  many  people 


184         PROTESTANTISM  VERSUS  SACERDOTALISM. 

at  present  is  altogether  false.  Our  High  Church  friends  tell  us  that 
the  Church  is  a  spiritual  organisation.  They  tell  us  that  the  Church 
rests  on  this  philosophic  principle,  that  spirit  is  of  far  more  importance 
tlian  matter,  that  matter  is  used  to  represent  spirit.  This  comes  out 
in  their  theory  of  the  sacraments.  I  agree  with  them  that  matter  ia 
inferior  to  spirit,  that  matter  is  used  to  represent  spirit,  but  I  demur 
altogether  to  the  assumption  that  matter  is  the  only  representation 
of  spirit.  As  Methodists,  we  hold  that  the  Divine  Spirit  has  direct 
access  to  the  souls  of  men.  We  prize  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  as  much  as  any  persons  do,  bu )  we  are  very  far  from  thinking 
that  this  is  the  only  channel  througV  which  God  flows  into  the  souls 
of  men.  I  think  we  shall  act  wisely  if  we  impress  upon  the  minds  of 
our  people  that  there  are  many  ways  in  which  God  can  flow  into 
their  souls,  and  that  the  sacrament  is  only  one.  When  I  have  heard 
High  Churchmen  preach,  and  'they  have  been  dealing  with  peaiitents, 
I  have  heard  them  ask,  "Have  you  been  baptized?  Do  you  receive 
the  sacrament?"  The  impression  is  made  on  the  minds  of  inquirers 
that  regeneration  flows  through  those  channels  only.  We  believe,  as  I 
have  just  said,  ihat  God  hats  other  ways  of  reaching  jnen,  and  we  should 
emphasise  them. 

The  Rev.  John  Bond  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Cburoh)  said : 

There  is  an  ancient  doctrine  which  we  all  hold,  which  we  all  strongly 
preach,  the  doctrine  of  the  witness  of  the  Spirit.  I  am  persuaded 
that  the  great  method  of  dealing  with  sacerdotalism  in  this  country  is 
to  preach  more  emphatically  and  more  and  more  constantly  that  great 
doctrine.  The  priest  offers  you  absolution.  If  he  offers  you  an  absolu- 
tion which  God  does  not  give,  he  commits  you  to  a  great  Ife.  If  he 
offers  you  an  absolution  which  God  has  given,  the  absolution  is  a  great 
impertinence.  What  we  want  is  the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  which  God 
alone  can  give,  and  which  He  does  give,  so  that  those  who  have  it 
need  not  go  to  a  priest.     They  can  sing,  as  our  fathers  sang — 

"My   God   is   reconciled, 

His  pardoning  voice  I  hear  ; 
He  owns  me  for  His  child, 

I  can  no  longer  fear. 
With  confidence  I  now  draw  nigh 

And  Father,  Abba,  Father,  cry." 

The  Rev.  R.  J.  Cooke,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  spoke 
as  follows : 

We  have  had  before  us  the  subject  of  sacerdotalism  and  Pro- 
testantism. It  is  a  strange  thing  that  many  years  ago,  in  his  con- 
troversy with  the  Anglicans,  John  Henry  Newman  settled  that  question 
when  he  declared  that  the  difference  betiwean  Protestantism  and 
Romanism  was  not  so  much  a  difference  of  form  as  it  was  an  essential 
difference  of  religion.  He  declared  that  Protestantism  was  one  re- 
ligion and  Romanism  another  religion.  I  am  sorry  to  hear  certain 
statements  made  from  the  platform  this  morning,  but  which  I  take 
simply  as  an  expression  of  private  opinion,  as  all  our  speeches  are, 
so  that  we  are  not  committing  any  body  of  Methodism  to  these  ex- 
pressions. 

I  was  sorry  to  hear  certain  statements  undervaluing  the  ministry, 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  1 85 

undervaluing  episcopacy,  unden'aluing  the  sacraments,  undervaluing 
forms  of  worship  and  ritual.  I  belong  to  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church.  I  believe  in  episcopacy,  I  believe  in  the  sacraments,  I  believe 
in  ritual,  I  believe  in  everything  that  has  come  down  to  us  sanctified 
by  the  prayer  and  devotion  of  the  chiklren  of  God  from  the  earliest 
day  until  now.  We  try  to  wring  admissions  from  Anglican  scholars, 
and  we  read  more  into  their  admissions  than  they  admit.  We  refer 
to  Lightfoot,  but  do  you  know  that  magnificent  Bishop  of  Durham 
modified  his  statements  in  his  "  Notes  on  the  Philippians  "  ?  We  refer 
to  Dr.  Hort  ;  but  should  we  not  quote  the  whole  of  Hort  in  his 
pregnant  statements  in  his  last  work"  on  the  "  Ecclesia."  Using  the 
word  in  its  New  Testament  sense,  there  never  was  a  time — and  I 
appeal  to  the  scholarship  of  this  Conference^ — when  there  was  not  a 
Bishop  in  the  Church  of  God.  Put  the  New  Testament  sense  upon 
it,  right  up  to  the  present  time.  What  other  sense  will  you  put  into 
it?  What  other  sense  can  you  put  into  it?  Put  in  sacerdotalism? 
Sacerdotalism  is  a  growth  not  of  the  New  Testament,  but  of  paganism 
engrafted  into  the  New  Testament  Church.  In  all  the  long  range 
of  the  centuries  there  never  was  a  religion  from  the  days  of  Adam 
until  Christ  came  that  did  not  have  a  priestly  caste,  a  priest,  a 
sacrificing  priest.  But  never  in  a  single  instance  were  ministers  of 
Jesus  Christ  called  priests  in  the  New  Testament. 

What  we  want  to  do,  I  think,  is  not  to  minimise  the  episcopacy,  not 
to  minimise  the  sacraments,  and  not  to  run  into  Quakerism.  In  my 
country  to-day  there  are  thousands  of  Christians  who  think  they  can 
live  without  this  holy  sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  They  see  no 
necessity  for  it.  They  think  that  worship  consists  in  going  to  church 
on  the  Sunday  morning,  and  hearing  the  preaching  ;  whereas  there 
is  no  difference  between  that  kind  of  so-called  worship  and  going  and 
hearing  a  lecture  on  some  spiritual  subject.  We  need  in  our  country 
to  emphasise  the  Church  and  to  magnify  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ. 
We  need  in  our  country  to  dignify  our  public  worship,  and  not  to  run 
into  barbarism.  I  do  not  know  how  it  is  in  your  country — you  have 
too  much  millinery  here  to  suit  us — but  in  my  country  we  need  to 
draw  the  line  and  to  steer  the  Church  of  God  between  sacerdot-alism 
on  the  one  hand  and  mere  Quakerism  on  the  other. 

The  Rev.  Georgb  Jackson,  B.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  CJhuroh), 
said  : 

It  is  a  very  tiny  contribution  which  I  offer  to  the  discussion  of  this 
great  question,  but  it  has  been  my  joy  and  privilege  to  labour  for  a 
number  of  years  now  in  that  part  of  Christendom  where  the  priest  is 
of  least  account.  I  want  to  say  one  or  two  words  about  an  incident  in 
the  life  and  work  of  John  Knox  which  is  not  known  as  it  ought  to 
be  known  on  this  side  of  the  border,  and  which  deserves  far  greater 
prominence  in  these  current  discussions  than  perhaps  has  ever  been 
given  to  it. 

In  talking  with  brethren  in  the  ministry  here  I  do  not  generally 
discover  that  they  are  aware  that  John  Knox  was  very  much  more  than 
a  Scottish  Reformer.  He  was  parish  minister  of  Berwick-on-Tweed, 
and  he  was  parish  minister  of  the  lovely  cathedral  church  of  Newcastle, 
whose  lantern  tower  attracts  the  attention  of  every  passer-by  on  the 
railway.  He  was  one  of  the  six  royal  chaplains  of  King  Edward  VI. 
If  you  search  for  it  you  can  find  the  facsimile  of  the  signature  whicli, 
in  his   nflicial  capacity,  he  appended  to  the  first  draft   of  the  Thirty- 


1 86  PROTESTANTISM    VERSUS    SACERDOTALISM. 

Nine  Articles.  He  was  offered  the  vicarage  of  All  Hallows  Church 
in  London,  and,  what  is  still  more  incredible  according  to  modern  ideas 
about  Knox,  he  was  ordered  and  declined  the  Bishopric  of  Rochester. 
I  do  not  know  whether  you  can  picture  our  sturdy  Scottish  national 
hero  arrayed  in  the  glory  of  Episcopal  leggings  and  gaiters,  but  that 
is  the  fact.  Indeed,  Mr.  C.  J.  Guthrie,  the  son  of  the  famous  Dr. 
Guthrie,  who  is,  perhaps,  the  best-informed  student  of  Knox  living 
to-day,  is  very  firmly  of  opinion  that  so  friendly  were  the  relations 
between  King  Edward  VI.  and  Knox,  that  had  King  Edward  lived 
Knox  would  have  lived  to  be  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  Had  that 
been,  much  of  English  history  would  need  to  have  been  re-written. 

What  I  want  to  emphasise  especially  is  this.  When  Knox  came  to 
England,  what  is  commonly  known  as  the  Second  Prayer  Book  of  King 
Edward  VI.  was  in  preparation  for  publication.  There  was  in  that 
Prayer  Book  a  rubric  enjoining  kneeling  at  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  John  Knox  took  very  strenuous  objection  to  that  rubric.  Do 
not  misunderstand  me.  It  was  not  with  him,  nor  with  any  of  his 
brother  Reformers  who  shared  in  that  matter  his  opinion,  a  question  of 
reverence.  Do  I  need  to  say  that  there  are  no  more  truly  reverent 
people  on  God's  earth  to-day  than  our  Scotch  people?  But  you  find  no 
communion-rail  inside  the  Presbyterian  churches,  nor,  for  that  matter, 
inside  the  Methodist  churches  north  of  the  Tweed.  It  was  not  in  any 
sense,  I  say,  a  question  of  reverence.  To  them,  and  to  Knox, 
kneeling  at  the  sacrament  was  a  symbol  that  they  accepted 
what  was  the  grossest  superstition  in  the  teaching  of  Rome.  For 
once  in  a  way,  however,  Knox  failed  to  get  his  own  way. 
Instead  of  getting  the  rubric  struck  out,  he  secured  the  insertion 
of  a  very  remarkable  declaration,  which  is  found  in  the  Angli- 
can prayer  book  to  this  day,  and  which  I  should  like,  if  you  would 
permit  me,  to  read  again  in  your  hearing,  asking  you  to  remember 
what  I  believe  many  of  our  High  Anglican  friends  either  do  not  know, 
or  choose  to  forget,  that  it  was  entirely  owing  to  the  influence  of 
John  Knox  that  this  remarkable  declaration  found  its  way  into  the 
Anglican  prayer  book. 

It  is  :  "  Whereas  it  is  ordained  in  this  office  for  the  administration 
of  the  Lord's  Supper  that  the  communicants  should  receive  the  same 
kneeling  (w*hioh  order  is  well  me-ant  far  a  signification  of  our  humWe 
and  grateful  acknowledgment  of  the  benefits  of  Christ  therein  given 
to  all  worthy  receivers  and  for  the  avoiding  of  such  profanation  and 
disorder  in  the  Holy  Communioin  as  might  otheirwise  ensue),  yet  lest 
the  same  kneeling  should  by  any  persons,  either  out  of  ignorance  and 
infirmity,  or  out  of  malice  and  obstinacy,  be  misconstrued  and 
depraved,  it  is  hereby  declared  that  thereby  no  adoration  is  intended 
or  ought  to  be  done,  either  unto  the  sacramental  bread  or  wine,  there 
bodily  received,  or  unto  any  corporal  presence  of  Christ's  .natural  flesh 
and  blood.  For  the  sacramental  bread  and  wine  remain  still  in  their 
very  natural  substances,  and,  therefore,  may  not  be  adored  (for  that 
were  idolatry  to  be  abhorred  of  all  faithful  Christians),  and  the  natural 
body  and  Tslood  of  oiu*  Saviour  Christ  are  in  heaven,  and  not  here,  it 
being  against  the  truth  of  Christ's  natiiral  body  to  be  at  'one  time  in 
more  places  than  one." 

That  is  the  famous  "Black  Rubric,"  inserted,  as  I  have  said,  in  the 
prayer  book  of  King  Edward  VI.  through  the  influence  of  Knox  ; 
.struck  out  at  the  accession  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  as  a  kind  of  concession 
to  the  Roman  Catholics  ;  re-inserted  in  1662  ;  and  in  the  Anglican 
prayer  book  to  this  day,  a  stone  of  stumbling  and  a  rock  of  offence 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  1 87 

to  every  Romanising  Anglican  priest  who  teaches  the  doctrines  of 
Eome  while  he  eats  the  bread  and  takes  the  pay  of  a  Protestant 
country. 

The  Rev.  George  Elliott,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
made  the  following  remarks: 

I  desire  to  call  attention  to  one  result  of  a  sacerdotal  theory  of  the 
Church  life.  Perhaps  it  is  more  a  result  of  monarchism,  Imt  the  two 
things  are  so  closely  related  that  we  need  not  draw  fine  distinctions. 
It  is  the  fatal  cleavage  of  life  into  the  secular  and  the  religious.  A  great 
voice  which  miglit  liave  been  heard  ten  years  ago  at  Washington,  and 
which  has  since  been  silenced,  that  of  Professor  George  R.  Crooks, 
Avas  often  raised  in  this  saying,  that  the  first  great  heresy  and  apostasy 
in  the  Church  was  the  loss  of  the  priesthood  of  all  believers.  It  is 
not  absolutely  certain  that  even  where  high  Protestant  theories  are 
held  there  is  not  a  subtle  recognition  that  certain  things  and  acts  are 
distinctly  religious,  and  that  others  are  not.  Therefore,  I  may  smuggest 
that  we  shall  well  oppose  all  sacramentarian  theories  of  religion,  Avhen 
we  shall  teach  our  people  the  sacred  character  of  all  life,  and  that  God 
is  worshipped,  not  simply  by  services,  but  by  service.  We  still  con- 
secrate graveyards,  and  not  market  places.  Death  is  blessed,  and  life 
is  left  under  the  ban,  and  we  forget  that  we  buy  and  sell,  that  we  vote 
and  trade,  with  the  same  immortal  souls  with  which  we  worship  and 
prav. 

This  cleavage  of  our  life  into  the  secular  and  the  religious  is  closely 
and  essentially  connected  with  the  sacerdotal  theory  of  religion.  The 
lay  minister  who  has  received  the  Holy  Ghost  is  as  truly  a  minister  of 
God  as  myself,  upon  whom  the  fingers  have  been  placed,  and  to  whom 
has  been  said,  "  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost  for  the  ofiice  of  an  elder 
in  the  Church  of  God."  The  question  is  whether  we  have  it  or  not. 
It  remains  for  us  to  preach  and  teach  a  universal  priesthood  of  all 
believers,  that  every  merchant's  counter,  every  banker's  desk,  every 
kitchen  table,  every  smoking  forge,  becomes  an  altar  where  man,  God's 
priest,  offers  spiritual  sacrifices  to  Him,  as  Peter  calls  them.  When 
this  vision  shall  have  fallen  upon  the  Church  then  shall  shop,  show, 
store,  forge,  and  factory  all  be  sacred  temples  of  our  God  ;  and  not 
on  the  bells  of  the  high  priest's  robe  alone,  but  on  the  bells  of  the 
horses  in  the  streets  ;  not  on  the  sacred  vessels  of  the  sanctuary,  held 
up  by  consecrated  priests  alone,  but  on  every  pot  and  kettle  in  the 
new  .Jerusalem  shall  be  written  the  message,  "  Holiness  unto  the 
Lord." 

If  we  can  teach  our  people  and  make  them  feel  that  every  act  nf 
labour  is  indeed  a  prayer,  and  that  every  meal  may  be  a  sacrament, 
and  that  every  word  may  be  a  benediction  ;  when  we  shall  have  a 
universal  priesthood  who  know  that  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a 
second-hand  religion,  but  that  religion  always  comes  first-hand  from 
the  Lord  God  of  Heaven,  then  indeed  we  shall  have  created  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth,  that  new  Jerusalem  in  which  the  prophetic 
vision  saw  no  temple. 

Tlie  Rev.  Hugh  C.  Tucker  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South) 
sq^oko  as  follows : 

I  wish  to  say  a  few  words,  based  upon  personal  observatiun  and 
.study  of  some  prine'iples  of  muderii  sacerdotalism  for  tlie  last  fifteen 
years.     I  put   emphasis,    as    I   understand    the   subject   this   morning. 


1 88  PROTESTANT] SM    VERSUS    SACERDOTALISM. 

upon  the  word  "modern."  We  are  not  discussing  tlie  sacerdotalism 
of  the  Bible,  or  the  functions  of  the  Christian  ministry,  but  we  are 
discussing  the  modern  developments   of  sacerdotalism. 

I  wish  to  emp'hasise  oine  or  two  things  that  have  been  said  here  this 
morning,  as  I  have  seen  sacerdotalism  in  Brazil,  in  South  America. 
One  thing  is  that  unrestricted  sacerdotalism  tends  not  only  to  obscure 
Christ,  but  to  usurp  the  authority  of  God  Almighty  Himself.  In  that 
country,  where  for  four  centures  sacerdotalism  has  had  unlimited  sway, 
Christ  has  long  since  disappeared  from  the  thought  and  consciousness 
of  the  people,  and  even  the  authority  of  God  Himself  is  being  usurped 
by  the  priests  of  that  country. 

Just  to  give  you  an  instance.  I  have  heard  with  my  own  ears  state- 
ments like  this.  On  one  occasion  I  visited  a  small  community  in  the 
far  interior  of  the  country,  and  there  I  was  told,  when  inquiring  about 
the  religion  of  the  people,  that  a  rugged  stone  jutting  out  of  the  side 
of  a  mountain  was  the  place  where  they  worshipped.  They  called 
themselves  Roman  Catholics.  I  said,  "What  is  your  worship?"  They 
said,  "  That  stone  there.  The  priest  was  here  a  few  years  ago,  and 
said  that  he  controlled  Divine  power,  and  he  deposited  it  in  that  stone, 
and  that  if  we  wished  any  intervention  of  Divine  power  or  influence 
in  our  behalf  we  must  pray  to  that  stone,  and  at  the  same  time  put 
our  money  in  the  box,  for  prayers  without  money  availed  nothing." 
There  was  the  usurpation  of  Divine  power  and  Divine  authority,  the 
priest  controlling  God,  and  putting  Him  into  a  rugged  stone.  That 
is  the  tendency  of  modern  sacerdotalism  in  that  countiy,  and  the  great 
curse  of  that  people.  Christ  is  not  only  obscured  and  lost  sight  of,  but 
God  Himself  is  belittled  in  the  sight  of  the  people. 

One  other  thing  I  have  observed  in  that  country,  and  that  is  that 
the  development  of  modern  sacerdotalism,  where  it  is  uninfluenced  by 
Protestantism,  tends  to  minify  sin.  Any  scheme  of  mediatorial  inter- 
vention between  God  and  man.  other  than  through  the  Man  Jesus 
Christ,  tends  to  minimise  sin,  and  to  make  sin  a  small  matter.  It 
is  an  easy  matter  to  get  rid  of  sin,  and  to  obtain  pardon  through 
the  mediation  of  the  priesthood.  It  also  not  only  minifies  sin,  but  it 
destroys  the  conscience,  and  men  drift  more  and  more  into  sin  without 
knowing  what  sin  is,  thinking  that  it  is  an  easy  matter  to  obtain 
pardon  by  paying  the  priest  and  making  confession.  It  reduces  the 
scheme  of  human  redemption  to  a  commercial  aspect,  and  men  seek 
to  obtain  pardon  by  paying  money.  I  tell  you  that  the  only  way  to 
combat  the  tendencies  of  modern  sacerdotalism  is  to  emphasise  Christ, 
Christ  who  is  supreme  and  absolute  in  the  mediation  between  God  and 
man,  and  to  dignify  the  individual  conscience  and  the  individual  life. 
Methodism  is  a  potent  factor  in  such  preaching  as  this,  bringing  the 
individual  into  direct  contact  and  into  personal  contact  with  Jesus 
Christ,  the  only  Mediator  between  God  and  man.  It  is  Jesus  dealing 
with,  man,  and  man  with  Jesus,  the  son  of  God. 

The  Rev.  Wm.  A.  Bracken  (Irish  Methodist  Chiiroh)  said : 

As  an  Irishman  I  know  perfectly  well  that  Ireland  requires  no 
sacerdotalism,  and  if  there  be  anything  which  sejjarates  the  Protestant 
Irishman  from  his  fellow  countiymen  of  another  creed  to-day,  it  is 
the  fact  of  the  purer  religion  of  the  one  and  of  his  freer  access  to  his 
God.  While  we  have  the  genuine  article  in  sucli  perfect  development 
and  in  such  potent  sway  as  we  have  it  in  Ireland,  we  have  no  desire 
for  the  miserable  Anglican  counterfeit.     To-day  there  is  not  a  section 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  189 

of  the  Prnleslaiit  Episcopal  Church  so  free  from  the  taint  <if  sacer- 
dotalism as  the  Irish  Protestant  Episcopal  Chur«h  is.  It  is  not  abso- 
lutely free  from  it  ;  hut  we  havo  certain  guarantees  which  go  a  very 
long  way  to  make  us  tolerably  secure  in  reference  to  the  future.  We 
have  the  power  of  the  laity  in  that  Church  ;  and  one  of  the  most 
blessed  actions  that  ever  a  British  Parliament  did  for  Ireland  was 
when  it  set  free  the  Irish  Church  from  the  thraldom  of  the  State,  and 
when  it  gave  to  the  laity  of  that  Church  their  proper  place  and  their 
titting  authority  in  the  Church's  councils.  To-day  the  Irish  Protestant 
Episcopal  laity  stand  as  a  mighty  bulwark  between  a  strong  section 
of  the  clergy  of  that  Church  and  the  movement  towards  Rome,  and  if 
that  Protestant  bulwark  of  the  laymen  were  removed  it  is  highly  pro- 
bable that  in  Ireland  we  should  see  an  .advance  towards  Rome  suoli 
as  has  been  witnessed    in   England  with   the   most   profound   regret. 

In  addition  to  that  fact,  we  have  a  strong  Protestantism  side  by  side 
with  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  wliich  has  never  been  under 
the  dominion  of  the  State.  While  you  have  a  vigorous  Presbyterianisni 
and  a  wholesome  Methodism  and  a  vital  Congregationalism  at  work 
in  the  country  you  may  depend  upon  it  that  sucli  influence  as  that 
makes  for  our  common  faith  and  for  our  common  Protestantism.  I 
need  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  continued  revival  movement  of  the 
past  hundred  and  fifty  years,  of  which  Wesley  and  Whitefield  were 
but  the  forerunners,  has  always  tended  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
Evangelical  faith  and  of  the  spiritual  life.  But  we  have  seen  with 
growing  regret  that  in  almost  every  division  which  has  taken  place 
in  the  highest  court  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  on  a  question 
of  doctrine,  or  on  a  question  of  ritual,  the  overwhelming  majority  of 
the  clergy  have  gone  in  one  direction,  and  of  the  laity  in  the  other. 
As  I  have  said,  but  for  the  restraining  Protestant  influence  of  the  lay- 
men that  Church  would  have  moved  much  more  rapidly  than  it  has 
dared  to  do  in  the  Romeward  direction. 

I  must  confess  with  regret  that  there  are  men  in  that  Cliurch  which 
dares  to  call  itself  Protestant  who  are  not  prepared  in  any  way  to 
recognise  the  ministerial  status  of  their  brethren  of  other  Churches. 
They  ignore  our  existence  and  they  despise  our  work. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Allen,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Metbodist  Churoh), 
concluded  the  disoussaon  aa  follows : 

I  wish  to  bear  my  testimony  to  the  value  of  the  paper  to  which  we 
hstened  this  morning,  and  the  value  of  the  addresses  which  were 
delivered  after  the  reading  of  that  paper.  I  have  enjoyed  also  the 
speeches  to  wliioh  we  have  listened.  I  should  be  disposed,  I  think,  to 
take  exception  to  a  few  things  which  have  been  said,  perhaps  under  the 
influence  of  some  excitement. 

With  regard  to  baptism,  I  understood  my  friend  Mr.  Champness  to 
say  that  the  parents  had  the  power  to  turn  the  ceremony  into  a  sacra- 
ment. The  minister  had  not,  but  the  parents  had.  What  if  both 
parents  should  be  unconverted  people  1  Jesus  Christ  has  the  power  to 
turn  that  service  into  a  sacrament,  and  nobody  else  has.  As  to 
baptismal  regeneration  in  relation  to  the  Church  of  England,  I  confess 
that  my  mind  was  immensely  relieved  a  few  years  ago  by  readbg  an 
article  by  the  late  Canon  Mozley  on  that  subject.  I  imagine  that  most 
men  here  present  would  accept  him  as  one  of  the  ablest  interpreters 
of  the  principles  of  the  Church  of  England.  In  that  article  he  says 
distinctly  that  the  Church  of  England  never  has  taught  that  all  children 


IpO  PROTESTANTISM   VERSUS    SACERDOTALISM. 

become  regenerate  in  baptism.  He  says  that  they  use  in  regard  to 
that  ceremony  and  in  regard  to  all  others  what  he  calls  tlie  language 
of  charitable  assumption.  They  assume  the  highest.  He  goes  on  to 
Bay:  "When  you  conduct  worship  on  a  Sunday  morning  your  hymns 
and  your  language  in  prayer  imply  that  all  the  people  before  you  are 
penitents,  and  want  to  be  saved.  It  is  not  true.  But  you  must  assume 
the  highest  that  is  possible  in  conducting  the  worship  of  God."  I 
hope  that  these  remarks  of  mine  may  lead  some  brethren  present  to 
look  up  that  article  and  to  read  it  with  great  care.  It  brought  great 
light  and  relief  to  my  own  mind. 

As  to  the  Anglican  movement,  it  seems  to  me  that  was  a  natural 
reaction  after  all.  The  Reformation  placed  the  Church  of  England 
in  an  attitude  of  denial  in  regard  to  some  of  the  doctrines  and  a  great 
many  of  the  traditions  of  Popery.  The  life  which  had  been  generated 
by  a  Puritanic  and  Evangelical  movement  had  located  itself  in  separate 
organisations,  and  the  Church  itself,  by  means  of  the  Reformation 
settlement,  had  become  to  a  very  considerable  extent  a  branch  of  the 
national  Church.  Newman  and  Keble  and  others  were  intensely  dis- 
satisfied, and  they  set  to  work  to  recover  a  lost  Church  ideal.  They 
said:  "It  is  all  very  well  to  locate  Christianity  in  personal  conscious- 
ness and  experience,  but  you  need  to  locate  it  also  in  a  physical  organisa- 
tion, an  organisation  that  will  impress  the  mind  ancl  the  imagination 
of  men."  Within  certain  limits  they  were  right.  I  agree  with  Hutton, 
of  "  The  Spectator,"  now  passed  away  from  our  midst.  He  said  : 
"  The  Christianity  which  alone  can  conquer  earth  is  neither  rooted  so 
entirely  in  personal  conviction  as  that  of  Luther  and  Wesley,  nor 
reflected  so  studiously  in  secondary  agencies  and  external  institutions 
as  that  of  Rome."  He  meant  that  the  Christianity  of  the  future  will 
he  an  inward  life,  and  that  life  will  express  itself  through  a  reasonable 
Church.    That  I  believe  with  all  my  heart. 

The  Secrbtaet  read  to  the  Conference  the  following  telegram 
which  had  come  from  the  Rev.  W.  L.  Watkinson  (Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church) :  "  Sympathy  of  (Ecumenical  Conference  greatly 
appi'eciated.  May  the  Conference  be  crowned  with  blessing. 
Special  sympathy  with  the  American  brethren." 

The  Benediction  was  pronounced  by  the  Chairman,  and  the  Con- 
ference adjourned. 


ESSAY   BY   REV.   C.   J.    LITTLE.  j9i 


SECOND     SESSION. 

TOPIC : 
METHODISM    AND    EDUCATION. 


The  Conference  resumed  its  sittings  in  the  afternoon,  the  Rev. 
E.  J.  Watkin,  D.D.  (Australasian  Methodist  Church),  again  occupy- 
ing the  Chair.  Prayer  was  offered  by  the  Rev.  Owen  Watkins 
(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church). 

The  subject  for  discussion  was  "Methodism  and  Education  in 
the  Twentieth  Century,"  and  the  essay,  written  by  the  Rev.  C.  J. 
Little,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Chui-oh),  who  Ava.s  unable  to 
attend  the  Conference,  was  read  by  Bishop  John  H.  Vincent,  D.D., 
LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church).     It  was  as  follows  : 

The  educational  problem  of  every  century  is  to  find  the  schoolmaster  ; 
not  to  found  the  school.  First  Socrates,  then  Plato  and  the  Academy. 
The  founder  of  Methodism  was  her  schoolmaster ;  for  nothing  is  more 
misleading  than  ,the  exclusive  stress  placed  so  frequently  upon  the 
evangelistic  energy  of  our  fathers.  John  Wesley  had  a  genius  for  disci- 
pline ;  from  this  proceeded  hymns,  tracts,  rules  pf  societies,  books, 
schools,  and  philanthropic  schemes.  Originally  he  thought  only  of 
training  his  adherents  in  religious  hf  e  ;  then  of  training  his  helpers  and 
their  children  ;  then  of  the  neglected  classes. 

The  Methodist  schools  of  two  continents,  which  face  the  twentieth 
century,  are  the  splendid  outcome  of  this  genius  for  discipline.  They 
have  developed  differently  in  environments  full  of  contrasts,  but  in 
both  systems  the  chief  problem  remains,  namely,  how  to  find  the 
teacher  who  combines  competency  and  piety.  As  competency  under  the 
conditions  of  the  twentieth  century  involves  unusual  mental  power 
and  special  preparation,  the  difficulty  is  likely  to  increase.  Yet  with- 
out competent  teachers  our  schools  would  perish,  and  in  their  gradual 
decay  ruin  many  minds,  while  without  piety  they  would  defeat  the  pur- 
pose for  which  they  are  now  maintained. 

Our  Sunday  Schools  and  our  theological  schools  are  for  religious 
training  strictly.  The  relation  of  the  former  to  the  higher  schools  of 
learning,  however,  requires  serious  consideration.  They  are  no  lonaer 
for  poor  children  only  ;   in  America,   particularly,  the  religious   in- 


192  METHODISM    AND   EDUCATION. 

struction  received  by  thousands  of  children  is  limited  to  the  superficial 
study  of  one  fragment  of  the  Bible  weekly.  The  rules  for  Sunday 
Schools  of  the  Wesleyan  plan  of  education  are  admirable  ;  happy  the 
communion  in  which  they  prevail !  We,  of  the  MclhodisL  Episcopal 
Church,  find  it  difficult  to  obtain  for  the  elder  classes  teachers  of  ample 
knowledge  and  Christian  experience.  We  are  hampered,  moreover, 
by  a  lesson  system  which  cripples  denominational  and  personal  inde- 
pendence and  influence.  Whatever  may  be  gained  by  a  widespread 
uniformity,  spiritual  power  and  genuine  Scriptural  knowledge  are  not. 
The  piety  of  our  children  is  neither  robust  nor  intelligent,  and  is  bound 
up  with  implications  which  the  most  gifted  of  them  must  inevitably 
surrender,  directly  they  enter  the  higher  schools  of  learning.  Surely 
we  can  devise  text-books  for  our  Sunday  Schools  in  which  the  Bible 
shall  be  taught  according  to  its  own  grandeur,  and  thus  avert  for  ovv 
young  people  every  unnecessary  crisis.  Surely  we  can  find  teachers 
for  our  gifted  children  who  can  do  for  them  what  Ambrose  did  for 
Augustine,  preserve  them  from  vulgar  and  dangerous  error  and  lead 
them  to  the  truth. 

Our  schools  for  ministers  assume  that  God  will  call  from  among 
our  pious  lads  those  having  gifts  for  His  service.  The  ideal 
minister  is  not  easily  described ;  there  are  too  manj  species 
in  the  genus.  But  an  ideal  ministry  is  another  matter. 
For  the  Church  needs  not  a  multitude  of  ministers  of  one 
pattern,  but  a  sufficient  company  of  many  kinds.  It  should 
be  a  select  company,  trained  by  noble  teachers  for  every 
variety  of  Christian  work.  It  should  be  not  wholly,  nor  even  mainly, 
a  company  of  profound  scholars,  least  of  all  a  company  of  theological 
specialists,  yet  every  member  of  it  free  from  vulgar  prejudice,  with 
enough  powerful  and  candid  thinkers  to  give  the  entire  body  the 
authority  of  science,  while  every  member  of  it  ia  a  competent  guide 
to  essential  truth  and  to  Christian  living.  The  theological  school  of 
the  twentieth  century  must  educate  ministers  towards  the  light  and 
for  the  people,  according  to  their  several  gifts.  It  must  demand 
of  each  some  fine  aptitudes,  and  of  all  a  noble  diligence.  It  must  enlarge 
the  range  of  their  studies  to  include  every  great  contemporary  dis- 
covery ;  it  must  teach  them  to  face  courageously  and  wisely  the  social 
problems  of  epoch  and  environment ;  above  all,  it  must  inspire  them 
to  strive  for  superiority  in  saving  the  lost  and  preserving  the  foimd. 

The  introduction  of  the  scientific  method  into  theological  teaching 
has  created  trepidation,  but  the  age  has  rendered  it  imperative.  In 
the  first  place,  the  scientific  method  dominates  every  department  of 
knowledge  ;  theology  would  forfeit  recognition  as  a  science  if  it  insisted 
upon  its  rejection.  In  the  second  place,  the  scientific  method  could 
not  be  abandoned  to  the  enemies  of  Christianity  without  alienating 
every  scientifically-trained  intelligence.  In  the  third  place,  the  Eefor- 
mation  and  the  great  Revival  have  changed  completely  our  position. 
The  schoolmen  defended  the  authority  of  the  Church  ;  we  assert  the 
authority  of  the  Christian  conscience  and  defend  the  impli<^a- 
tions    of   Christian    experience.      In    this    sign,    as    Wesley    clearly 


ESSAY   BY    REV.    C.   J.    LITTLE.  I93 

perceived,  wo  must  conquer.  To  us  was  yivcn  ihe  grace  of 
testifying  to  the  iniinanence  of  the  living  Christ  in  the  believ- 
ing soul  ;  and  thus  preparing  for  the  changes  now  taking  place  in  the 
intellectual  world.  We  should  not  only  repel  from  our  ministry  the 
noblest  of  our  students,  but  we  should  discredit  our  own  testimony  to 
the  living  Christ,  if  we  refused  to  apply  the  intellectual  method  of  our 
epoch  to  the  traditions  that  we  have  inherited.  We  have  many  gifted 
minds  already  ;  there  will  be  many  mure  among  our  children  ;  and 
only  by  holding  these  for  our  Master  can  we  hope  to  transfigure  science 
and  literature  with  the  splendour  of  Christ. 

To  this  end  we  entered  upon  the  larger  field  for  general  education. 
Here,  again,  the  chief  problem  is  to  find  the  teacher  ;  to  find  him 
for  our  own  schools  while  we  find  him  also  for  the  schools  of  the 
State.  He  must  be  pious ;  he  must  be  competent ;  and 
he  is  going  to  be  a  layman.  The  nature  of  modern,  science, 
the  specialisation  so  characteristic  of  modern  education,  make  the 
latter  inevitable.  At  any  rate,  in  the  Colleges  and  Universities  of 
America  the  clergyman  is  conspicuously  absent,  where  he  used  to 
be  controlling.  The  environment  of  Methodism  in  the  British  Isles 
is  so  different  from  that  of  America  that  I  forbear  to  speak  of  English 
or  Irish  schools.  But  our  territory  is  so  vast  and  our  development 
so  rapid  that  schools  have  multiplied  beyond  our  means,  and  sometimes 
beyond  our  needs.  Then  the  States  liave  a  system  of  schools  crowned 
with  Universities  to  which  our  gifted  youth  are  drawn  by  the  reputa- 
tion of  great  teachers  and  by  magnificent  facilities  for  scientific  re- 
search. Our  teachers  of  ability  and  attainments  are  eagerly  welcomed 
to  the  famous  fichools  of  other  Denominations  and  of  the  State.  The 
education  of  our  negroesj  hampered  as  it  is  by  the  history  of  the  past, 
taxes  our  utmost  wisdom.  Our  meagre  settlements  and  mission  schools 
are  unable  to  cope  with  their  po'lyglot  enviromment.  The  demand  is 
for  unexampled  generosity,  economy,  consecration,  and  sagacity.  Build- 
ings, books,  apparatus,  adequate  for  modern  needs  are  not  easy  to 
obtain.  But  whence  shall  we  bring  teachers  alike  competent  and  pious  t 
Around  these  the  rest  may  accumulate  ;  without  these  the  rest  is  of 
no  value.  Into  the  few  Methodist  Colleges  of  sixty  years  ago  went  the 
best  brain  and  the  noblest  soul  of  our  American  ministry.  Now  we 
must  conquer  for  them  the  finest  intelligence,  the  richest  culture,  the 
deepest  piety  of  our  laity,  and  the  conquest  is  not  easy. 

Then,  again,  Methodism  is  within  the  State,  and  is  deeply  con- 
cerned with  the  action  of  the  State  respecting  education.  Certainly 
there  could  be  no  greater  calamity  to  a  country  than  for  the  schools 
of  it  to  fall  into  hands  hostile  to  Christianity.  The  picture  of  Dr. 
Rigg  sitting  at  the  same  table  with  Professor  Huxley  in  the  London 
School  Board  is  both  consoling  and  instructive.  For  it  shows  how, 
during  the  coming  century,  christian  intellect  may  and  must  assert 
itself  and  sometimes  ally  itself  with  commanding,  but  alien  per- 
sonalities. Aggressive  parties  are  contending  everywhere  for  the 
coming  generation^;  apathy  on  our  part  will  prove  a  costly  luxury. 
This  is  especially  true  of  the  situation  in  America.     The  danger  lies 

14 


194  METHODISM   AND    EDUCATION. 

in  the  growth  of  a  positive  irreligion,  of  a  covert  or  open  hostility  to 
Christianity.  During  the  nineteenth  century  the  influence  of  the 
entire  school  system  was  Christian  and  chiefly  Protestant.  There 
are  signs  of  an  Impending  change,  especially  in  the  higher  State 
schools  and  Universities.  Hence  the  presence  of  Methodist  scholars 
in  these  commanding  institutions  is  often  a  blessing  to  the  students. 
Their  religious  opinions  are  known  to  be  untrammelled  ;  their  learn- 
ing and  intelligence  give  weight  to  their  testimony,  and  they,  with 
their  Christian  colleagues,  attract  irresistibly  the  eager  and  serious 
youth  who  are  not  deaf  to  the  persuasions  of  eternity. 

Whether,  then,  we  consider  our  own  schools  or  the  schools  con- 
trolled by  the  State,  the  chief  problem  for  us  is  to  develop,  to  retain, 
and  to  economise  the  gifted  minds  born  and  brought  within  our 
borders.  This,  however,  will  require  a  breadth  of  view,  a  tolerance, 
and  a  discernment  of  intellectual  values  not  eve'rywhere  alarmingly 
abundant,  for  intellects  are  stunted  in  an  atmosphere  unfreshened 
by  candour  and  free  inquiry.  Men  and  women  eager  for  knowledge, 
and  urged  by  the  spirit  that  "  proves  all  things,"  will  not  be  tormented 
at  every  turn  by  the  cry  of  "  No  thoroughfare  !  "  The  demand  for 
mental  power  is  so  great  in  the  modern  world  that,  although  ita 
nobler  possessors  may  go  unrewarded,  they  are  not  willing  to  be 
wasted.  Furthermore,  if  our  gifted  youth  are  fo  be  won  away  from 
the  chief  corruption  of  the  time,  t'he  degradation  of  magnificent  powers 
to  the  mere  increase  of  individual  wealth,  they  must  be  offered  diviner 
opportunities.  Or  if  they  are  to  combine  with  commercial  genius 
and  administrative  power,  the  delights  of  knowledge  and  of  philan- 
thropic activity,  these  must  be  presented  to  them  as  prizes  wortTiy  of 
their  utmost  effort. 

It  is  pleasant  to  recall  the  triumphs  of  the  past ;  the  story  of  our 
schools  is  splendid  with  sacrifice  and  immortal  names.  We  are 
expecting  a  future  of  corresponding  grandeur.  It  is,  however,  the 
blunder  of  new  communities  to  overlook  the  changes  wrought  by  their 
own  success  or  concomitant  with  their  own  prosperity.  We  are  no 
longer  a  group  of  despised  societies  within  the  Church  of  England. 
The  bones  of  our  founder  lie  outside  her  cathedrals,  but  the  whole 
earth  is  his  sepulchre,  and  his  descendants  form  independent  organisa- 
tions charged  with  the  spiritual  destiny  of  millions.  Neither,  though, 
are  we  standing  alone  for  the  strange  warming  of  the  heart  and  the 
proclamation  of  free  agency.  Our  lines  have  gone  into  all  the  earth, 
and  there  is  no  ecclesiastical  speech  where  their  voice  is  not  heard. 
We  separated  our  children  from  their  ancient  inheritance  that  we  and 
they  might  reach  a  nobler  stature  and  live  above  the  common  level. 
If  we  keep  them  separate  it  must  be  for  the  same  great  end. 

As  the  religious  aspect  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  world  has  changed,  so 
has  its  social  structure.  Industrial  order,  political  institutions, 
schools,  science,  literature,  modes  of  feeling  and  of  thinking,  ideas  of 
nature,  of  man,  of  God  and  His  Kingdom,  all  are  changed  or  chang- 
ing.    The  environment  is  full  of  challenge,  of  social  conflicts  and  con- 


ADDRESS   BY   MR.    T.    G.    OSBORN.  X95 

trasts,  of  painful  realities  and  entioing  dreams  and  beneficent  enter- 
prises, of  bold  imaginalions  and  intellect'ial  victories.  Nor  is  it  clear 
huw  the  school  of  t(j-day  is  related  to  this  whirl  of  complex  humanity. 
It  cannot,  we  know,  escape  the  currents  of  the  age,  but  does  it  control 
or  is  it  yielding  to  them  ?  Is  it  only  a  part  of  the  machinery  whereby 
crude  intellect  is  converted  into  streams  of  fire  for  the  increase  of 
material  splendour?  Or  is  it  the  training  place  for  a  sublimer  species, 
for  the  princes  of  a  new  society  who  shall  rule  by  the  divine  right 
of  superior  knowledge  and  beneficent  intention?  That  depends,  it 
seems  to  me,  upon  the  amount  and  the  quality  of  Christian  mind  now 
operating  in  our  educational  systems.  If  the  Christian  teachers  are 
the  masters  of  them  that  know,  then  the  separation  of  the  clergy 
from  secular  education,  due  to  the  specialisation  of  knowledge,  the 
immense  expansion  of  physical  scieice,  and  the  universal  adoption 
of  the  scientific  method,  need  not  involve  any  damage  to  Christian 
morality  or  piety.  The  richest  of  our  Methodist  schools  is  poor 
measured  by  existing  standards.  If  they  are  to  survive  under  the  new 
conditions,  they  must  afford  tlie  largest  opportunities — not  for  the 
pomp  and  circumstance  of  education — but  for  the  mastery  of  mind 
and  of  knowledge.  Then,  if  our  teachers  are  aglow  with  Christian 
experience  we  shall  furnish  our  share  of  the  princes  of  the  future. 

If  from  our  homes  we  are  sending  to  the  modern  schools  of  Church 
and  State  men  and  women,  who  are  peers  of  the  mightiest  in  discovery 
and  reason,  and  yet  full  of  faith  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  we  are  con- 
tributing to  the  transfiguration  of  science  and  literature  and  to  the 
conquest  of  creation  by  and  for  a  better  people.  We  have  homes 
enough  where  wealth  abounds.  But  have  we  men  and  women  in  them 
wise  enough  to  see  and  noble  enough  to  ackriowledge  that  the  conquest 
of  an  age  like  ours  is  impossible  with  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  the 
rich  man's  table,  that  it  demands  an  outpour  of  treasure  commensurate 
with  the  golden  stream  that  floats  our  mighty  industrial  combinations  ? 
Upon  these  tilings  depend  our  part  in  the  education  of  the  twentieth 
century  and,  to  no  small  extent,  our  destiny  as  a  people.  For  no 
organisation  can  live  without  the  intelligence  to  deal  with  its  environ- 
ment, to  escape  its  dangers  and  to  discern  ils  opportunities.  The 
wheels  of  God  are  full  of  eyes. 

Mr.  T.  G.  OsBORN,  M.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  gave  the 
first  appointed  address  on  this  topic.     He  said  : 

A  man  who  has  to  speak  on  Education  for  exactly  ten  minutes,  if  he 
has  not  the  gift  of  being  epigrammatic,  can  hardly  avoid  being  dog- 
matic. I  must  in  a  moment  explain  the  limits  and  restrictions  fixed 
for  me,  partly  by  my  own  knowledge  and  experience,  and  partly  by 
choice. 

I  shall  limit  myself  to  Higher  or  Secondary,  as  distinguished 
from  Primary  or  Elementary,  Education.  Then,  again,  in  this  Con- 
ference I  wish  to  confine  myself  to  the  religious,  and  exclude  the 
political,  the  semi-political,  and  even  the  social  aspects  of  the  question. 


196  METHODISM   AND   EDUCATION. 

Moreover,  I  must  bo  fvankly  insular,  for  I  liavo  but  little  knowledge  of 
the  education  of  the  West,  although  I  believe  that  there  has  been  a 
very  distinct  movement  towards  not  identity,  but  similarity  of  educa- 
tional aims  and  methods  in  England  and  America  during  the  last 
twenty  years.  Then,  too,  if  I  can  get  up  high  enough  into  the  region 
of  first  principles  and  highest  truth,  local  considerations  will  be  of 
little  importance.  Perhaps  I  shall  be  forgiven  if  I  sometimes  substitute 
Religion  for  Methodism.  The  tendency  towards  agreement  on  the 
principles  and  processes  of  Higher  Education  which  I  have  already 
referred  to  as  existing  in  England  and  America  is,  I  believe,  actively 
working  in  all  civilised  countries,  and  education  in  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury will  be  profoundly  modified  by  this.  The  freer  co-operation,  the 
wider  experience,  and  the  more  extended  induction  will  do  much  to 
improve  methods  and  to  secure  better  results,  while  the  doctrine  of  the 
survival  of  the  fittest  will  be  found  to  apply  to  theories  and  systems  as 
well  as  to  organisms.  So  much  one  may  safely  prophesy  as  to  education 
in  the  twentieth  century  ;  but  in  reference  to  these  early  years  of  the 
century,  I  wish  to  call  special  attention  to  two  points. 

(1)  As  to  the  curriculum  or  range  of  studies  in  our  schools.  These 
must  necessarily  be  twofold — practical  and  formative — or,  as  some 
American  writers  have  conveniently  phrased  it,  "Vocation"  and 
''Culture"  subjects.  Now,  the  tendency  of  the  day  is  to  ignore  the 
culture  and  lay  all  stress  on  the  vocation.  No  one  can  have  read  the 
English  Press  and  the  speeches  of  prominent  men  in  England  for  the 
last  year  or  two  without  realising  that  the  great  demand  here  is  for  an 
education  that  will  pay,  that  will  help  us  to  meet  our  commercial  rivals 
and  compete  with  one  in  inventiveness  and  another  in  enterprise.  This 
is  undeniably  of  great  importance,  and  there  is  much  to  be  said  for  it. 
What  I  want  to  do  is  to  suggest  two  correctives.  First — ^and  but  in 
passing — even  from  the  mental  and  intellectual  standpoint,  this  is  mis- 
leading, unless  carefully  guarded.  You  cannot  teach  enterprise  ;  you 
cannot  instruct  in  originality  ;  and  if  the  mind  of  a  child  in  its  opening 
stages  is  narrowed  and  confined  in  its  range,  it  will  be  cramped  and 
crippled  in  its  subsequent  movements.  Chemists  tell  us  of  the  peculiar 
powers  of  nascent  substances,  and  there  is  something  very  similar  to 
this  in  human  nature.  It  is  a  blunder,  if  not  a  crime,  to  starve  and 
stunt  the  growing  intelligence  of  a  child  by  confining  it  to  the  minimum 
of  mental  food.  But,  secondly,  on  the  moral  and  spiritual  side,  this  is 
still  more  serious.  No  theory  of  education  is  worth  discussing  that 
does  not  recognise  the  profound  truth  that  "Man  shall  not  live  by 
bread  alone."  One  of  the  deadliest  foes  of  the  coming  generations  will 
be  materialism.  I  am  inclined  to  parody  and  reverse  the  saying  of  a 
French  statesman,  and  say,  "  Materialism— that  is  the  foe."  It  is  a 
foe  that  must  be  fought  in  the  schoolroom,  if  it  is  to  be  fought  success- 
fully. We  were  warned  the  other  day  by  Dr.  Allen  against  the  grow- 
ing selfishness  of  the  age.  What  wonder  that  this  grows  if  boys  and 
girls  have  their  thought  and  work  tied  down  to  what  is  called  "  getting 
on  in  life  "  ?  Christian  parents  often  have  lamentably  low  ideas  of  their 
duty   in  this  respect.     They  aim   at  having  their  children  educated 


ADDRESS    BY   MR.    T.    G.    OSBORN.  I97 

according  to  the  measure  of  their  commercial  productiveness,  with 
scarcely  a  thought  for  the  development  of  their  mental  and  moral 
powers,  and  their  infinite  possibilities  of  doing  good.  We  must  from 
the  very  first  let  our  children  see  that  the  ideal  is  not  success,  but 
service. 

Again,  I  wish  to  say  something  as  to  another  and  perhaps  a  more 
subtle  danger.  It  is  a  matter  of  growing  importance,  and,  I  think, 
will  be  found  of  increasing  difficulty  to  secure  that  Higher  Education 
should  be  well-balanced  and  symmetrical.  This  may  seem  to  some 
too  technical,  but  I  believe  grave  moral  and  religious  issues  are  in- 
volved. The  claims  of  the  Nature  sciences  to  the  supreme  and  almost 
exclusive  place  in  modern  education  will  have  to  be  faced  and  settled. 
The  marvellous  advance  of  these  sciences  of  late  years,  and  their  fre- 
quent association  with  the  utilitarian  and  materialistic  theories  of  the 
day,  distinctly  threaten  that  symmetrical  development  of  mind  and 
faculty  which  is  the  aim  of  all  true  education.  I  must  not  be  supposed 
to  be  depreciating  science  in  the  interest  of  the  Church  or  of  anything 
else.  I  rejoice  in  its  advance  and  its  victories.  I  would  not  say  one 
word  to  disparage  the  earnest  and  reverent  study  of  Nature.  I  would 
not  exclude  it  from  any,  even  the  simplest,  scheme  of  education.  I  am 
not  afraid  of  the  results  of  scientific  inquiry — however  the  light  reaches 
us,  let  it  come  ;  we  know  from  whom  it  comes,  and  there  is  healing  in 
its  wings.  But  I  am  afraid  of  what  some  men  of  influence  are  advocat- 
ing among  us  to-day — an  education  based  almost  entirely  on  scientific 
instruction  and  investigation,  for  which  most  of  the  older  studies  are  to 
be  brushed  aside  as  out-of-date  and  useless.  An  education  based 
wholly  on  such  science  would  be  cold,  hard,  soulless,  religionless.  The 
retention  of  linguistic  and  literary  studies  in  a  prominent  place  in  edu- 
cation is  more  than  an  antiquated  prejudice.  It  is  more  than  ever 
intellectually  necessary  in  the  earlier  stages  of  study,  in  view  of  the 
almost  infinite  specialisation  now  found  in  modem  scientific  work. 

But  I  must  confine  myself  to  the  religious  aspect.  We  all  believe 
that  the  young  should  be  taught  to  study  Nature  and  its  laws — the 
work  of  God's  fingers  and  the  impress  of  His  mind ;  but  we  must  not 
forget  that  God's  clearest  revelation  to  man  is  given  in  human  lan- 
guage, enshrined  in  a  wonderful  literature,  and  illustrated  by  centuries 
of  history.  We  must  never  let  the  work  of  His  hands  supplant  the 
message  of  His  love,  nor  forget  that  when  God  would  come  nearest  to 
man  He  revealed  Himself  as  the  Word.  Some  here  may  think  that  all 
this  is  but  an  imaginary  danger.  Yet  I  read  a  few  days  ago  in  the 
•'  Saturday  Review  "  that  the  anti-religious  party  in  France  had  realised 
the  wisdom  of  the  policy  of  "capturing  the  schools.''  They  are  not 
behindhand  in  England.  We  must  save  our  schools  and  colleges  from 
that.  It  is  of  vital  importance  that  for  our  children  education  should 
not  mean  alienation. 

(2)  The  second  point  on  which  I  would  fain  have  spoken  is  the  grave 
question,  "Who  are  to  be  the  teacliers  in  the  new  century?"  If  your 
teachers  are  religious  men  and  women,  no  curriculum  and  no  time-table 
can  make  our  education  "godless,"  but  to  entrust  the  training  of  our 


jpS  METHODISM   AND   EDUCATION. 

children  to  those  who  are  indifferent  or  irreligious,  in  the  hope  that 
home  or  Church  will  redress  the  balance,  seems  to  me  a  most  hazardous 
experiment.  Our  friends  from  the  West  will  remember  that  with  us 
a  very  large  number  of  those  receiving  Higher  Education  are  in  board- 
ing schools  or  residential  Colleges.  How,  then,  are  we  to  secure  a 
supply  and  a  succession  of  competent  Christian  teachers  ?  To  my  mind, 
this  is  one  of  the  most  difficult,  as  it  is  also  one  of  the  most  essential, 
problems  which  we  shall  have  to  deal  with  in  this  century.  Our  pre- 
sent provision  for  education  is  by  no  means  equal  to  our  present  needs, 
and,  although  the  recognition  of  our  just  claim  to  an  unfettered  share 
in  the  national  provision  cannot  be  much  longer  delayed,  we  must  not 
forget  that  it  will  be  many  years  before  places  of  learning  like  our 
great  public  schools,  that  have  for  centuries  been  under  direction  and 
influences  hostile  to  us  and  to  our  views,  will  be  so  free  as  to  do  for  us 
the  special  work  for  which  I  have  been  pleading. 

Another  interesting  point  which  I  should  like  to  have  raised  is  the 
connection  of  teachers  with  the  Church.  I  have  heard  William  Arthur 
argue  for  a  distinct  Order  of  Teachers  in  our  own  Churches,  but  I  am 
not  prepared  to  go  so  far  as  that  at  present.  It  would,  however,  be  well 
if  something  could  be  done  to  bind  our  higher  teachers  closer  together 
and  to  our  Church,  not  merely  to  give  parents  greater  confidence,  but 
to  give  teachers  greater  influence.  I  do  not  myself  believe  that  to 
entrust  the  education  of  our  children  to  the  ministry  is  the  solution  of 
this,  not  only  because  of  the  Past,  in  which  this  method  has  had  unfor- 
tunate association,  and  created  bitter  memories,  but  because  of  the 
Future,  in  which  the  preparation  for  both  professions  must  be  much 
longer  and  more  elaborate  than  it  has  been  ;  while  the  training  will 
have  to  be  widely  different.  I  should  gladly  hail  some  practical  sug- 
gestion which  would  give  our  Churches  power  to  avail  themselves  of  the 
rising  tide  of  interest  in,  and  enthusiasm  for.  Higher  Education  in  our 
own  day. 

Professor  H.  T.  Kealing  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church) 
gave  the  second  appointed  address,  as  follows : 

This  subject  looks  to  the  future,  and  places  me  in  the  r61e  of  a 
prophet,  always  a  diflicult,  and  often  a  discredited,  one  to  the  unin- 
spired man.  But  it  is  not  impossible  to  forecast  some  things  accu- 
rately, guided  by  their  history,  constitution,  characteristics,  and  mani- 
fest tendencies  ;  and  on  that  firm  ground  I  take  my  stand  here.  If 
the  world's  estimate  of  Methodism  as  a  reformatory  and  educational 
force  depended  upon  Methodist  opinion  and  assertion  alone,  it  might 
well  lie  under  the  suspicion  of  being  overrated.  General  Booth, 
when  in  America,  told  of  an  Irishman,  named  Pat  Maloney,  who 
applied  for  employment,  but  had  no  recommendation.  On  being  told 
that  he  must  bring  a  paper  showing  that  he  was  honest,  reliable,  and 
industrious,  he  retired,  but  soon  returned,  saying,  "  And  sure,  here 
it  is."  The  paper,  when  opened,  read  as  follows:  "This  is  Pat 
Maloney.  He  is  a  jewel,  honest,  reliable,  and  the  most  industrious 
man    I    have    ever   known.     (Signed)  Pat    Maloney."     We    have    not 


ADDRESS    BY   PROFESSOR  H.   T.    KEALING.  1 99 

signed  our  own  credentials.  Wlien  Lecky  credits  Methodism  with 
having  saved  England  from  a  coanterpart  of  the  French  Revolution  ; 
when  Green  accounts  Wesley's  Church  the  least  result  of  the  AVesleyan 
Movement  ;  when  Canon  Fai'rar  acknowledges  it  to  be  a  mighty  lever 
in  advancing  national  and  technical  education  ;  and  when  Lincoln 
asserted  that  Methodism  contributed  a  larger  quota  of  soldiers  to 
save  the  American  Union  than  all  the  other  Churches  combined,  we 
may  consider  that  its  place  among  the  saving  and  civilising  forces  of 
the  world  is  no  longer  an  open  question. 

The  Methodist  Church  has  ever  been  a  pioneer,  going  wherever  there 
were  people,  and  sometimes  where  there  were  none,  to  be  sure  there 
were  none.  In  the  early  days  of  settlement  in  America,  when  the 
woods  were  full  of  bears  and  other  ferocious  animals,  if  anything  were 
heard  breaking  the  sticks  in  emerging  from  the  cane-brake,  the  old 
hunter  would  seize  his  gun,  and  then  caution  his  companion,  "  Don't 
shoot  till  you  see  whether  it  is  a  bear  or  a  Methodist  preacher."  Since 
those  days  we  have  made  great  strides  in  all  respects,  especially  in  the 
work  of  providing  schools  for  the  young  and  seminaries  for  theological 
training. 

Our  Western  statistics,  not  quite  complete,  show  431  institutions  of 
higher  learning,  with  70,000  students,  and  nearly  25,000,000  dols.  in 
school  property.  We  raised  for  education  last  year  1,211,247  dols. 
This  is  for  combined  American  Methodism.  Of  those  forty  institu- 
tions, 7,000  students,  1,000,000  dols.  in  school  property,  and  90,000 
dollars  raised  last  year,  belong  to  the  Negroes  as  represented  by  their 
three  leading  Denominations,  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal,  the 
African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion,  and  the  Coloured  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Churches.  In  addition,  there  is  the  projected  American  Univer- 
sity for  post-graduate  work,  at  Washington,  soon  to  be  a  reality — • 
truly  a  twentieth  century  conception !  Eight  million  dols.  of  the 
Twentieth  Century  Fund  of  twenty  millions  have  been  raised  or 
pledged.  One-half  of  this  will  go  to  education.  On  this  side  of  the 
water,  you  have  Kingswood  School  and  some  twenty  other  institutions, 
and,  in  addition  to  others,  the  Wesleyan  Church  is  engaged  in  raising 
one  million  guineas  as  a  Twentieth  Century  Fund. 

There  is  much  more  to  be  said  on  this  phase  of  my  subject,  but 
brevity  of  time  and  the  importance  of  another  phase,  enjoin  me  to 
take  it  up  here  lest  the  scope  of  Methodism  as  an  educator  be  thought 
to  be  confined  to  school  work.  It  has  led  in  movements  for  the 
alleviation  of  distress  and  the  improvement  of  social  conditions  ;  and 
in  this,  possibly,  more  than  in  its  organised  schools,  it  has  been  the 
educator  of  the  people.  John  Wesley,  Charles  Wesley,  and  George 
Whitefield  have  been  the  school-masters  of  the  world.  If  we  would 
know  the  record  of  this  movement,  we  must  know  the  life  of  John 
Wesley  ;  if  we  would  know  its  twentieth  century  tendencies  and 
prospects  we  must  know  the  purposes  of  John  Wesley  ;  for  Wesley 
was  INIethodism  concentrated,  and  Methodism  is  Wesley  disseminated. 
His  character  has  become  its  characteristics.  What  he  sought  to  do 
it  will  do  ;  what  he  purposed,  it  proposes. 


200  METHODISM   AND   EDUCATION. 

I  said  Methodism  was  a  pioneer.  Let  us  see.  Wesley  taught  per- 
fection in  this  world  ;  lived  the  doctrine  of  self-denial  and  liberality  ; 
established  banks  for  the  poor  ;  founded  the  first  free  dispensaries  ; 
first  gave  cheap  dissemination  to  saving  truth  by  the  weekly  news- 
paper ;  was  mentor  of  the  people's  social  and  domestic  as  well  as 
spiritual  life  ;  was  opposed  to  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks  ;  ante-dated 
Clarkson  and  Wilberforce  as  an  anti-slavery  advocate  ;  preceded  John 
Howard  in  ameliorating  prison  life  ;  instituted  funeral  reform  ;  en- 
nobled open-air  preaching  ;  was  second  only  to  Luther  in  instituting 
the  greatest  Evangelical  reform  in  history,  out  of  which,  besides  our 
own  form,  have  come  the  spiritualising  of  the  Established  Church  and 
the  energising  of  the  Salvation  Army.  All  these  practices  and  opinions 
became,  logically  and  inevitably,  formulated  Methodism,  so  that, 
following  this  little  scarlet  thread,  we  not  only  find  what  it  is,  but 
arrive  at  a  point  of  clear  outlook  into  what  it  is  to  be.  Accordingly, 
Methodism  stands  for  the  Gospel  preached  to  the  poor  ;  a  heart-felt 
religion  ;  pure  and  simple  living  ;  generous  giving  ;  institutional  relief 
of  suffering  ;  liberty  and  equality  of  opportunity  for  all  men  ;  alcoholic ' 
abstinence  ;  social  purity,  and  the  evangelisation  of  the  world.  80 
strongly  rooted  is  it  in  these  principles  that  even  its  great  but  errant 
Whitefield  could  neither  lead  it  into  s.lave-holding  nor  Calvinism  ; 
and,  in  1844,  it  sadly  pointed  the  way  to  the  American  people  by 
which,  sixteen  years  later,  the  great  Thor  hammer  of  the  Civil  War, 
at  one  and  the  same  time,  broke  in  pieces,  slavery,  the  rock  of  offence, 
and  rewelded  the  nation  into  a  more  glorious  and  indissoluble  union 
based  on  the  All-Fatherhood  of  God  and  the  all-brotherhood  of  man. 
This  work  is  still  to  be  finished  in  the  century  before  us. 

What  of  the  work  of  education  and  uplift  among  the  labouring 
classes?  Wesley  found  them  in  unutterable  vice  and  squalor  in  1745. 
He  began  preaching  to  them  in  Northumberland,  and  they  have  so 
grown  in  worth  and  manhood  that  our  day  has  seen  the  miner  in 
Parhament  and  the  stonemason  in  the  Cabinet.  Methodism  has  proved 
the  best  school  the  people  ever  had.  It  has  done  more  to  adjust  the 
relations  of  labour  and  capital  in  England  than  any  other  agency. 
Right  here  is  the  root  of  the  whole  matter.  Beget  right  views,  respect 
and  self-respect  among  men,  and  you  bring  in  peace,  prosperity, 
plenty  ;   otherwise,  warfare,  strikes,  misery. 

There  are  on  this  side  of  the  water  eight  Methodist  Denominations, 
with  a  round  total  of  1,225,004  members  ;  in  America  there  are  seven- 
teen Denominations,  with  6,247,239  members  ;  about  six  of  these 
Denominations  and  1,400,000  of  these  members  represent  coloured 
organisations.  How  has  this  great  growth  been  attained  ?  By  our  own 
peculiar  system  of  lay  preachers  w^orking  in  conjunction  with  the 
itinerancy.  These  men,  undifferentiated  from  the  pews,  have  sought 
the  people,  caught  the  people,  taught  the  people,  and  brought  the 
people.  The  lay  preacher  is  the  stay  preacher,  and  without  him  woe 
to  the  pay  preacher  !  When  Wesley  heard  his  mother's  counsel,  buried 
his  prejudices,    and   said  to   the  layman,  Thomas   Maxfield,    "Preach 


ADDRESS    BY    PROFESSOR   H.    T.    KEAI.TNG.  20I 

on!"  he  cli-iiigcd  the  wliolo  smial  and  political  history  of  two 
contiiu'iits. 

You  have  leariit  the  strength  of  this  arm  better  llian  we  nf  America 
have,  for  while  we  have  about  40,000  ordained  ministers,  and  a  littlo 
over  the  same  number  of  local  preacliers,  or  one  lay  preacher  to  one 
ordained  ;  you  have  6,319  ordained  preachers  to  over  58,000  lay,  or 
nine  lay  to  one  ordained.  The  result  is,  you  are  in  closer  touch  with 
your  mas.ses,  and  exercise  more  influence  over  them  in  secular  affairs 
than  we  can.  Dr.  Fairbairn  tells  us  that  the  regulative  ideas  of  the 
English  labouring  classes  are  religious  rather  than  utilitarian  and 
secular,  and  this  has  been  brought  about  by  the  ministrations  of  the 
lay  preachers.  We  are  further  told  that  one  half  the  leaders  of  the 
English  mining  associations,  comprising  400,000  men,  are  lay  preachers 
in  Methodist  Churches.  When  I  remember  that  Methodism  was 
planted  in  America  by  Barbara  Heck  and  Philip  Embury,  I  wonder  that 
we  have  been  so  slow  to  utilise  this  arm  of  might  as  we  should. 

I  pause  here  to  remark  that  in  that  first  American  Methodist  con- 
gregation of  four,  one  was  of  my  race,  and  she  is  the  denominational 
mother  of  1,500,000  swarthy  Methodist  sons  who  greet  you  to-day 
through  me.     Not  far  wrong  was  he  who  said : 

"  There's  not  a  movement,   good  or  bad, 
Wherever  men  begin  it, 
But  surely  somehow,  first  or  last, 
Will  have  a  negro  in  it." 

Methodism  is  remarkable  in  being  so  mobile  in  form  and  yet  so 
adamantine  in  essence.  It  seems,  in  every  land,  to  bring  in  that  most 
lacking.  In  your  monarchy  it  manifests  itself  as  a  democracy  ;  in  our 
republic  it  assumes  the  monarchical  form,  and  in  each  case  is  the 
better  for  it. 

Do  not  think  I  have  missed  my  subject.  I  have  been  bringing 
stones  from  the  quarries  of  the  past  with  which  to  build  an  observa- 
tory for  spying  into  the  future.  From  this  outlook,  as  I  see  it, 
Methodism  will  continue  to  foster  educational  institutions,  both  colle- 
giate and  parochial,  for  the  formal  training  of  the  young.  The  great 
American  University  in  Washington  designed  to  bring  God  into  philo- 
sophical and  scientific  research,  will  become  a  reality ;  for  while  we 
love  learning,  and  were  born  in  a  College,  we  realise  that  godless 
training  leads  to  ungodly  living,  and  with  the  master-poet  of  the 
recently  past  century  we  exclaim  : 

"Hold  fast  the  truth,  define  it  well, 
For  fear  divine  philosophy 
Should  pusli  beyond  lier  mark  and  be 
Procuress  to  the  lords  of  hell." 

We  are  to  enlarge  and  numerically  increase  our  schools  of  the 
prophets,  so  that  no  odium  of  narrowness  shall  discredit  the  zeal  of 
our  pulpits  ;   and  to  this  will  be  added  a  university  extension  feature 


202  METHODISM   AND   EDUCATION. 

for  the  lay  preachers.  But,  although  faithful  to  the  interests  of  the 
young,  as  in  the  past,  our  most  important  educational  services  will 
still  be  to  society,  government,  and  the  home.  We  are  to  teach  the 
nations  as  well  as  the  nations'  children.  The  great  reforms  begun  by 
Wesley  are  not  completed.     Let  the  twentieth  century  complete  them, 

I  know  that  many  believe  the  distinctive  work  of  Methodism  is  done, 
but  that  is  where  we  have  been  conforming  and  stopped  reforming. 
We  have  in  many  instances  shrunk  from  our  work,  but  tliat  is  the 
shame  of  Methodists,  and  not  the  blame  of  Methodism.  This  shall  be 
our  corrective  century,  when,  sneered  at  from  the  slippery  heights  of 
human  pride,  and  called  to  from  the  sodden  depths  of  human  need,  we 
shall  awake  from  our  Delilah-bound  slumbers,  and  break  our  withs  like 
grass.  We  are  to  walk  in  the  way  of  Timnath,  and  as  the  Spirit  of 
the  Lord  came  upon  Samson  when  he  went  up  against  the  young  lion 
and  rent  him,  so  we  are  to  go  up  against  the  lion  of  intemperance  and 
rend  it,  feeling  sure  that  out  of  the  carcase  in  due  time  shall  come 
the  honey  of  happy  homes, strong  sons,  and  virtuous  daughters.  On 
a  barren  stretch  of  island  shore,  where  all  was  salt  and  sand  and  sun, 
an  exhausted  shipwrecked  sailor  perished  for  want  of  food,  even  after 
he  was  saved  from  the  waves.  A  single  cocoa-nut  drifted  to  that  island 
afterwards,  took  root,  and  grew  into  a  lordly  tree  ;  and  when  many 
years  subsequently  another  shipwrecked  man  was  cast  ashore,  he 
found  on  that  lonely  beach  both  water  and  food  for  his  need  hanging 
from  the  boughs.  So  now,  for  weary  souls,  once  in  better  surround- 
ings, but  now  perishing  in  the  dreary  wastes  of  poverty  and  unloved 
life.  Twentieth  Century  Methodism  plants  a  tree  which  shall  feed 
and  water  their  yearning  souls. 

Then  there  is  the  other  class,  who  have  never  known  better  things, 
in  whom  the  weight  of  hereditary  depravity  acts  to  sink  them  into  all 
vice.  What  is  the  mission  of  Methodism  to  these?  If  you  drop  a 
lump  of  iron  into  water  it  will  sink  ;  but  if  you  beat  that  lump  into 
a  thin  sheet,  and  fashion  it  into  a  pan,  it  will  float,  although  having 
all  its  former  weight.  Methodism  shall  take  these  lumps  of  human 
iron,  ever  tending  downward,  and  beat  and  mould  and  fashion  them, 
with  all  their  weight  of  human  nature  and  defect,  into  vessels  of 
honour  that  will  not  sink,  but  float.  As  the  water  lily  draws  white- 
ness, sweetness,  and  beauty  from  the  mire  of  the  stagnant  pool,  or 
as  science  has  taught  us  to  get  light  and  heat  for  the  community  out 
of  its  garbage,  so  must  Twentieth  Century  Methodism  draw  virtue  from 
the  slum  and  Christian  graces  from  the  brothel.  We  are  still  sent  to 
the  poor  and  the  despised. 

One  of  the  greatest  works  for  us  in  this  century  is  to  throttle  the 
tyranny  of  commercialism  which  is  fast  overwhelming  us  and  substitut- 
ing interest  for  ethics.  We  are  expanding  and  elbowing  on  every  side, 
nominally  to  spread  the  blessings  of  our  civilisation  and  the  Christian 
religion,  but  really,  too  often,  to  sell  our  whisky  and  tobacco.  Is  it 
fair  that  Christianity  should  be  made  the  victim  of  a  commerce  it  has 
created?  You  remember  the  story  of  the  fisherman  who  drew  a  copper 
kettle  from  the  water  ?    When  he  opened  it  a  mist  arose  till  it  assumed 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  203 

the  form  of  a  giant,  and  bade  him  prepare  to  die.  When  the  poor 
fisherman  asked  the  cause  of  this  strange  ingratitude,  the  giant  replied  : 
"  I  was  cast  in  here  by  King  Solomon,  centuries  ago  ;  for  many  years  I 
offered  riches  and  lionour  to  whomsoever  would  rescue  me  ;  but  no  one 
coming,  at  last  in  rage  I  vowed  to  kill  the  one  who  should  rescue  me. 
You  are  the  unfortunate  man."  The  fisherman  professed  to  be  resigned 
to  his  fate,  but  asked  the  giant  to  re-enter  the  kettle  to  prove  that  so 
huge  a  body  had  really  occupied  so  small  a  space.  This  the  giant  did, 
when  the  fisherman,  clapping  on  the  lid,  would  not  release  him  till  he 
promised  protection  and  obedience  to  his  deliverer.  So  Christianity 
released  Commerce  to  opportunities  it  never  had  before,  and  now 
Commerce  threatens  its  deliverer  with  death.  We  must  coax  it  back 
into  bounds,  and  make  it  our  messenger  rather  than  our  master.  The 
golden  rule  must  outrank  the  rule  of  gold,  and  love  for  man  control  the 
lust  for  loot. 

Methodism  must  cease  not,  day  nor  night,  to  sound  the  clarion  blast 
that  shall  call  men  up  from  their  sordid  pursuits  to  the  heights  of 
spiritual  life.  They  will  respond  with  a  shout  if  we  blow  our  trumpets, 
break  our  pitchers,  and  show  our  lights.  They  always  have  ;  they 
always  will  ;  the  best  in  man  answers  to  the  best  in  God's  Church,  for 
both  are  of  the  same  spirit.  A  hunter  on  a  mountain  found  a  young 
eagle  in  the  nest,  and,  taking  him  home,  dropped  him  in  the  barn-yard 
with  the  chickens  and  thought  no  more  about  it.  The  little  fellow 
attached  himself  to  an  old  hen,  and  entered  into  all  the  pursuits  of  his 
fellows.  He  grew  day  by  day,  but  he  never  sought  to  use  his  wings  that 
had  become  long  and  strong.  One  day  he  paused  and  lifted  his  head, 
for  there  came  sounding  down  through  the  blue  a  scream.  Although 
he  had  never  heard  it  before,  he  knew  that  it  was  an  eagle's  voice,  and 
there  was  born  in  him  the  self-same  moment  the  knowledge  that  he 
was  an  eagle  too.  With  one  answering  cry  he  lifted  his  wings  and 
mounted  above  the  trees,  houses,  everything,  to  join  his  kind  in  his 
sphere.  So  let  the  Church  of  Wesley  sound  the  call  from  its  height, 
and  men  who  have  too  long  been  consorting  with  that  which  is  beneath 
the  Divine  in  them  will  awake  to  their  real  life,  and,  putting  forth  their 
untried  spiritual  wings,  they  "  shall  renew  their  strength,  they  shall 
mount  up  with  wings  as  eagles,  they  shall  run,  and  not  be  weary  ;  and 
they  shall  walk,  and  not  faint." 

The  Rev.  J.  Hope  Moulton,  M.A.  (WesleyaB  Methodist  Church), 
opened  tho  general  discussion  on  the  topic.     He  said : 

I  am  nearing  the  end  of  a  sixteen  years'  mastership  at  a  Methodist 
public  school,  and  have  been  thinking  how  to  condense  into  five 
minutes  some  rather  miscellaneous  fruits  of  experience.  To  be  scrappy 
is  the  inevitable  result  of  this  limitation.  Our  problem  is  the  combina- 
tion of  sound  and  thorough  education  with  the  all-pervading  influence  of 
vital  religion,  and  particularly  of  that  kind  of  religion  which  we 
express  by  the  word  Methodism. 

In  this  country  we  are  at  a  grave  disadvantage.  Practically,  secondary 
education  is  in  the  hands  still  of  one  Church;  and  a  large  and  active 
section  of  that  Church  is  zealous  for  education  avowedly  because  it  is 


204  METHODISM   AND   EDUCATION. 

SO  easy  to  teach  an  iintliinking  boy  their  first  and  great  commandment, 
"Thou  shalt  not  enter  a  Dissenting  cliapcl."  In  the  face  of  this 
organised  proselytism,  which  woukl  filch  away  our  chiklren  before  tiliey 
are  old  enough  to  know  the  meaning  and  the  history  uf  their  fathers' 
faith,  the  Free  Churches  of  England  have  been  distressedly  apathetic, 
Oalya  very  few  schools,  and  those  but  young,  undertake  to  give  an 
English  public  school  training  in  a  Free  Oliurch  atmosphere  ;  and 
while  this  continues,  and  the  old  public  schools  remain  closed  to 
conscientious  Free  Churchmen  who  seek  to  enter  the  teaching  pro- 
fession, it  follows  that  profession  offers  no  career  and  no  prospects 
to  young  men  who  cling  to  their  ancestral  belief.  It  is  one  among 
many  reasons  which  would  make  me  cry,  were  I  an  American,  "  My 
English  brethren,  I  could  wish  that  you  were  altogether  even  as 
ourselves !  " 

That  the  Methodist  public  school,  "The  Leys  School,"  Cambridge, 
wthich  my  father  founded  twenty-six  years  ago,  has  been  a  success  I 
will  not  stay  to  prove.  I  will  only  observe  that  it  has  undeniably 
given  the  University  of  Cambridge  a  higher  opinion  of  Nonconformity. 
I  want  to  refer,  however,  to  the  meaning  of  "  rehgious  education,"  as 
it  has  worked  itself  out  in  our  great  experiment.  The  close  bond  there 
is  between  education  and  Christian  activity  has  been  a  central  feature 
of  the  school's  history.  Just  on  the  other  side  of  Bunhill  Fields, 
opposite  Wesley's  Chapel,  some  sixteen  years  ago,  our  Old  Boys  began 
a  Leysian  Mission.  It  has  not  been  a  school  mission  merely  in  the 
sense  that  boys  past  and  present  subscribed  to  its  funds.  An  ever- 
growing body  of  Old  Leysians  have  thrown  themselves  into  the  actual 
work  tiliere — evangelistic,  social,  medical,  recreative — and  many  times 
has  it  been  found  that  young  men  making  no  profession  of  Christian 
faith  have  been  won  for  Christ  by  being  drawn  into  some  entirely 
secular  work  for  their  poorer  brethren  in  connection  with  the  Leysian 
Mission.  So  has  this  work  been  blessing  "him  that  gives  and  him 
that  takes."  It  has  grown  so  fast  that  we  are  now  driven  to  face  a 
building  scheme  of  £100,000,  for  nothing  less  will  enable  us  to  keep 
on  the  work  which  is  actually  in  our  hands. 

I  have  thus  briefly  sketched  tihe  work  our  public  school  has  done, 
in  the  hope  that  it  may  prove  an  object  lesson.  There  are  those  who 
are  supremely  eager  about  Home  and  Foreign  Mission  work,  and  who 
may  be  tempted  to  regard  education  as  relatively  a  lesser  thing.  May 
I  earnestly  urge  that  education,  taken  up  in  the  highest  spirit,  pays 
better  than  anything  else  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  Mission 
work,  which  must  always  stand  first  and  unapproached  in  a  Methodist 
mind  ?  Oh,  that  our  Churdhes  were  truly  alive  to  this !  We  do  not 
want  to  capture  young  lives  for  the  Church  we  belong  to,  but  for 
Christ  and  His  work.  Is  it  not  supremely  worth  while  to  polish  and 
temper  to  their  utmost  capacity  the  weapons  which  in  His  hands  can 
do  so  much?  A  more  highly-trained  ministry — one  of  our  greatest 
needs  in  these  days,  when  the  pew  is  advancing  so  fast  in  culture  and 
thoughtfulness — would  be  one  great  result  of  the  new  enthusiasm  for 
education  for  which  I  have  ventured  to  plead.  We  are  in  no  danger 
of  depreciating  spiritual  gifts,  nor  thinking  that  the  highest  education 
uninspired  by  Christ  can  do  much  for  the  redemption  of  humanity, 
but  when  the  one  thing  needful  is  there,  shall  not  the  Churches  strive 
to  use  all  their  power  to  love  their  Master  with  all  their  mind  as  well 
as  with  all  tlheir   heart? 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  205 

The  Rev.  John  P.  Brushinqham,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  spoke  as  follows : 

In  Westminster.  Abbey  there  is  a  bust  of  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan, 
who  was  for  twenty  years  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  came  out 
a  poor  man.  His  son  Tom  was  an  aspirant  for  the  same  place,  and 
he  said,  "  Father,  when  I  go  to  the  House  of  Commons  I  am  going  to 
write  over  my  forehead  'Rooms  for  rent.'"  "Yes,  Tom,  and  you  can 
write  underneath,  'unfurnished,'"  said  his  father.  The  lirains  which 
have  produced  the  addresses  of  this  morning  cannot  be  labelled  "  un- 
furnished." They  are  the  highest  examjoles  of  tihe  power  of  Christian 
education.  I  desire  to  pay  a  personal  tribute  to  the  power  of  Christian 
education.  My  parents  went  from  Ireland  in  the  year  1840,  driven 
out  by  the  famine,  and  they  could  neither  read  nor  write  their  names. 
In  the  public  schools,  God  in  His  Providence  led  me,  the  only  one  of 
all  generations  past,  into  the  more  excellent  way  of  Christian  faith  and 
the  higher  practice  of  Evangelical  religion  and  the  higher  faith  of 
salvation. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  education  is  sometimes  impracticable,  as 
well  as  affected  by  commercialism.  That  is  true,  and  Methodism  in 
our  country  has  not  been  always  the  pioneer  in  education.  In  the 
early  settlements  of  the  Western  States  there  was  an  opposition  to 
education,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  and  when  in  one  Conference  they 
were  attempting  to  establish  a  theological  seminary  one  of  the  ministers 
rose  and  said,  "  Bishop,  I  thank  God  I  have  been  educated  in  '  Brush 
College,'  and  I  do  not  believe  in  any  other."  Bishop  .Jaynes  was  pre- 
siding, and,  in  his  high-keyed  voice,  asked,  "Did  I  understand  the 
brother  to  say  that  he  thanked  God  for  his  ignorance?"  The  minister 
said,  "Well,  you  can  put  it  in  that  way  if  you  please."  The  Bishop 
replied,  "Then  all  I  have  to  say  is  that  he  has  a  great  deal  to  be 
thankful  for."  We  can  have  no  substitute  for  Christian  culture.  We 
can  have  no  education  which  becomes  a  substitute  for  rehgion. 

"'Tis  the  heart   and  not  the   brain 
That  the  highest  doth  attain." 

If  you  undertake  to  substitute  mere  culture  in  science  or  art  for  vital 
piety,  for  the  real  life  and  power,  then  you  substitute  chaff  for  wheat, 
husks  for  corn,  shadow  for  substance.  There  is  the  danger.  Yet  we 
must  grapple  with  science ;  we  must  understand  science  ;  we  have  to 
meet  science  on  its  own  ground.  The  battlefield  to-day  for  religion 
is  the  basis  of  science. 

Christian  education  must  be  broad.  It  has  been  suggested  by  one 
of  the  papers  that  it  must  be  broad,  that  it  must  educate  the  whole 
man  ;  and  it  must  be  broad  enough  not  to  exclude  from  any  Methodism 
on  the  face  of  the  earth  a  man  because  he  is  educated  or  because  he  is 
uneducated.  The  rich  and  the  poor  in  intellect  and  wealth  dwell 
together— <jrod  is  the  Maker  of  them  all.  There  is  room  enough  in 
Methodism  for  the  scholar,  for  the  man  of  eloquence,  for  the  man  of 
high  social  standing.  We  must  not  be  restrictive  or  exclusive.  Lord 
Macaulay  hits  this  in  his  review  of  Von  Ranke's  "History  of  the 
Popes,"  when  he  says  that  the  old  Church  would  take  the  scholar 
and  use  him  in  the  schools,  and  then  take  the  rough,  half-educated 
man  and  put  a  robe  around  him  and  a  rope  round  his  waist  and  send  him 
to  the  Arctic  regions  to  carry  the  Gospel  to  the  utmost  ends  of  the 


206  METHODISM    AND   EDUCATION. 

earth.     It  should  be  the  broadest  education  for  the  sublimest  purposes 
we  can  possibly  have. 

Mr.  F.  Chapplb,  B.A.,  B.So.  (Australasian  Methodist  Church), 
Principal  of  Adelaide  Ct^Uege,  South  Australia,  who  described  himself 
as  a  gift  to  South  Australia  from  the  Wesleyan  Westminster 
Training  College,  London,  twenty-five  years  ago,  said  : 

Methodism  in  Australia  has  dealt  with  the  problem  of  education  in 
a  very  difiEerent  way  from  that  with  which  it  is  dealt  in  England.  In 
England,  Methodism  considered  it  had  a  mission  to  the  poor.  It 
founded  elementary  schools  that  can  be  well  represented  by  those  who 
know  it  better  than  I  do.  In  Australia,  Methodism  felt  it  was  in  a 
new  country,  where  there  was  room  for  everybody,  where  any  man 
could  rise  to  the  front  if  he  had  God-given  ability.  Methodism  there 
proceeded  to  found  in  every  one  of  the  great  centres  of  population  a 
secondary  school,  a  high  class  school,  often  two,  one  for  boys  and  one 
for  girls. 

The  question  we  have  on  the  programme  to  consider  this  afternoon  is 
"  Methodism  and  Education  in  the  Twentieth  Century,"  and  I  want  to 
speak  of  the  lessons  we  have  learnt  from  history,  which  seem  to  me 
to  tell  us  what  we  shall  do  in  the  twentieth  century. 

First,  I  believe  that  the  Methodist  Church  will  do  more  for  education 
in  Australia.  It  has  done  nothing  for  the  poor,  and  I  fear  that  it  can 
do  nothing  for  them.  The  Church  of  England  has  done  a  little ; 
the  Roman  Catholics  have  done  a  great  deal  ;  but  elementary  education 
is  nearly  all  in  the  hands  of  the  State,  and  the  only  way  in  which  we 
can  influence  such  education  is  by  electing  representatives  on  admini- 
strative boards,  and  by  securing  that  Methodists  become  teachers  in  the 
schools.  The  lesson  of  the  last  half  century  has  been  that  the  Metho- 
dist Church  has  done  too  little  in  education,  but,  as  my  friend  Mr, 
Moulton  said,  there  is  no  expenditure  that  the  Church  has  undertaken 
which  it  looks  upon  with  greater  satisfaction,  there  is  no  work  that  it 
has  taken  in  hand  that  it  believes  has  been  more  valuable  to  it  as  a 
Church — ^I  do  not  mean  only  as  a  factor  in  the  great  communities  in 
their  earlier  stages,  but  as  a  help  to  the  Church  itself — 'than  its  educar 
tional  work. 

I  believe  there  will  be  more  and  more  a  career  for  the  school-master, 
and  that  we  shall  find  it  possible  to  say  to  our  educated,  godly  laymen, 
"  There  is  a  future  for  you.  I  am  not  speaking  personally.  No 
man  could  have  wished  for  greater  esteem  than  I  have  had  from  the 
fathers  and  the  brethren  of  the  great  Methodist  Church  in  Australia. 
Everything  they  could  do  to  show  their  love  and  kindness  to  me  they 
have  done.  Speaking  generally,  I  say  there  is  not  yet  a  career  for  a 
school-master,  but  we  are  beginning  to  see  there  must  be,  and  our 
experiments  at  these  early  stages  teadh  us  that  more  and  more  the  men 
should  do  the  work,  whether  they  be  lay  or  clerical,  who  know  how 
to  do  it. 

Mr.  Thos.  Snape,  J.P.  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches),  con- 
tinuing the  discussion,  said : 

The  Methodism  that  has  to  do  with  education  in  this  country  is  chiefly 
with  reference  to  the  Sunday  School,  but  in  British  Methodism  the 
decline  in  the  attendance  at  our  Sunday  Schools  is  becoming  positively 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  207 

alarming.  If  the  recruiting  ground  of  the  Church  is  depleted,  there 
are  not  very  bright  hopes  of  the  future  prosperity  of  the  Church.  The 
causes  of  that  decline  are  diverse,  but  would  take  up  too  much  time  to 
dwell  upon  just  now. 

With  regard  to  the  secular  education  of  the  country,  I  have  to  differ 
with  those  who  have  preceded  me,  and  to  say  that  the  mission  of  Metho- 
dism is  not  to  establish  Methodist  secular  schools.  The  mission  of  Metho- 
dism is  to  see  that  the  pul)lic  school  system  is  of  a  character  that  has 
nothing  to  do  with  sectaries  or  sectarianism.  If  you  are  going  to  have 
your  public  school  system  run  by  various  Denominations,  you  must 
remember  that  the  sacerdotalists — ^the  Episcopalians,  and  the  Papal 
Church — can  fight  as  well  as  you,  and  that  they  will  fight,  and  fight 
with  greater  power  and  influence.  They  are  at  this  present  moment 
fighting  and  straining  every  nerve  to  capture  the  elementary  and 
secondary  schools  of  the  country.  These  are  facts  that  must  not  be 
set  aside.  I  quite  agree  with  Mr.  Osborn  that  the  highest  cbject  of 
education  should  be  to  prepare  the  young  people  for  servicer  rather 
than  for  success,  but  surely  even  he,  with  all  his  great  experience, 
does  not  mean  to  say  that  parents  are  to  set  aside  the  question  of  the 
future  success  of  their  children  when  they  grow  up,  in  the  education 
th.3y  seek  to  have  administered  to  them. 

The  secular  part  of  it  is  the  part  with  which  the  Stite  has  to  deal, 
and  the  question  is,  How  much  of  the  secular  education  should  we 
direct  our  attention  to  1  In  the  United  Kingdom,  at  least,  the  influ- 
ence of  Methodism — I  do  not  speak  of  any  one  section  of  it — in  estab- 
lishing sectarian  or  Methodistic  schools  has  not  been  helpful  to  the 
spread  of  education  throughout  the  country  at  large.  It  has  done  a 
great  service,  as  many  of  the  Dent)minational  schools  have  done, 
but  in  so  far  as  it  has  helped  the  real  spread  of  the  eJii^ation  upon 
which  the  commercial  and  material  prosperity  of  the  country  depends 
it  has  not  betn  so  helpful  as  it  ought  to  have  been.  In  the  coming 
Session  of  Parliament  we  are  promised  legislation  in  the  establishment 
of  a  secondary  system  in  this  country.  I  do  not  intend  to  refer  to 
any  political  aspect  of  it,  but  I  wish  to  deliver  my  soul  in  this  matter. 
Having  had  great  experience  as  the  Chairman  of  the  Education  Depart- 
ment of  the  largest  County  Council  in  this  country,  I  say  that,  unless 
you  take  care,  you  will  find  that  the  two  chief  sacerdotal  Denominations 
of  the  country  will  do  their  utmost  to  so  bias  and  influence  that  legisla- 
tion as  to  put  back  the  clock  of  educational  progress  and  religious 
educational  progress  for  a  very  long  period  of  time. 

Bishop  Wesley  J.  Gaines,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  spoke  as  follows  : 

Methodism  has  been  the  patron  and  ally  of  education  since  its  birth 
at  Oxford  University.  In  England  and  America,  and  in  the  islands 
of  the  sea,  it  has  invested  its  sublime  energies  and  its  magnificent  gifts 
in  schools  and  colleges,  thus  emphasising  its  advocacy  of  primary  and 
higher  education  for  its  adherents.  There  are  no  indications  of  any 
decline  in  her  zeal  for  this  cause,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  each  year 
adds  to  the  number  of  her  schools  and  colleges,  and  to  the  funds 
invested  for  their  endowment  and  support. 

As  a  member  of  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  it  is 
fitting,  perhaps,  that  I  speak  to  this  question,  particularly  with  refer- 
ence to  my  own  race  in  the  United  States  of  America.  In  1896  my 
Church  in  that  country  had  under  its  fostering  care  forty-seven  colleges 


2o8  METHODISM    AND   EDUCATION. 

and  secondary  schools  for  the  higher  education  of  the  negro.  The 
number  of  teachers  employed  in  these  schools  was  167,  and  the  value 
of  their  property  was  756,475  dols.  These  schools  have  an  annual  income 
of  125,000  dols.  This  is  a  splendid  record  showing  of  just  what  one 
branch  of  the  great  Methodist  family  of  Coloured  Churches  is  doing,  but 
it  is  not  one  tithe  of  what  is  needed.  Out  of  their  poverty  the  coloured 
people  of  America  have  done  the  best  possible  to  them,  but  aniens 
the  rich  men  come  to  their  succour  the  cause  of  higher  education  will 
suffer,  and  Methodism,  to  that  extent,  fail  in  its  great  mission  to 
them. 

Methodism  cannot  relax  her  energies  in  the  twentieth  century  along 
these  important  lines.  Especially  is  it  important  that  the  negro 
Methodists  press  this  great  question  with  renewed  faith  and  interest. 
First,  because  education  is  at  this  time  the  negro's  greatest  need. 
His  very  existence  in  America  is  bound  up  in  his  intellectual  enlighten- 
ment. Even  religion  will  fail  to  qualify  him  for  citizenship  without 
the  enlightening  influence  of  Christian  education.  Situated,  as  he  is, 
in  the  midst  of  a  progressive  people,  trained  in  the  arts  and  sciences, 
equipped,  perhaps,  as  no  other  people  in  the  world  for  the  struggle 
for  existence,  the  negro  will  be  forced  to  yield  to  superior  skill  and 
culture,  unless  fitted  for  such  rivalry  by  thorough  educational  equip- 
ment. The  public  schools  in  the  United  States  of  America  had  enrolled 
for  the  years  1891  and  1892  1,374,316  negro  pupils,  out  of  a  total 
population  at  that  time  of  7,470,040.  At  this  time  50  per  cent,  of  the 
American  negroes,  of  ten  years  of  age  and  over,  can  read  and  write. 
Thus  we  see  that  in  primary  education  the  negro  in  the  United  States 
is  doing  well,  but  if  his  education  must  stop  with  this  merely  rudi- 
mentary training  it  will  fall  far  short  of  the  necessities  of  the  situation. 
This  is  all  the  State  will  do  or  can  do  for  them,  and  it  follows  that 
if  the  negro  is  to  have  higher  education  the  Church  must  supply  it. 

Secondly,  if  Methodism  is  to  retain  its  hold  upon  the  negro  in  the 
twentieth  century,  she  must  supply  this  higher  education,  for  if  she 
does  not  other  Churches  will.  Already  other  Denominations  are  in  the 
field.  The  Baptists  in  America  are  active  and  zealous,  and  are  contribut- 
ing millions  of  dollars  for  the  secondary  education  of  the  negro.  In 
Atlanta,  Ga.,  the  city  in  which  I  reside,  Mr.  Rockefeller,  perhaps  the 
wealthiest  man  in  America,  has  recently  given  250,000dols.  to  Spellman 
Seminary,  a  Baptist  institution.  To  hold  the  coloured  people  in 
America  in  loyalty  to  Methodism,  our  Church  must  provide  for  their 
higher  education,  for  it  will  be  impossible  to  compete  with  other 
Churches  who  supply  what  we  fail  to  furnish.  Methodism  in  the 
twentieth  century,  therefore,  will  have  to  continue  her  efforts  for  the 
education  of  the  coloured  people  even  on  a  broader  scale  than  in  the 
past.  She  must  do  this  first  as  the  highest  charity  she  can  bestow, 
and  secondly  to  hold  in  allegiance  to  her  standard  these  millions  ol 
needy  and  deserving  people. 

Thirdly,  Methodism  in  the  twentieth  century  will  have  an  unrivalled 
opportunity  for  doing  great  things  for  the  coloured  people  of  America, 
and,  through  them,  for  the  whole  African  race.  Forty  years  ago  there 
was  scarcely  a  coloured  man  or  woman  in  the  United  States  who  could 
read  or  write.  Now  fifty  per  cent,  of  them  have  a  primary  education. 
Thirty-five  thousand  pupils  are  at  this  time  in  Methodist  coloured 
schools  in  America  for  higher  education.  With  such  an  educational 
basis  to  start  with  in  this  new  century,  what  may  not  Methodism  accom- 
plish through  the  negro  and  for  the  negro  before  it  closes  ?  These  edu- 
cated negroes,  imbued  with  the  missionary  spirit,  will  undertake  the 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  209 

conversion  of  Africa  to  Christianity  and  Methodism.  Already  many  uf 
them  are  in  that  distant  field.  Of  the  same  race,  they  are  best  fitted 
for  this  grand  work,  and  to  them,  in  the  Providence  of  God,  this 
glorious  task  will  be  committed.  Imagination  is  dazzled  by  the  con- 
templation of  ihis  vast  enterprise.  If  Mefchod'sm,  through  her  edu- 
cated coloured  missionaries,  should  be  largely  instrumental  in  bringing 
the  200,000,000  of  African  heathen  to  the  cross  of  Christ  she  would 
achieve  the  most  magnificent  conquest  in  all  history. 

Fourthly,  Methodism  must  not  abate  one  jot  or  tittle  of  her  zeal 
for  Christian  education  in  this  twentieth  century.  Where  she  has  given 
her  thousands  she  must  give  her  millions.  With  her  magnificent 
vantage  ground,  possessing  in  America  and  England  unrivalled  oppor- 
tunities for  splendid  achievements,  she  must  push  the  battle  as  never 
before.  She  must  not  debate  for  a  moment  the  question  of  transferring 
the  cause  of  education  to  the  State,  for  this  would  be  to  secularise  it, 
and  to  furnish  infidelity  with  weapons  for  her  destruction.  Especially 
at  this  time  should  she  see  to  it  that  the  negro,  who  owes  to  her 
teachings  and  doctrines  all  that  is  most  dear  and  valuable  to  him,  is 
furnished  with  that  higher  Christian  education  which  is  necessary  to 
his  advancement,  and  that  will  ensure  his  fidelity  to  her  cause  and  his 
continued  loyalty  to  her  communion. 

Professor  S.  G.  Atkins,  A.M.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion 
Church),  was  the  next  speaker.     He  said  : 

The  splendid  condition  of  things  in  the  United  States,  which  is 
sometimes  described  by  the  phrase,  "  American  civilisation,"  in  my 
opinion  is  the  result  of  two  things — first.  Evangelical  religion  ;  secondly, 
general  education.  I  believe  also  that  the  general  education  which  pre- 
vails in  the  United  States  is  largely  the  result  of  Evangelical  religion. 
Therefore  the  progress  of  the  American  Republic  has  been  due  in  large 
measure  to  the  evangelising  power  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  the 
United  States. 

One  of  the  most  fruitful  missionary  fields  of  the  Methodist  Church 
has  been  the  coloured  people  of  the  United  States.  I  do  not  know 
anywhere  else  that  the  Methodist  Church  has  been  so  fruitful  in  its 
work  in  evangelising  the  people.  As  Bishop  Gaines  has  suggested, 
it  is  the  work  of  education  that  is  of  most  importance  to  that  people, 
the  work  of  education  spread  abroad  among  them,  lifting  them  up  to  a 
high  plane  of  Christian  manhood  and  Christian  citizenship.  That  is 
the  best  thing  any  friend  of  these  struggling  people  can  give  them. 
Education  to  these  people  means  life.  Their  future  is  bound  up  in 
their  education,  in  lifting  them  up  to  intelligence  and  Christian  character. 
In  the  Southern  States,  among  the  coloured  people,  the  Methodist 
Church  should  send  teachers.  Other  Churches  have  their  teachers  ready 
to  go  into  the  public  schools,  to  go  into  all  the  educational  fields,  and 
the  Methodist  Church  ought  to  be  ready  also. 

You  have  heard  a  good  deal  about  industrial  education  and  the 
higher  education  in  the  United  States.  I  think  one  gentleman  on  this 
platform  has  stated  it  properly  :  We  want  to  educate  the  people  for 
service  rather  than  for  success.  We  are  not  opposing  industrial  educa- 
tion ;  we  believe  in  it.  We  believe  that  the  negro's  industrial  oppor- 
tunity in  that  country  is  very  great,  and  he  ought  to  be  prej^red  for 
it.  But  the  tendency  in  the  advocacy  of  purely  industrial  education  for 
the  negro  is  to  carry  him  into  materialism,  is  to  take  him  away  from 
his  own  Evangelical  foundation,  is  to  carry  him  into  the  field  of  mere 

15 


2IO  METHODISM   AND   EDUCATION. 

success  rather  than  into  the  field  of  service.  Therefore  we  appeal  to 
the  Methodist  Church  throughout  the  world,  throughout  the  United 
States  in  particular,  to  stand  against  the  tendency  which  urges  indus- 
trial education  for  the  negro  merely  to  make  his  hand  and  his  physical 
condition  dominate  his  life. 

We  believe  that  whatever  education  is  given  him  ought  to  compre- 
hend his  heart  training,  his  intellectual  training,  and  prepare  him  to 
be  a  brother  among  the  people,  stimulate  him  in  interest  in  Christian 
and  religious  work  and  in  missionary  work,  even  to  go  to  work  in  Africa 
■ — to  go  anywhere  that  the  interests  of  his  people  call  him  ;  and  when 
he  gets  there  to  be  prepared  to  do  the  work  laid  upon  him.  We  want 
more  industrial  education  rather  than  less  of  it,  but  it  is  leading 
millions  of  people  in  that  country  into  the  danger  of  magnifying  success 
rather  than  of  magnifying  service.  I  appeal  to  the  people  in  this 
(Ecumenical  Conference,  to  the  Methodists  in  the  United  States,  and 
to  the  friends  of  suffering  and  struggling  humanity  everywhere,  to 
antagonise  the  idea  that  the  negro  is  to  be  prepared  only  for  a  field 
hand.  Let  him  be  made  a  man,  and  everything  else  will  take  care  of 
itself. 

Mr.  G.  P.  Dymond,  B.A.  (Bible  Christian  Church),  made  the 
following  remarks : 

As  a  practical  teacher  of  some  years  standing,  I  should  like  to  make 
an  appeal  on  behalf  of  our  own  English  humanities,  that  we  be  not 
so  overcome  with  the  tendency  to  organisation  as  to  forget  for  what 
purpose  we  organise,  and  forget  what  the  end  of  our  instruction  should 
be.  There  is  a  large  mass  of  our  young  people,  who  leave  our  schools 
at  a  comparatively  early  age,  who  cannot  go  so  fully  into  the_  older 
humanities,  but  who  might  spend  much  of  their  time  with  profit  in  the 
study  of  English  history  and  English  literature.  I  am  glad  we  have 
nothing  to  fear  from  the  study  of  English  history  as  Methodists  and 
Puritans.  Under  the  guidance  of  men  like  the  late  J.  R.  Green,  and 
the  present  S.  R.  Gardiner,  our  young  people  are  taught  to  understand 
that  their  ancestors  have  played  no  small  part  in  our  history.  This  will 
lead  to  the  elevation  of  their  sentiments  as  regards  the  spirit  of  loyalty 
in  which  they  attach  themselves  to  their  common  Methodism,  and  pre- 
vent that  comparatively  easy  translation  of  such  a  large  portion  from 
the  Church  of  their  fathers  to  another  Church. 

I  should  be  also  glad  if  in  all  parts  of  the  world  it  were  possible  to  instil 
into  the  minds  of  those  who  have  the  control  of  our  education  the  fact 
that  we  have  a  literature  which  will  compare  with  the  oldest  literature, 
which  has  in  large  measure  done  its  work,  and  which  has  already  satu- 
rated and  influenced  our  literary  life.  It  will  be  helpful  in  the  forma- 
tion of  our  national  character  if  our  young  people  become  acquainted 
with  the  religious  and  social  teaching,  for  instance,  of  Piers  Plowman  ; 
if  they  be  brought  into  closer  acquaintance  with  the  conforming  Puri- 
tanism of  Spenser ;  if  they  know  what  non-conforming  Puritanism  is 
in  John  Milton  ;  if  they  be  made  acquainted  with  Cowper,  the  poet  of 
the  Methodist  Revival,  who  has  a  message  which  is  fresh  still  for  our 
times,  and  will  appeal  with  strong  influence  to  the  public  sentiment 
of  our  day  ;  and  if  they  have  some  knowledge  of  Wordsworth,  the  great 
prophet  of  the  Revolution  period. 

Then  we  might  do  a  great  deal  more  tihan  we  are  doing,  in  order  to 
make  our  adult  members  acquainted  with  social  matters,  and  for  the 
advocacy  of  sound  principles  of  political  economy  among  the  working 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  311 

men.  There  is  a  great  class  outside  to  whom  we  have  a  mission.  The 
democracy  of  to-day  will  not  accept  our  direct  religious  teaching,  but 
it  might  accept  it  in  another  form,  if  we  were  willing  to  go  out  into 
the  streets  and  proclaim  to  them  what  the  true  foundations  of  society 
are,  and  how  they  may  best  secure  their  own  interests  by  giving  their 
attention  to  the  best  interests  of  the  State.  It  ought  to  be  possible  for  us, 
instead  of  being  so  eager — I  do  not  deprecate  it — with  i-egard  to  Con- 
tinuation Schools,  to  have  continuation  classes  in  connection  with  all 
our  Churches,  that  we  might  saturate  them  with  that  spirit  of  broad- 
minded  Methodism,  which  shall  ])ring  them  into  common  accord  with  the 
best  sentiments  of  our  race.  The  Board  of  Education  will  do  great  things 
in  the  near  future,  but  I  hope  it  will  not  crush  out  that  spirit  of  indi- 
vidual enterprise  which  has  done  so  much  in  the  past  for  our  education. 
There  is  a  large  class  in  the  community  which  has  done  valuable  service 
in  the  transition  period,  which  is  in  danger,  and  feels  its  danger.  If  we 
are  to  bring  to  the  front  those  individual  elements  which  have  done 
so  much  in  the  past,  we  must  see  that  we  conserve  them  in  whatever 
system  and  organisation  may  come  into  vogue  in  the  near  future. 

The  Rev.  R.  C.  Ransom,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  said : 

I  have  not  risen  to  discuss  the  University  side  of  this  question  of 
Methodism  as  it  looks  towards  education  in  the  twentieth  century. 
That  has  been,  and  doubtless  will  be,  handled  by  others.  There  is 
one  phase  I  wish  briefly  to  touch  on,  the  work  which  I  think  the 
Methodist  Church  will  feel  itself  more  and  more  called  upon  to  do 
during  the  years  of  this  century. 

I  do  not  know  what  the  problems  of  Methodism  are  in  England,  but 
I  presume  that  the  tendency  here  is  the  same  as  it  is  in  the  United 
States.  We  find  the  tendency  is  for  the  young  people,  and  for  the 
people  generally,  to  flock  from  the  country  into  the  great  cities,  and 
we  find  in  our  great  cities  dense  populations  which  are  not  directly 
under  any  educative  or  upliftive  influence.  They  are  largely  neglected. 
The  Methodist  Churdh  has  been  from  the  beginning  the  Church  of  the 
common  people,  the  Church  of  the  masses.  I  have  no  fear  that 
Methodism  will  go  backwards  in  its  educational  work,  that  we  shall 
neglect  the  higher  reaches  along  the  educational  river  ;  but  it  seems  to 
me  that  there  is  some  fear  that  the  fundamental  work  may  be  neglected 
by  turning  our  attention  too  much  to  the  higher  side.  My  friend.  Dr. 
Brushingham,  of  Chicago,  has  a  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
business  district  of  our  city.  The  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
also  has  a  church  in  that  district  of  Chicago,  which  is  called  "  The 
Open  Church."  Those  are  the  only  two  examples  in  that  section  of 
that  great  city  where  amy  attempt  is  being  made  to  get  hold  of  the  tens 
of  thousands   who    are   practically   neglected    there. 

I  do  not  want  to  initiate  any  heretical  doctrines,  but  I  believe  the 
church  of  the  twentieth  century  will  be  architecturally  differently 
built  from  the  church  of  the  nineteenth  century.  I  beheve  that  it  will 
be  built  so  that  it  may  serve  as  a  centre  to  the  life  of  the  people,  and 
in  that  centre  the  people  may  be  educated  and  uplifted  instead  of 
spending  their  time  in  the  saloons.  There  is  more  political  economy, 
more  domestic  economy,  more  almost  of  every  phase  that  relates  to 
the  actual  life  and  ])roblems  that  confront  us  every  day,  discussed  in 
the  wine-rooms  and  saloons  than  in  some  other  centres  I  might  mention. 
I  believe  we  shall  realise  everywhere  the  beginnings  that  have  been 


212  METHODISM    AND    EDUCATION. 

made  to  keep  tlie  cluuch  open  seven  days  in  the  week,  and  make  it  a 
centre  of  educative  influence  of  the  neighbourhood  in  which  it  is  situ- 
ated. 

What  I  am  trying  to  get  at  is  this.  Take  the  thousands  of  children 
in  the  streets.  Every  child  has  a  right  to  be  well  reared.  The  child 
you  do  not  want  to  play  with  your  child,  l)ecause  you  are  afraid  he 
will  contaminate  your  child,  ought  to  be  made  fit  to  play  with  your 
child,  and  that  other  child  ought  to  be  given  as  good  a  chance  in  life 
as  your  child.  Particularly  in  our  country,  if  we  are  to  have  a  strong 
government,  if  we  are  to  save  our  cities — and  over  there  our  cities  rule 
the  country  practically,  although  we  have  a  good  deal  of  saving 
strength  in  the  rural  districts — if  Methodism  is  to  make  good  her 
splendid  beginnings  as  the  Church  of  the  masses,  she  must  make  her 
churches  centres  of  educative  influence.  She  ought  to  have  a  kinder- 
garten room  in  each  of  them  somewhere  as  we  have  in  ours. 

The  Rev.  William  F.  King,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
spoke  as  follows : 

At  this  stage  of  the  discussion  I  am  forcibly  reminded  of  three  things— 
"  Methodism,  Education,  and  Twentieth  Century."  That  is  the  topic 
we  are  to  discuss.  I  suppose  that  Methodist  education  is  not  taken  in 
a  narrow,  technical,  or  ecclesiastical  sense,  but  rather  as  a  broad  re- 
ligious force  in  the  world,  and  that  the  topic  requires  us  to  plan  for 
the  future  rather  than  give  a  history  of  the  past. 

If  we  plan  with  reference  to  the  future,  we  will  need  to  consider 
the  conditions  that  we  have  to  meet,  just  as  our  fathers  considered  the 
conditions  that  they  had  to  meet  in  their  day.  If  we  do  this,  I  think 
our  method  will  be  different  from  that  of  the  fathers  to  a  certain  extent 
— I  thmk  it  will  be  broader.  We  shall  be  willing  for  some  of  our 
Methodist  children  to  attend  other  schools  than  our  own,  and  other 
children  will  be  welcomed  to  our  schools. 

In  America  one  of  the  great  problems  we  have  to  confront  is  the 
problem  of  secular  education  as  against  religious  and  Church  education. 
I  think  one  of  the  ways  for  Methodists  to  meet  that  problem  is  to 
become  interested  in  State  education,  in  elementary  school  education, 
as  well  as  in  our  Methodist  institutions.  If  professors  from  our  Churches 
could  have  chairs  in  the  State  University,  all  the  better.  Many  of  them 
have,  and  I  hope  more  will  have  them  in  the  future,  and  in  that  way 
we  shall  exercise  an  influence  upon  the  State  University,  as  is  done 
by  other  Denominations,  and  make  it  more  religious  and  more  cosmo- 
politan. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  think  it  is  not  absolutely  necessary  that  our 
Methodist  schools  should  be  wholly  manned  by  Methodist  teachers. 
That  may  be  considered  heretical  by  someone,  but  if  we  have  the 
administration,  if  we  have  the  large  majority  and  the,  prevailing  in- 
fluence of  our  Church,  and  have  some  of  the  broadening  influence 
brought  in  from  some  other  Churches,  it  will  be  the  better  for  the 
schools  and  the  better  for  the  students.  In  that  way  we  shall  hope  to 
influence  the  State  schools,  and  make  them  more  religious  and  more 
Methodistic,  and  at  the  same  time  adapt  ourselves  better  to  the  public, 
so  that  they  shall  feel  we  are  not  narrow  and  technical,  and  blindly 
Methodistic,  but  Cliristian. 

A  second  point  I  would  like  to  mention  is  that  we  should  apply  the 
same  principle  in  reference  to  the  question  of  scientific  education,  and 
of  literary  or  classic  education.    I  would  plant  the  two  together  and  have 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  213 

a  symmetrical  education,  so  that  the  students  that  go  out  from  our 
Colleges  shall  not  go  out  so  narrow,  religiously  and  educationally,  that 
they  cannot  be  easily  adaptable  to  the  condition  of  society,  but  shall 
go  out  in  sucli  a  way  as  to  have  the  greater  influence  among  those  with 
whom  they  come  in  contact.  If  they  are  to  do  this,  they  must  study 
modem  science  as  well  as  the  ancient  classics. 

The  Rev.  P.  H.  Swift,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  also 
spoke.     He  said : 

The  question  has  been  asked  here :  What  is  the  relation  of  Method- 
ism to  the  public  school  ?  I  quite  agree  witli  the  speaker  who  said, 
"Nothing  whatever  directly."  The  public  school  should  not  be  con- 
trolled or  interfered  with  in  any  way,  shape,  or  manner  by  any  religious 
Denomination  whatever,  and  palsied  be  that  hand  that  should  be 
raised  against  the  public  school  system  !  But  there  is  another  question 
^the  relation  of  Methodism  to  Higher  Education,  to  which  I  desire 
to  speak  for  a  moment,  saying  some  things  that  possibly  have  not 
been  emphasised  quite  as  sufliciently  as  they  might  have  been. 

We  stand  on  the  threshold  of  the  grandest  century  of  the  ages,  and 
one  that  is  crowded  full  of  great  needs.  One  of  the  needs  with  which 
we  stand  face  to  face  is  the  Church  School,  which  should  not  be  sec- 
tarian, but  religious  ;  and  there  is  reason  for  that.  In  many  of  our 
State  schools  we  find  an  atmosphere  that  is  tainted — an  atmosphere 
charged  and  surcharged — with  scepticism  and  infidelity.  It  has  come  to 
pass  a  thousand  and  one  times  on  our  side  of  the  Atlantic  that  our 
brightest  and  best  young  people  from  Christian  homes  and  Methodist 
homes,  who  have  been  converted,  and  have  come  to  have  a  beautiful 
Christian  experience,  have  gone  away  to  College,  living  in  an  atmo- 
sphere that  is  tainted  with  scepticism,  secularity,  and  infidelity.  They 
have  lost  their  religion  entirely,  backslidden,  and  have  gone  home 
without  tlie  consciousness  of  an  acceptance  by  the  Almighty,  and 
absolutely  unfitted  for  the  work  that  they  might  have  done  before. 
Therefore  I  plead  for  the  Church  School  that  it  should  be  thoroughly 
Christian  and  absolutely  religious,  although  by  no  means  sectarian. 
It  has  happened  over  and  over  again  among  the  young  people  with 
whom  I  am  acquainted  that  this  need  has  been  emphasised. 

The  second  need,  I  fancy,  is  the  need  of  a  great  Methodist  University. 
Much  has  been  said  about  what  has  been  accomplished  in  the  past. 
In  our  land  beyond  the  sea  one-twelfth  of  all  the  Colleges  and  Uni- 
versities in  the  United  States  are  owned  and  controlled  by  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church  alone,  and  other  branches  of  our  great  Methodist 
family  could  make  quite  as  large  a  claim  ;  but  we  have  no  great  Uni- 
versity that  is  absolutely  adequate  to  the  demand  of  the  day  that 
is  before  us.  I  plead  for  a  great  Methodist  University.  Dr.  Little, 
in  his  paper,  emphasised  the  need  of  the  teacher  for  to-morrow. 
Whence  shall  come  the  teacher  who  shall  grapple  with  the  great  prob- 
lems in  our  Universities,  in  our  Colleges,  in  our  Public  Schools,  and 
everywhere,  except  out  of  the  great  University  where  the  brightest 
minds  from  the  little  College  shall  have  been  trained  by  contact  with 
the  superior  mind  that  can  be  secured  only  where  a  great  University 
has  been  established  ?  Therefore  some  such  University  as  the  Ameri- 
can University  at  Washington  is  an  absolute  need  of  the  hour.  To 
make  possible  these  greater  Universities  there  must  be  a  larger  liber- 
alityon  the  part  of  our  people.  There  is  money  enough  in  the  pockets 
and  in  the  possession  of  the  sons  of  Methodism  on  both  sides  of  the 


214  METHODISM    AND    EDUCATION. 

Atlantic  in  meet  every  need  of  the  hour,  and  what  we  need  to  pray  for 
more  than  anything  else  at  this  time,  I  think,  is  a  mighty  baptism  of 
liberality  on  the  men  of  means  in  Methodism. 

Then,  the  relation  of  the  Methodist  preacher  to  higher  education. 
From  the  beginning  the  Methodist  preacher  has  been  an  inspiration  to 
the  young  men  and  women  of  the  land.  The  circuit-rider  of  the  early 
days  carried  with  him  books,  which  he  sold  and  gave  away,  and  these 
opened  the  intellectual  eyes  of  those  who  were  filled  with  larger  ambi- 
tions and  nobler  desires.  This  work  is  far  from  complete.  There  is 
in  this  age  a  dangerous  tendency  towards  what  I  may  call  "  commercial- 
ism." Young  men  must  get  on,  and  speedily  make  money,  and  win  a 
place  in  the  world.  There  is  among  many  of  our  young  people  a 
feeling  that  a  higher  education  is  unnecessary,  or  may  even  stand  in 
the  way  of  their  rapid  advance  in  the  commercial  world  which  they 
crave. 

The  Methodist  pastor  has  the  ear  of  the  young  people  as  no  one 
else  has.  He  must  seek  in  every  way  to  counteract  the  dangerous 
tendency,  which  must  surely  result  in  great  loss  to  the  Church,  the 
State,  and  the  young  people  themselves.  It  is  our  duty  to  seek  in 
every  possible  way  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  young  to  the  mighty  advan- 
tages of  a  higher  education,  and  thus  crowd  the  halls  of  our  Colleges 
and  Universities  with  men  and  women  who  will,  in  the  near  future, 
be  centres  of  power  in  society.  Then  we  have  it  in  our  power  to  gain 
the  attention  of  men  of  wealth,  who  may  be  induced  to  pour  out  their 
wealth  to  make  possible  the  realisation  of  our  hopes. 

The  Rev.  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
conoluded  the  discuss^ion,  as  follows  : 

The  Methodist  Episcopal  ChurcBi,  through  the  Freedmen's  Aid  and 
Southern  Education  Society,  has  a  large  work  in  the  Southern  portion 
of  our  State  for  the  education  of  all  the  people  who  desire  to  come  to 
us.  Very  much  of  this  work,  in  the  very  nature  of  the  case,  is  for  those 
who  a  generation  ago  had  no  opportunities.  It  is  to  fit  them  for  the 
highest  possibilities  of  citizenship,  of  manhood,  and  of  womanhood. 
About  five  millions  of  dollars  have  been  expended  by  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  South  since  the  close  of  the  last  war.  Last 
year  it  required  355,000  dols.  to  carry  forward  this  work.  As  a  result, 
we  have  to-day  hundreds  and  thousands  of  Christian  teachers,  scores 
and  hundreds  of  physicians,  ministers,  and  industrial  workers,  who 
have  gone  out  all  over  the  South,  and,  indeed,  all  over  the  world,  to 
help  forward  a  higher  civilisation  and  to  bring  forward  a  better  day. 

Let  me  give  emphasis  with  all  the  earnestness  of  my  soul  to  this 
fact,  that  every  one  of  these  young  men  and  women,  however  much 
proficiency  they  may  make  in  their  studies,  must  first,  before  they  can 
get  their  diplomas,  pass  an  examination  in  the  Bible — in  Jeremiah, 
in  Ezekiel,  in  Isaiah,  in  Jonah,  in  the  Pentateuch,  and  say  that  Moses 
wrote  it,  the  Higher  Criticism  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

We  have  been  careful  in  order  to  prepare  these  people  for  service — 
and  that  word  ought  to  be  emphasised  more  and  more — to  give  them 
an  education  in  all  departments  of  life,  believing  that  in  the  solution 
of  any  great  sociological  problem  not  one  method,  but  many  methods, 
must  be  vigorously  prosecuted,  in  order  to  obtain  the  highest  possible 
results.  We  have  industrial  schools  and  schools  for  the  preparation 
of  teachers,  and  theological  seminaries — indeed,  our  aim  has  been  to 
prepare   the  people   for   usefulness  without  regard   to   any  particular 


BUSINESS   PROCEEDINGS.  21 5 

theories  here  or  there.  I  believe  that  the  theory  question  with  )is, 
regarding  all  claftses  of  people  and  religious  work,  has  been  our  main 
stumblingblock  ;  and  we,  in  the  prosecution  of  this  work,  have  en- 
deavoured to  give  to  the  people  all  they  needed  for  the  highest  possible 
service  in  God's  Kingdom.  Already  there  have  gone  out  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  these  young  men,  in  all  portions  of  the  country,  who 
help  to  make  our  blessed  religion  strong,  permanent,  and  true,  not 
only  on  the  side,  as  we  believe  it,  of  Methodist  principles  and  polity, 
but  of  all  the  Churches  ;  and  we  have  the  distinction  that  many  pf 
the  strongest  men  in  all  the  Churches  have  had  their  education  in 
some  of  these  institutions.  This  great  work  has  done  very  much  to 
make  possible  the  addresses  you  have  already  heard  from  distinguished 
men  of  colour. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  then  brought  up  the  report  of  the 
Business  Committee. 

The  following  Fraternal  Greeting  was  received  from  the  Society 
of  Friends : 
"  To  the  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference  now  being  held  in  London. 

"The  Representative  Meeting  of  the  Society  of  Friends  being  held 
in  regular  course  this  morning  at  Devonshire  House,  Bishopsgate  Street 
Without,  London,  desires  to  send  fraternal  greetings  to  your  Con- 
ference. . 

"Your  world-wide  service  for  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ, 
and  for  your  fellow-men  of  so  many  races  and  nationalities,  has  our 
warm  sympathy. 

"  May  the  abiding  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  rest  upon  you  in  all 
your  deliberations,  and  your  gathering  tend  to  the  strengthening  of  the 
Christian  life  in  your  own  Church. 

"  Signed  in  and  on  behalf  of  the  Meeting, 

"(Signed)         Robt.  A.  Penney, 

"6.  ix.,  1901.  Clerk  this  time." 

It  was  agi*eed  by  the  Conference  that  a  suitable  reply  be  sent  by 
the  Secretaries  to  that  very  gracious  address.  The  following  is  a 
copy  of  the  reply  sent : 

"  To  the  Representative  Meeting  of  the  Society  of  Friends. 
"Dear  Brethren, — 

"  The  fraternal  greetings  which  your  Society  has  forwarded  have 
been  presented  to  the  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference,  by  the  mem- 
bers of  which  your  kindly  words  have  been  most  cordially  received. 

"  The  Conference  recognises  with  gratitude  to  God  the  faithful  testi- 
mony your  Society  has  rendered  to  the  manifestation  of  the  love  of 
God  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  the  continual  efforts  you  have  exerted  to 
redress  and  remove  the  social  and  moral  ills  that  afflict  humanity,  to 
give  freedom  to  those  in  bondage,  to  promote  international  concord 
and  peace,  and  to  proclaim  to  all  peoples  the  Fatherhood  of  God  and 
the  brotherhood  of  man. 

"  The  Conference  reciprocates  for  your  Society  the  earnest  prayer 
expressed  in  your  address  for  the  Divine  presence  and  blessing  in  the 
work  in  which  both  are  engaged. 

"  By  order  of  the  Conference, 

"(Signed)        John  Bond,  )    gg._e+„,:ea 

Thomas  Snape,     J    Secretaries. 

"September  10,  1901." 


2l6  METHODISM    AND    EDUCATION. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  stated  that  the  Business  Comuiittee 
had  carefully  consjidered  the  resolution  of  which  notice  was  given 
by  the  Rev.  Professor  W.  I.  Shaw,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Church 
of  Canada),  seconded  by  the  Rev.  S.  B.  Cawood  (South  African 
Methodist  Church)  with  reference  to  a  Common  Hymnal  for  the  use 
of  all  the  Churches  of  Methodism  throughout  the  world,  and  they 
reported  as  follows,  and  the  report  was  adopted  by  the  Conference  : 

The  Business  Committee  regards  the  suggestion  of  the  resolution 
with  sympathy,  and  trusts  that  at  some  future  day  it  will  be  reabsed, 
but,  having  regard  to  the  fact,  first,  that  several  Churches  m  the 
Eastern  Section  have  recently  published  new  hymn  books,  and  thereby 
incurred  great  financial  responsibilities  ;  secondly,  that  arrangements 
for  the  publication  of  a  new  hymnal  by  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
are  in  an  advanced  stage  ;  thirdly,  that  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church 
has  decided  to  pubbsh  a  new  hymn  book,  which  will  also  be  adopted 
by  the  Irish  Methodist  Church,  the  Methodist  New  Connexion,  the 
Wesleyan  Reform  Union,  and  the  Australasian  Methodist  Church  ; 
and  having  regard  to  the  legal  and  financial  difiiculties  involved  in  the 
proposal,  the  Committee  is  of  opinion  that  the  proposal  contained  in 
the  resolution  is  not  at  present  practicable. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  further  reported  that  the  resolution 
by  the  Rev.  Thomasi  Mitchell  (Primitive  Methodist  Church)  with 
regard  to  Methodist  Union  had  been  under  the  corsideratiou  of  the 
Business  Committee,  and  the  Committee  submitted  the  following 
resolution,  which  Mr.  Clayton  moved  should  be  adopted  by  the 
Conference : 

"That  this  (Ecumenical  Conference  rejoices  in  the  abounding  evi- 
dences of  the  essential  unity  which  pervades  the  Methodist  Churches 
throughout  the  world,  and  records  with  devout  thankfulness  to  the 
great  °Head  of  the  Church  the  accomplishment  of  the  organic  union  of 
the  several  branches  of  Methodism  in  Australasia.  The  Conference 
confidently  anticipates  that  the  Methodist  Churches  will,  when  they  see 
that  such  is  the  Divine  Will,  follow  the  example  set  by  the  Methodist 
Churches  in  Canada  and  Australasia." 

Mr.  Percy  W.  Bunting,  M.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church), 
moved  as  an  addition  to  that : 

"That  this  Conference  recommends  the  Churches  of  the  Eastern 
Section  taking  into  serious  consideration  that  the  time  has  come  for, 
at  all  events,  a  partial  union  among  themselves." 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Mitohell  (Primitive  Methodist  Church)  said : 

I  beg  to  second  that  amendment  or  addition.  The  amendment 
suggested  is  a  little  stronger  than  the  resolution  the  Busmess  Com- 
mittee have  suggested.  May  I  say,  however,  that  my  sole  wish  is 
simply  to  keep  this  question  alive.  I  cannot  be  any  party  to  hurrying 
it,  but  I  think  we  should  keep  in  such  a  state  of  movement  as  will  be, 
at  all  events,  distinguishable  from  absolutely  standing  stdl.  That  is 
all  I  desire.    I  have  heard  it  said  that  there  are  in  the  highest  forma- 


BUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS.  217 

tions  of  the  Alps  great  fissures  in  the  ice,  which  it  would  require  super- 
human power  to  bring  together,  but  it  is  said  that  sometimes  the  direct 
rays  of  the  sun  melt  the  ice  and  the  fissures  close.  I  want  to  close  this 
question  in  that  way.  My  sole  wish  is  to  keep  this  purpose  as  much  as 
possible  within  the  direct  ray  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness. 

The  Rev.  W.  T.  Davison,  M.A.,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  said : 

I  am  sorry  that  I  cannot  agree  with  my  friend  Mr.  Bunting,  that 
it  is  a  desirable  thing  just  now  to  make  this  addition  to  the  resolution 
as  read  by  Mr.  Clayton.  I  think  that  all  who  are  desirous  of  taking 
some  further  steps  towards  Methodist  Union  at  this  time  should  do  so 
with  very  great  care,  and  that  the  delicate  question  of  closer  organic 
union  should  be  approached  very  carefully  indeed.  I  ask  myself  what 
would  be  the  effect  of  adding  these  words  to  the  resolution,  and  how 
it  would  act  if  this  (Ecumenical  Conference,  as  a  whole,  recommended 
the  different  Conferences  to  take  this  question  into  consideration. 
Suppose  the  whole  of  the  moral  influence  of  this  Conference  were 
brought  to  bear  upon  each  separate  one,  so  that  it  would  be  bound  to 
consider,  say,  at  its  first  meeting  after  this  Conference,  whether  Union 
were  desirable  or  not  ;  and,  supposing  that  in  one  Conference  the  con- 
clusions were  in  the  affirmative,  and  in  another  in  the  negative,  would 
that  promote  the  cause  that  we  all  have  at  heart  ?  Would  not  the  work 
be  better  done,  I  submit,  with  deference  to  my  brethren  here,  by  private 
overtures  and  by  our  coming  to  a  mutual  understanding,  instead  of, 
first  of  all,  throwing  it,  shall  I  say,  in  the  face  of  the  world  at  large, 
and  deaHng  with  these  delicate  questions  in  the  first  instance  publicly 
and  overtly  ? 

Dr.  Stephenson,  in  his  excellent  address  on  this  subject  a  while  ago, 
used  the  now  somewhat  familiar  illustration  of  courtship  and  marriage 
but,  if  he  will  allow  me  to  say  so,  I  do  not  think  he  applied  it  in  pre- 
cisely the  best  way.  It  seems  to  me  the  Methodist  bodies  are  in  the 
position  of  a  number  of  young  people  who  have  been  very  friendly  with 
one  another  for  some  time,  and  here  and  there  two  of  them  may  be 
in  their  own  minds  thinking  of  the  question  of  beginning  a  courtship 
which  shall  end  in  marriage.  That  is  a  very  delicate  moment.  It  is 
the  time  when  precipitancy  may  not  only  prevent  the  engagement 
taking  place,  and  the  marriage  taking  place,  but  may  even  produce 
alienation,  and  I  would  remind  the  Conference  that  the  object  of  our 
meeting  together  here  is  that  we  may  get  to  understand  one  another 
better,  and  that  we  may  unite  in  such  general  sentiments  as  were 
embodied  in  the  resolution  moved  by  Mr.  Clayton.  We  should  not 
bring  even  moral  pressure  to  bear  upon  the  several  Conferences,  either 
in  one  direction  or  another.  I  hope  that  we  may  agree  unanimously, 
without  any  hesitation,  with  all  our  hearts,  in  the  general  sentiments 
as  expressed  in  the  resolution  read  from  the  platform,  and  that  we  shall 
quietly,  and  not  in  a  very  great  hurry,  draw  nearer  together  in  such  a 
way  that  the  Union  may  be  permanent  and  abiding. 

The  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  said : 

I  hardly  meant  to  speak,  but  I  feel  bound  to  say  a  word.  I  believe 
that  in  this  matter  I  shall  not  be  suspected  of  any  want  of  friendly 
feeling  toward  my  brethren  of  the  other  Denominations  of  the  Eastern 


2l8  METHODISM   AND    EDUCATION. 

Section.  For  forty  years  it  has  been  one  of  the  joys  of  my  life  to  try 
to  bring  them  a  little  more  together  ;  but  I  feel  that  the  Conference 
is  in  danger  on  this  point.  It  may  recommend  this.  What  else  may 
it  recommend  to  the  various  Churches?  Why  should  not  we  recom- 
mend our  friends  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  and  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  South  to  consider  the  question  of  Union?  Why 
should  not  we  recommend  a  good  many  other  things  that  any  one  of 
you  could  easily  imagine?  The  strength  of  this  (Ecumenical  Con- 
ference is  in  the  expression  of  opinion,  in  the  comparing  of  notes,  in 
the  formation  of  acqiiaintance,  and  in  the  cultivation  of  good  feeling. 
This  will  do  far  more  in  the  direction  which  many  of  us  most  desire 
than  we  can  possibly  accomplish  by  formal  resolutions  of  any  kind  at 
all.  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  the  passing  of  this  resolution  is  not 
contrary  to  the  very  constitution  on  which  this  Conference  is  estab- 
lished. This  Conference  will  do  far  more  in  the  direction  which  many 
of  us  desire  by  what  has  already  occurred  and  by  the  discussion  of  the 
question  than  by  the  passing  of  any  formal  resolutions. 

Mr.  Perct  W.  Bunting,  M.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church), 
said  :  I  will  not  divide  the  Conference. 

The  oriffinal  resolution  was  accordingly  agreed  to. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Mitchell  (Primitive  Methodist  Church)  said  : 
We  have  reached  unanimity  on  this  question.  Could  we  reach 
unanimity  on  the  further  point  that  this  minute  be  sent  to  each 
Conference  represented  here  ? 

The  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  said  :   I  sihall  be  very  glad  to  second  that. 

The  Rev.  W.  T.  Davison,  M.A.,D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church), 
said  :   I  should  most  heartily  agree. 

The  motion  was  thereupon  carried. 

The  Conference  adopted  the  recommendation  of  the  Business 
Committee,  and  appointed  Mr.  Hanford  Crawford  (Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church)  and  the  Rev.  Stephen  J.  Herben,  Lit.D.  (Methodist 
Episcopal  Church)  for  the  Western  Section,  to  act  with  the  Rev. 
H.  B.  Kendall,  B.A.  (Primitive  Methodist  Church),  and  the  Rev. 
Andrew  Crombie  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches)  for  the  Eastern 
Section,  as  Joint  Editors  of  the  Official  Report  of  the  Conference 
Proceedings ;   the  Rev.  Andrew  Crombie  being  Convener. 

The  Benediction  was  then  pronounced  by  the  President  (Rev. 
E.  J.  Watkin,  D.D.)  and  the  siession  concluded. 


BUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS  219 


SIXTH   DAY,    Tuesday,    Septemher    10,    1901. 


TOPIC : 
CHRISTIANITY    AND    MODERN  UNBELIEF. 


FIRST     SESSION. 


The  Conference  resumed  its  sessions  at  10  a.m.,  Bishop  John  H. 
Vincent,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  presiding. 
The  Rev.  Jesse  Bowman  Young,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  read  a.  portion  of  Scripture  and  offered  prayer. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  (Secretary),  read  the  Daily  Record 
for  Monday,  which  was  confirmed. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  read  the  minutes  of  the  Business  Com- 
mittee, which  were  approved. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  (Secretary),  said  he  held  in  his  hand 
a  telegram  which  he  was  sure  every  member  of  the  Conference 
would  be  glad  to  hear.  It  was  addressed  to  him,  and  was  signed 
by  the  Rev.  H.  K.  Carroll,  D.D.,  one  of  the  Missionary  Secretaries 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Pro- 
gramme Committee  for  the  Western  Section.  It  was  received  at 
6.53  last  evening,  and  read  as  follows  :  "  King,  Secretary  (Ecume- 
nical Conference,  London.  President's  progress  :  recovery  steady, 
satisfactory. — Carroll."  Tbe  Conference  received  the  news  with 
much  satisfaction. 

The  Rev.  John  Bond  (Secretary)  said  he  had  a  resolution  to 
submit  on  the  preparation  of  an  address  from  the  Conference  to 
the  Methodist  world.  The  resolution  was  :  "  That  an  address  be 
issued  from  this  Conference  to  the  Methodists  of  the  world,  and  that 
four  persons  be  chosen  to  prepare  the  address  on  behalf  of  the  Con- 
ference." He  moved  that  ijt  be  referred  to  the  Business  Committee, 
and  the  Conference  agreed. 

The  Rev.  John  Bond  (Secretai7)  announced  that  there  were  262 
appointments  requested  for  Sunday  next,  and  asked  for  volunteers 
from  among  those  who  were  not  already  planned  to  preach. 


2  20  CHRISTIANITY   AND   MODERN   UNBELIEF. 

The  Rev.  Robert  Hughes  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada)  read 
the  following  message  from  the  President  of  the  British.  Columbia 
Conference  of  the  Methodist  Church : 

Brother  Hughes  conveys  the  greetings  of  one  of  the  youngest  Con- 
ferences of  Methodism  situated  on  the  sunset  slope  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains. 

"We  are  not  divided, 
All  one  body  we  ; 
One  in  hope  and  doctrine, 
One  in  charity." 

H.  H.  Bareaclough,  President. 
John  Robson,  Secretary. 

Mr.  N.  W.  RowELL  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada)  submitted  a 
resolution  on  the  manner  of  discussing  the  topics  which  was 
referred  to  the  Business  Committee. 

The  Rev.  D.  Brook,  M.A.,  D.C.L.  (United  Methodist  Free 
Churches),  suggested  that  speeches  might  be  given  from  the  floor  of 
the  chapel,  but  the  arrangement  already  made  that  every  speaker 
must  go  to  the  platform  was  upheld. 

The  order  of  the  programme  was  then  followed,  and  an  essay 
on  "Christianity  and  Modern  Unbelief"  was  given  by  the  Rev.  J 
Agar  Beet,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church).     He  said : 

By  unbelief,  I  understand  in  this  paper  an  intelligent  rejection  of 
convictions  held  firmly  by  the  mass  of  Christians  as  the  ground  of 
their  hope  and  the  rule  of  their  life.  These  deeply-cherished  convic- 
tions are  rejected  by  not  a  few,  either  as  in  themselves  incredible  or 
as  not  supported  by  adequate  evidence,  and  therefore  unworthy  of 
confident  acceptance.  Unbelief,  thus  understood,  is  not  modern,  but 
is  as  old  as  Christianity.  It  has,  however,  in  a  modern  environment, 
assumed  forms  more  oi  less  peculiar  to  our  own  day.  These  we  shall 
now  consider,  and  shall  also  consider  our  duty  towards  some  who  reject 
beliefs  which  to  us  are  dearer  than  life  and  absolutely  certain. 

Among  these  unbelievers  we  distinguish  two  classes.  Some  reject, 
as  destitute  of  sufiicient  evidence,  all  definite  conception  of  an  Unseen 
greater  than  the  visible  world  around  us  and  claiming  to  control  human 
action.  These  unbelievers  are  sometimes  called  Agnostics.  They 
profess  to  know  nothing  beyond  the  visible  universe  around.  Xot  a 
few  of  them  assert  that  nothing  more  can  be  known.  Others  look  up 
with  more  or  less  confidence  and  joy  to  a  Father  in  Heaven,  and 
accept,  with  hope  or  fear,  a  judgment  to  come.  But  they  reject, 
either  as  incredible  or  as  destitute  of  adequate  proof,  certain  distinc- 
tive doctrines  held  firmly  by  a  large  majority  of  professed  Christians, 
such  as  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  pardon  of  sins  through  the  death  of 
Christ,  and  the  resurrection  of  Christ.  These  doctrines,  peculiar  to 
Christianity,  and  underlying  and  moulding  the  entire  religious  thouglit 
of  a,  large  majority  of  tlie  nvist  devout  of  the  servants  of  Christ,  they 


Essay  by  rev.  j.  agar  beet.  221 

reject  as  perversions  of  His  teaching.  Tliis  second  class  of  unbelievers 
may  bo  callcil  Rationalists. 

Each  of  these  forms  of  unbeliaf  has  been  prevalent  in  all  ages,  and 
their  prevalence  reveals  deep-seated  causes.  Some  of  these  we  will 
now  for  a  moment  consider.  On  the  one  hand,  religion,  especially  the 
religion  of  Christ,  claims  to  rule  the  entire  action  and  thought  of  man, 
thus  limiting  his  activities  and  pleasures,  while  at  the  same  time  the 
fascinations  and  terrors  of  the  material  world,  supported  by  subtle 
influences  born  in  us,  draw  us  in  an  opposite  and  lower  direction. 
This  influence  tends  to  warp  the  judgment  and  to  weaken  the  moral 
sense.  They  who  yield  themselves  to  the  fascinations  of  the  world 
are  prone  to  welcome  arguments  which  tend  to  break  down  barriers  to 
self-indulgence,  and  to  discredit  an  authority  which  demands  self- 
restraint.  In  other  words,  no  one  comes  unprejudiced  to  the  claims  of 
religion  and  of  Christ.  If  we  have  felt  the  insufficiency  of  tilings 
around  to  satisfy  man's  deep  need,  we  shall  welcome  One  who  ott'era 
rest  to  the  weary,  even  though  it  be  by  laying  upon  them  His  yoke. 
But  if  we  have  never  felt  this  need,  we  shall  resent  the  interference 
of  an  influence  which  claims  to  limit  our  pleasures.  The  above  moral 
influence  hostile  to  faith  and  to  religion  is  always  present  in  all 
religious  thought,  and  must  never  be  forgotten  by  those  who  deal 
with  unbelief.  Another  hindrance  to  faith  is  that  Christianity  in- 
volves a  new  and  complicated  conception  of  God,  as  Father,  Son,  and 
Spirit,  and,  therefore,  involves  to  thoughtful  men  sustained  mental 
effort.  Mere  theism  is  much  simpler  than  is  the  New  Testament 
teaching  about  Christ,  and,  in  the  weariness  of  life,  we  are  prone  to 
welcome  that  which  makes  least  demand  on  our  thought. 

We  turn  now  to  certain  specifically  modern  hindrances  to  faith. 
Strange  to  say,  among  these  must  be  placed  the  searching  and  accu- 
rate methods  of  research  adopted  now  in  all  departments  of  human 
knowledge,  and  the  indisputable  success  gained  by  these  methods  in 
the  field  of  natural  science.  These  methods  commend  themselves  at 
once  to  our  intelligence,  and  the  results  thus  gained  have  greatly 
enriched  and  elevated  human  life.  On  the  other  hand,  religious  teach- 
ing has  often  been  little  better  than  traditional  dogmatism,  or  has 
been  supported  by  arguments  sufficient  only  to  give  a  colour  of  plausi- 
bility to  beliefs  already  accepted  for  other  reasons.  Moreover,  the 
Gospel  has  sometimes  been  so  misrepresented  as  to  drive  into  revolt 
the  intelligent  moral  sense  even  of  devout  persons.  As  examples  I 
may  quote  the  doctrines  of  unconditional  election  and  reprobation,  the 
atonement  so  perverted  as  to  represent  Christ  as  rescuing  the  sinner 
from  an  implacable  Judge,  and  awful  pictorial  descriptions  of  the  doom 
of  the  lost.  For  these  serious  hindrances  to  faith.  Christian  teachers 
are  largely  responsible. 

Other  hindrances  have  their  source  in  a  one-sided  development  of 
knowledge.  No  results  of  modern  research  are  better  attested  or  of 
further-reaching  importance  than  are  the  universal  reign  of  law,  the 
invariable  sequence  of  cause  and  effect,  and  the  close  relation  of 
whatever  exists  to  whatever  else  txists  as  parts  of  one  whole.     In  days 


222  CHRISTIANITY   AND    MODERN    UNBELIEF. 

gone  by  events  differing  widely  from  tlie  ordinary  course  of  things  and 
unaccountable  by  natural  causes  excited  little  surprise.  We  have  now 
learnt  that  whatever  exists  and  whatever  takes  place,  belongs  to  a 
class  larger  than  itself,  and  has  appropriate  antecedents.  The  frontier 
of  the  natural  has  advanced  and  that  of  the  supernatural  has  propor- 
tionately receded.  Now,  Christianity  is  essentially  supernatural. 
Moreover,  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  asserted  again  and  again  by 
the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  as  an  essential  element  of  the 
Gospel,  is  altogether  different  from  all  phenomena  known  to  us.  So 
much  is  this  the  case  that,  if  we  were  told  that  a  dead  man  had  recently 
returned  to  life,  we  should  refuse  to  examine  seriously  the  evidem-e 
for  this  assertion.  Not  a  few  devout  me-i  have  rejected,  without  ais- 
cussion,  the  emphatic  and  repeated  statements  of  the  writers  of  the 
New  Testament  that  their  Master  was  raised  from  the  dead.  We 
have  here  a  plain  contradiction  between  the  teaching  of  the  earliest 
followers  of  Christ  and  an  attitude  of  mind  prompted  by  modern 
methods  of  research. 

In  view  of  these  tendencies  of  modern  thought,  what  attitude  ought 
to  be  taken  up  by  those  who  have  in  their  own  experience  decisive 
proof  that  the  Gospel  is  true,  and  especially  by  those  set  apart  to 
proclaim  it?  This  question  the  greatest  of  the  Apostles  will  answer 
by  his  own  example.  His  own  method,  he  thus  describes  (in  II.  Cor. 
iv.  2),  "  by  manifestation  of  the  truth,  commending  ourselves  to  every 
man's  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God."  This  implies  that  the  Truth, 
by  which  I  understand  here  the  great  reality  underlying  the  Gospel, 
appeals  to  that  inner  faculty  by  which  every  man,  in  spite  of  human 
fallibility,  pronounces  what  is  in  the  main  a  just  judgment  on  moral 
questions.  This  inborn  moral  sense  is  the  preacher's  powerful  ally 
even  in  the  most  degraded.  It  is  "  the  law  written  in  their  hearts, '  by 
which,  as  Paul  teaches  (in  Rom.  ii.  15),  even  the  heathen  will  be 
judged.  To  this  voice  of  God  in  man  all  moral  truth  appeals.  This 
principle  involves  a  lesson  and  a  warning.  Before  going  into  the 
fight,  we  must  carefully  examine  our  weapons.  For,  however  plausible 
error  may  appear,  it  is  always  dangerous,  and  may  be  fatal.  For  it 
may  lead  astray  ;  or,  on  the  other  band,  discovery  of  the  truth  may 
discredit  the  teacher.  Truth  alone  appeals  to  that  which  is  noblest 
and  best  in  man. 

To  eliminate  error  from  our  own  religious  beliefs  is  by  no  means 
easy.  For,  although  in  our  own  moral  and  spiritual  life  we  have 
complete  proof  that  the  Gospel  is  true  in  the  main,  we  have  no  right 
to  assume  that  our  beliefs  are  true  in  all  minor  details.  For,  with 
truth,  error  is  apt  to  mingle.  To  remove  error  from  his  statement 
of  Divine  truth  is  the  first  duty  of  the  Christian  apologist.  In  our 
effort  to  do  this  the  methods  of  modern  historical  and  scientific 
research  will  greatly  help  us.  We  must  sift  the  evidence  for  the 
historic  facts,  and  for  the  doctrines  of  Christianity,  as  we  should  sift 
the  evidence  for  any  other  human  belief.  We  may  hope  thus  to 
remove  from  our  advocacy  of  the  Gospel  some  of  the  misrepresenta- 
tions  which    have    raised    serious   hindrances   to  it.     Moreover,    this 


ESSAY   BY   REV.    J.   AGAR   BEET.  823 

method  will  gain  for  us  the  respect  of  some  whom  we  wish  to  convince, 
and  who,  in  other  departments,  are  accustomed  thus  to  sift  evidence. 
But,  when  all  is  done,  serious  difficulties  will  remain,  especiallj"^ 
those  which  gather  round  the  resurrection  of  Christ.  Can  we  do 
anything  to  lessen  them?  I  think  we  can.  We  can  show  that  a 
denial  of  the  resurrection  of  Christ  does  not  remove  the  difficulty  of 
accounting  for  the  origin  of  Christianity  and  for  its  wonderful  effect 
on  the  world,  as  revealed  in  the  unique  pre-eminence  of  the  Christian 
nations.  Indisputably,  out  of  a  religion  peculiar  to  a  small  and 
decaying  nation,  arose  suddenly  another  religion  similar  to  it,  yet 
containing  elements  quite  new  ;  and,  in  marked  contrast  to  Judaism, 
which  had  existed  for  centuries  without  greatly  influencing  the  nations 
around,  this  new  religion  soon  burst  all  national  bounds  and  spread 
rapidly  over  the  Eoman  Empire,  and  continued  to  spread,  until  now 
for  many  centuries  it  has  been  conterminous  with  civilisation,  and  has 
monopolised  all  that  is  best  in  human  life.  The  rise  and  influence  of 
Christianity  stand  absolutely  alone  in  the  history  of  the  world.  They 
reveal  a  unique  cause.  It  is  also  certain  that  the  earliest  preachers 
of  the  Gospel,  they  who  gained  for  Christ  the  homage  of  all  later  ages, 
and  through  whose  agency  He  became  the  Saviour  of  the  World,  bowed 
before  Him  as  One  infinitely  greater  than  the  greatest  of  men  ;  and 
did  so  because  they  had  evidence  which  convinced  them  that  He  had 
risen  from  the  dead.  If  He  did  not  rise  and  was  not  in  a  unique 
sense  the  Son  of  God,  these  men  were  in  deep  error  touching  their 
Master  and  touching  the  nature  of  God.  In  other  words,  a  movement 
based  only  on  a  stupendous  delusion  has,  in  this  case,  conferred  on 
our  race  infinite  blessing.  From  this  dilemma  the  only  way  of  escape 
is  through  the  empty  grave   of  our  Risen   Lord. 

On  this  way  of  escape  modern  science  sheds  welcome  light.  For  it 
reveals  to  us  an  event,  or  a  small  series  of  events,  as  unlike  the 
ordinary  course  of  nature  and  as  unaccountable  by  the  known  forces 
of  nature,  as  is  the  return  of  a  dead  man  to  life.  Of  these  the  most 
conspicuous  is  the  origin  of  life.  For  science  asserts  with  unfaltering 
voice  that  our  planet  was  once  lifeless.  It  now  teems  with  life. 
Most  careful  research  has  failed  to  do  anything  to  explain  the  transi- 
tion from  the  lifeless  to  the  living.  Certainly  the  Power  which  out 
of  inorganic  matter  raised  even  the  lowliest  forms  of  life  could  breathe 
renewed  life  into  the  dead  body  of  Christ.  In  other  words,  the  origin 
of  life  is  as  much  or  as  little  a  miracle  as  is  the  resurrection  of  Christ. 
Other  similar  events  which  science  fails  to  explain  are  the  origins  of 
matter  and  motion,  the  distinction  of  the  chemical  elements,  and  the 
advent  of  reasoning  man.  Thus  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  followed 
by  the  marvellous  effects  of  the  Gospel  He  preached,  no  longer  stands 
alone,  but  stands  in  line  with  a  few  other  events,  each  of  them  intro- 
ducing a  new  era  which  changed  completely  the  whole  aspect  of  the 
world.  This  relief  from  a  serious  theological  difficulty  is  of  utmost 
importance,  for  it  reveals  a  deep  and  far-reaching  harmony  between 
things  seen  and  unseen,  and  shows  us  light  reflected  from  the  one 
upon  the  other. 


2  24  CHRISTIANITY   AND   MODERN   UNBELIEF. 

To  sum  up.  Our  first  duty  to  uul)elievers  is  ourselves  to  examine 
carefully  the  treasure  committed  to  our  charge  ;  and  to  eliminate  as 
far  as  we  can  the  error  which  ever  tends  to  mingle  with  truth.  In 
so  doing,  we  shall  welcome,  from  all  departments  of  knowledge,  all 
correct  methods  of  research.  This  will  do  much  to  gain  us  a  hearing 
from  those  whom  we  wish  to  convince.  We  must  then  state  clearly 
the  results  of  our  research  ;  and  reproduce  as  far  as  we  can  the 
evidence  on  which  our  own  belief  rests.  To  the  believer,  the  strongest 
confirmation  and  verification  of  our  faith  is  found  in  his  own  inner 
life  ;  but  this  can  be  reproduced  only  to  a  very  small  extent.  Yet, 
just  as  the  unseen  grandeur  of  the  Son  of  God  revealed  itself  to  men 
in  His  holy  life  on  earth,  so  may  we  hope  that  He  wiU  clothe  us  His 
servants  with  some  measure  of  His  own  moral  glory.  This  will  be 
the  true  complement  to  the  historical  evidence  we  ought  ever  to  be 
ready  to  produce.  Each,  of  these  departments  of  evidence  needs,  and 
neither  supersedes,  the  other.  We  read  that,  while  Moses  talked 
with  God  on  the  mountain,  his  face  caught  the  brightness  of  Him 
with  whom  he  spoke.  That  supernatural  brightness  revealed  to  Israel 
the  Divine  authority  of  the  covenant  given  through  Moses.  But  it 
did  not  supersede  the  words  written  on  the  tables  of  stone.  So  do 
they  who  set  forth  and  defend  the  Gospel  of  Christ  need  to  stand 
before  Him,  and  to  go  forth  from  His  presence  bearing  in  their 
hands  the  words  of  life  written  down  from  His  lips,  and  reflecting  in 
their  own  uprightness,  kindness,  and  devotion  to  His  work  the  moral 
glory  of  the  Master  whom  they  serve. 

Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episoopal 
Church),  gave  the  first  appointed  address,  his  subject  being 
"  Secularism  and  Christianity."     He  said  : 

When  Napoleon  had  come  to  the  tomb  of  Frederick  the  Great  at 
Potsdam,  he  stood  abstracted  for  a  moment,  and  then  addressing  the 
great  soldier  said :  "  If  you  had  been  living  I  should  not  have  been 
here."  Secularism,  as  theory  or  practice,  proceeds  upon  the  presump- 
tion that  there  is  no  God.  He  is  dead  or  on  a  journey,  and  cannot  be 
concerned  with  the  men  and  women  who  are  on  the  earth.  It  will 
not  matter  whether  secularists  presume  to  justify  themselves  with 
some  form  of  philosophy  or  only  irreverently  or  profanely  abandon 
themselves  to  indifference  or  lawlessness^  the  case  is  the  same  ;  their 
thought  or  thoughtlessness  and  conduct  recognise  no  present  governing 
Father,  by  whom  duty  is  enjoined,  or  to  whom  responsibility  is  answer- 
able. In  this  one  agreement  all  are  included,  whether  they  may 
choose  to  be  known  or  we  may  designate  them  as  atheists  or  agnostics. 
No  violence  is  done,  however  much  they  may  be  classified  apart  to 
include  positivists,   materialists,   and  pessimists. 

The  outbreaking  sinner  practically  proceeds  in  his  conduct  upon 
the  same  presumption.  They  recognise  no  supersensible  world,  no 
supernatural  presence,  and  no  spiritual  sense  in  man.  They  disallow 
all  extra-natural  guidance,  all  revelation,  all  forms  of  historic  religion 


ADDRESS    BY    BISHOP   J.    W.    HAMILTON.  225 

and  theological  sliuly.  They  make  all  tyi)e.s  of  religious  experience 
to  be  mere  "illusory  creations  of  iniaginalion.'  The  evidential  value 
of  religious  tradition  and  instruction  they  avow  tu  be  nothing.  They 
would  make  man  to  be  a  passionless  creature  of  "  spontaneous  mental 
action."  They  talk  much  of  the  "'  relativity  of  knowledge,"  which  is 
a  sort  of  Bible  among  agnostics,  and  then  lay  claim  to  a  great  job-lot 
of  knowledge  which  they  have  picked  up  from  every  conceivable  source, 
including  Christian  instruction  and  tradition.  However  much  they 
may  ignore  authority,  reverence,  or  worship,  they  substitute  their 
negations  for  every  form  of  rehgious  instruction,  belief,  and  life.  They 
are  extreme  dogmatists,  whose  business  it  is  to  denounce  dogma. 

Christianity,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  direct  revelation  of  the 
presence  of  the  one  true  and  living  God  in  this  world.  It  must  be 
supreme  in  its  authority,  and  universal  in  its  dominion.  It  will 
tolerate  no  rival  claim  ;  all  other  forms  of  faith  must  disappear, 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  historic  Founder,  must  be  accepted  as  the  only 
Son  of  God. 

The  conflict  is,  therefore,  on.  Is  there  no  God  then  ?  Or  but  at  best 
an  absentee  God,  sitting  idle  ever  since  the  first  Sabbath,  at  the  outside 
of  this  universe  and  seeing  it  go?  Is  there  no  foundation  for  the 
Christian  faith?  The  external  test  of  integrity  in  any  claim,  human 
or  Divine,  is  very  largely  in  its  consistency,  and  "  the  value  of  a  belief 
is  tested  by  applying  it."  Secularism  is  "  the  system  of  conduct  which 
claims  to  find  all  the  duties  and  inspirations  of  life  witliin  the  earthly 
sphere."  It  assumes  to  say  when  claiming  to  be  a  philosophy,  that  "  we 
can  know  nothing  beyond  phenomena,"  or  that  "  sense-experience  is 
the  only  field  of  knowledge."  It  then  repudiates  a  whole  realm  of 
phenomena,  as  much  the  care  and  study  of  the  scientific  mind  as  the 
mere  "insensate  things."  There  is  a  world  of  spirit  in  human  nature, 
whose  needs  and  appetites  must  be  known  to  compass  evident  pheno- 
mena. Secularism  is  not  fair  in  the  treatment  of  the  phenomena  it 
assumes  to  investigate,  for  professing  to  use  only  "  reason,"  it  relies 
for  most  of  its  conclusions  upon  the  acceptance  of  only  such  evidence 
as  faith  can  give.  All  science,  even  for  its  demonstrations,  relies  upon 
such  confidence  in  its  sense-experience  as  only  faith  can  furnish.  Then 
its  egotism  concerning,  as  Josh  Billings  says,  the  "  knowledge  of  things 
which  are  not  so,"  disqualifies  it  for  good  reputation  concerning  the 
"knowledge  of  things  that  are  so." 

I  have  often  heard  say  that  a  player  might  teach  a  parson,  but  science 
is  not  a  mask  which  every  player  can  put  on,  and  only  when  the  play 
begins.  "Who,"  as  Mr.  Balfour  says,  "would  pay  the  slightest  atten- 
tion to  naturaUsm  if  it  did  not  force  itself  into  the  retinue  of  science, 
assume  her  livery,  and  cla'ira  as  a  kind  of  poor  relation  in  some  sort 
to  represent  her  authority  and  to  speak  with  her  voice?"  No 
naturalist  can  speak  with  authority  who  does  not  study  human  nature 
in  his  study  of  "nature."  This  is  not  a  world  of  machinery  so  much 
as  a  world  of  mechanics,  and  every  mechanic  has  both  a  head  and  a 
heart,  with  longings  both  to  know  and  to  love.  The  law  of  the  clod 
16 


2  26  CHRISTIANITY   AND    MODERN   UNBELIEF. 

is  lint  the  law  of  the  "clodhopper."  The  law  of  the  well-clothed 
lilies  is  not  the  law  of  human  spirits.  Mr.  Romanes  acknowledged  his 
neglect  of  the  study  of  human  nature  to  be  the  weakness  of  his 
theory  of  theism,  which  on  reconsideration  he  frankly  abandoned.  If 
the  "  relative  truth "  or  the  "  relative  knowledge "  upon  which  the 
secularist  claims  to  rely  is  the  only  outcome  of  the  study  of  physical 
nature,  the  unknowal)leness  of  the  supreme  object  of  "relative  truth" 
inevitably  follows.  Mr.  Cliflford  could,  therefore,  very  properly  have 
inscribed  as  the  epitaph  on  his  tombstone  in  Highgate  Cemetery : 

"  I  was  not ;  I  became  ; 

I  lived,  and  did  a  little  work  ; 
I  am  not,  and  I  care  not." 

The  question  might  arise,  however,  as  to  whether  he  even  "did  a 
little  work,"  brilliant  and  clever  as  his  talents  were,  if  the  value  of 
that  work  was  wholly  unknowable.  The  force  of  such  reckless  think- 
ing and  carelessness  is  to  make  one's  estimate  of  one's  own  life 
contagious,  and  go  far  to  vindicate  the  slight  paraphrase  of  another 
epitaph  very  widely  known  in  the  United  States  of  America — 

"  Poor  workman  !    Here  he  lies  ; 

Nobody  laughs  and  nobody  cries. 
Where  he's  gone,  or  how  he  fares, 
Nobody  knows  and  nobody  cares." 

To  substitute  such  meaning  of  all  human  destiny  for  the  "  Christian 
Interpretation  of  Life"  is,  to  say  the  least,  to  set  forth  a  very  im- 
practicable and  unsatisfactory  philosophy  of  life  and  theory  of  conduct. 
A  man  needs  nothing  so  much,  in  his  study  both  of  positive  and  nega- 
tive criticism,  gnosticism,  and  agnosticism,  as  the  spirit  becoming  to 
inquiry,  and  a  whole  head  full  of  good,  hard,  worldly-wise,  common 
sense.  At  the  dinner  given  to  Sir  Thomas  Lipton  in  New  York  the 
other  day,  it  was  proposed  that  he  should  speak  to  the  toast,  "  May 
Shamrock  II.  Win."  He  chose  modestly,  however,  to  speak  to  the 
toast  which  he  himself  proposed,  "  May  the  Best  Boat  Win."  Better 
than  the  winning  of  the  race  was  the  unselfish  courtesy  of  the  gallant 
and  chivalrous  yachtsman. 

It  is  only  the  best  which  in  the  end  will  prevail  anywhere.  Righteous- 
ness and  truth  are  not  manufactured  by  the  dialectical  skill  and 
measurement  of  "  the  tierce  and  quart  of  mind."  Has  life  no  other 
meaning,  no  higher  meaning,  than  that  described  in  three  score  and 
ten  years  of  physical  geography,  mental  and  physical  anatomy,  phy- 
siology, and  hygiene?  Is  man  only  an  automaton,  without  duties  or 
responsibilities?  Human  history  answers  that.  Are  ethics  nothing 
more  than  a  summary  of  human  prudence?  The  history  of  religious 
character  and  conduct  makes  a  Waterloo  for  any  such  arrogant  pre- 
tence. If  it  were  granted  that  the  accumulations  of  "  relative  know- 
ledge "  could  produce  and  formulate  a  satisfactory  system  and  code  of 
ethics,  Professor  Bowne  has  shown  that  it  would  yet  be  devoid  of 
"the  inspirations  of  ethical  practice."  "Formal  moral  principles"  are 
not  enough,   there  must  b§  "  certain  extra-moral  conceptions  which 


ADDRESS   BY   REV.    R.    ABERCROMBIE.  227 

condition  Iheir  application."  All  high  meanings  of  tho  Jestiny  of 
life  depend  on  somclhing  beyond  ourselves.  There  must  Ije  basis  for 
ethics  "on  faith  in  the  moral  structure  of  tho  universe  and  a  trust 
that  it  will  not  finally  put  our  moral  nature  to  shame." 

Secularism  must  account  for  the  moral  atrophy  of  worldliness,  the 
tortuous  conduct  of  men,  and  what  Burke  aptly  called  the  "ill- 
husbandry  of  injustice "  in  every  age  of  the  world.  Think  you  that 
the  claim  of  some  fatuitous  "  natural  law  "  and  the  "  assurance  that  the 
universe  is  indifferent  to  good  and  evil  alike  "  will  hush  the  contrar 
dictory  voice  of  patriotism  when  the  assassin  under  the  garb  of  purest 
friendship  fiendishly  betrays,  and  murderously  smites,  the  prince  of 
rulers,  who  is  his  best  friend?  This  is  not  the  time  for  even  brilliant 
speculatists  who  go  swapping  angels  in  the  night  for  the  excitement  of 
the  bargain.  Who  is  to  save  us?  Who  is  to  recover  and  save  the 
coarse,  cruel,  shambling  crowd?  We  want  no  unknown  god  or  god- 
dess, who,  though  amiable  and  propitious  half  the  time,  like  Proser- 
pine, can  only  guard  the  Fields  of  the  Dead.  There  must  be  a  Gospel 
of  inspiration,  elevation,  salvation.  The  only  cure  for  anarchy  is  the 
monarchy  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Christianity  is  no  experiment ;  it  is  not  an  opinion,  not  a  pheno- 
menon, not  a  philosophy.  It  is  the  holy  assertion  of  the  Immanent 
Presence  and  Infinite  Truth  of  the  supernatural  world,  brought  down 
to  earth.  It  is  accredited  both  by  historic  evidence  and  historic 
experience.  It  is  intelligible  and  reasonable.  It  is  not  to  be  vindi- 
cated by  skilful  argument,  but  by  that  holy,  incarnate  living  which 
makes  holy  the  lives  of  men  and  nations  according  to  the  pattern  of 
a  Perfect  Example.  It  is  the  rehgion  of  the  future,  because  it  en- 
spheres the  inner  life  of  all  men — makes  a  world  for  their  souls.  It 
is  unassailable  and  irresistible.  It  is  adequate.  It  belongs  no  more 
to  character  than  to  conduct,  to  the  Church  than  the  State.  It  is  fitted 
no  less  to  the  working  days  than  the  Eest  Day,  to  health  than  sick- 
ness, to  prosperity  than  adversity,  to  joy  than  sorrow,  to  the  rich 
than  the  poor,  to  the  young  than  the  old.  Indoors,  outdoors,  it  ia 
silently  present  everywhere  and  every  when — there  is  no  secular. 

"  God  of  our  fathers,  Thou  who  wast, 

Art,  and  shalt  be,  when  the  eye  wise  who  flout 

Thy  secret  presence  shall  be  lost 

In  the  great  light  that  dazzles  them  to  doubt, 

We,  who  believe  Life's  bases  rest, 

Beyond  the  probe  of  chemic  test, 

Still,  like  our  fathers,  feel  Thee  near." 

The  Rev.  R.  Abercrombie,  M.A.  (United  Methodist  Free 
Churches),  followed  with  an  address  on  the  same  subject.     He  said  : 

Secularism,  like  most  other  modern  doctrines,  is  taught  in  novels,  as 
well  as  in  other  forms  of  literature,  and  the  best  statement  of  one  side 
of  secularism  I  found  in  a  well-known  modern  novel.  I  wish  to  begin 
by  reading  it  to  you : 


228  CHRISTIANITY   AND   MODERN   UNBELIEF. 

"  After  struggling  to  see  the  unseeable,  grooving  drunk  -with  the 
endeavour  to  span  the  infinite,  and  writhing  before  the  inscrutable 
mystery,  it  is  a  renovating  relief  to  turp.  to  some  simple,  feelable, 
weighaible  substance  ;  to  something  which  has  a  smell  and  a  colour, 
which  may  be  handled  and  turned  over  this  way  and  that.  Whether 
there  be  or  be  not  a  hereafter  ;  whether  there  be  any  use  in  calling 
aloud  to  the  Unseen  Power  ;  whether  there  be  an  Unseen  Power  to  call 
to  ;  whatever  be  the  true  nature  of  the  I  who  calls  and  of  the  objects 
around  me  ;  whatever  be  our  meaning,  our  internal  essence,  our  cause 
(and  In  a  certain  order  of  minds  death  and  agony  of  loss  inevitably 
awaken  the  wild  desire,  at  other  times  smothered,  to  look  into  these 
things)  ;  whatever  be  the  nature  of  that  which  the  limits  of  the  human 
intellect  build  up  on  every  hand,  this  thing  is  certain — a  knife  will  cut 
wood,  and  one  cogged  wheel  will  turn  another.  This  is  sure."  ("  Story 
of  an  African  Farm,"  pp.  92,  93.) 

Thus  a  balance  is  created  between  Mysticism  and  Certainty.  That  we 
have  certain  mystical  tremors  and  strange  vibrations  of  the  nerves  is 
quite  true  ;  what  their  value  is  we  cannot  tell ;  whether  they  have  any 
relation  to  outside  facts  we  cannot  tell.  But  we  know  that  a  knife  will 
cut  wood  ;  we  know  that  money  will  procure  power  and  pleasure  ;  we 
know  that  life,  when  healthy  and  strong,  is  sweet.  Let  us,  then,  abide 
in  the  certainties  of  secularism  ;  as  for  the  mystical  tremors,  we  can  still 
retain  them  as  a  sort  of  sauce  to  season  life  when  it  becomes 
monotonous  and  vapid.     That  is  what  some  would  say. 

What,  then,  are  we  to  say  to  these  things  1  Certainty  is  the  plea  of 
the  secularist,  as  ib  is  the  plea  of  the  scientific  agnostic.  The  agnostic 
also  says :  "  It  is  on  knowledge,  not  on  beliefs  which  may  or  may  not 
be  true,  that  I  intend  to  build  up  my  life."  This  desire  for  certainty 
we  find  also  in  our  High  Church  friends,  and  in  Rome.  Rome  has  met 
this  desire  by  proclaiming  the  Infallibility  of  the  Pope.  Our  High 
Church  friends  regard  that  as  certain  in  which  the  Church  of  all  ages 
has  concurred.  We  find  the  same  love  of  certainty  in  the  great  un- 
systematic and  sentimental  teacher  of  our  time,  Thomas  Carlyle.  He 
admired  the  Middle  Ages,  because  Religion  was  then  "  a  great,  heaven- 
high  unquestionability.''  Whereas  now  there  is  little  faith,  only  the 
wish  to  believe. 

This  desire  for  certainty  may  be  met  in  two  ways.  1.  It  may  be  met 
in  the  Butler  way,  by  insisting  on  the  doctrine  of  probability  as  the 
guide  of  life.  Butler,  like  all  of  us,  especially  some,  has  been  a  much 
misunderstood  man.  He  has  been  thought  to  be  a  very  dry  man.  It  is 
perfectly  true  that  he  was  a  man  of  his  own  time,  and  very  much  in- 
fluenced by  it,  and  that  time  was  a  very  dry  time.  It  was  a  time  in 
which  enthusiasm  was  tabooed.  The  law  of  taboo  was  applied  to  it. 
It  was  looked  upon  as  something  profane,  something  accursed.  Hence 
so  many  pages  of  Butler's  which  seem  dry  and  sawdustish,  but  under 
the  dry  appearance  there  are  fires — ^the  fires  of  a  suppressed  enthusiasm. 
This  fiery  man  who  seemed  so  cool,  this  enthusiastic  man  who  seemed 
80  dry,  taught  the  doctrine  of  Probability.  What  did  that  doctrine 
really  mean?    Did  it  not  mean  that  we  are  to  believe  the  Highest  if 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  229 

there  is  but  a  slight  balance  of  probability  in  its  favour,  just  as  we 
are  to  believe  in  a  friend  if  there  is  but  a  slight  probability  in  his 
favour  when  accused,  because  it  is  the  noblest  thing  for  us  to  do  ?  With 
Butler,  the  antecedent  presumptions  are  all  in  favour  of  the  high,  the 
noble,  the  Christian,  the  Godlike  ;  even  a  slight  intellectual  probability 
added  to  these  antecedent  presumptions  has  in  it  the  voice  of  a  demon- 
stration. Butler  does  not  put  it  exactly  in  this  way,  but  we  read 
between  the  lines, 

2,  Another  way  of  meeting  the  demand  for  certainty  is  by  pointing 
out  that  there  are  spiritual  facts  which  are  just  as  certain  as  material 
facts,  nay,  more  certain.  Descartes  was  the  first,  in  modern  times,  to 
teach  us  the  absolute  certainty  of  the  spiritual.  He  could  doubt  every- 
thing except  his  own  consciousness  and  identity.  I  think — ^therefore  I 
am.  But  I  am  conscious  also  of  imperfection  ;  therefore,  there  must  be 
a  perfect  One,  by  comparison  with  whom  I  feel  my  own  imperfections. 
Newman,  in  our  time,  was  a  very  diiferent  man  from  Descartes,  but  he 
also  felt  that  there  were  two  certainties — his  own  soul  and  God.  The 
language  of  the  New  Testament  is  the  language  of  knowledge ;  faith 
grows  into  knowledge.  Let  a  man  be  a  true  disciple  of  Christ,  and  he 
will  acquire  an  experience  which  will  give  him  certainty  of  those  things 
in  which  he  has  been  instructed.  I  do  not  say  that  this  certainty  will 
be  quite  free  from  the  clouds  of  doubt ;  but  all  that  a  healthy  mind 
requires  is  what  I  may  call  a  working  certainty.  Let  us  bear  in  mind 
that  there  may  be  a  morbid  desire  for  certainty.  A  man  may  get  into 
a  morbid  state  of  mind,  in  which  he  distrusts  all  his  friends. 

Nevertheless,  the  Christian  Church  is  well  able  to  meet  the  demand 
for  certainty  ;  for  there  are  great  spiritual  certainties.  It  is  certain 
that  I  am.  It  is  certain  that  there  is  a  Right  and  a  Wrong.  It  is 
certain  that  I  have  a  will  which  can  choose  between  the  Right  and  the 
Wrong.  It  is  certain  that  I  am  surrounded  by  fellow-beings,  who  have 
a  will  and  a  sense  of  Right  such  as  I  have.  It  is  certain  that  sense 
of  Right  has  been  violated,  more  or  less,  by  all  men.  It  is  certain  that 
men  are  in  an  abnormal  state,  that  they  are  sinners.  It  is  certain  that 
no  outward  mean.s  can  save  us  from  our  sins,  and  it  is  certain  that 
Christ  can  save  us.  Power  is  always  shown  in  fact.  We  believe  in  Sir 
Christopher  Wren's  power  to  build  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  because  he 
actually  built  it.  Christ's  power  is  much  better  attested  than  Wren's, 
for  we  have  witnesses  of  more  than  1,800  years  of  all  nations  and 
variations  of  temperament.  These  are  certainties  of  consciousness  and 
of  history  ;  and  the  certainties  of  consciousness  and  history  are,  to  say 
the  least,  equal  to  the  certainties  of  science.  This  is  saying  the  least ; 
for,  in  very  truth,  we  are  more  certain  of  our  own  consciousness  than 
of  any  fact  in  the  universe  besides. 

The  general  conversation  was  opened  by  Bishop  Evans  Ttrbe, 
D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  as  followsi : 

In  the  eight  d  inferences  I  represent  there  are  more  than  550 
preachers.  I  represent  a  people  of  a  simple  faith— people  that  believe 
in    God.       They     believe     the     Bible     and     all     it   says.        We  d'o 


230  CHRISTIANITY   AND   MODERN    UNBELIEF. 

not  doubt  any  part  of  it.  We  have  not  reached  the  age  yet 
of  philosophising  or  speculating  upon  the  Bible.  We  believe 
that  God  created  ;  we  believe  that  Christ  hath  redeemed  ;  we  believe 
in  the  salvation  proclaimed  in  the  New  Testament  Scriptures.  To  give 
you  an  idea  of  how  simple  the  faith  of  our  people  is,  I  will  give  you  an 
illustration.  A  master  said  to  his  slave  once  :  "  John,  how  is  it  that 
you  people  know  so  much,  and  profess  to  know  so  much  about  God, 
claim  to  be  in  Him  and  He  in  you,  and  yet  are  not  able  to  give  any 
philosophy  for  it,  any  permanent  philosophical  reason?"  The  slave 
answered  :  "  Master,  I  cannot  explain  it  that  way  ;  I  do  not  know  how. 
Buii  I  will  show  you."  He  went  to  the  fire  and  put  in  the  tongs,  and 
when  they  were  red-hot  he  held  them  and  said  :  "  Now,  master,  here 
is  fire  in  the  ^ongs  and  tongs  in  the  fire.  We  believe  in  the  doctrine 
thai!  God  is  in  man  and  man  is  in  God." 

We  believe  that  the  preaching  of  the  simple  Gospel  will  be  the 
salvation  of  the  world.  You  cannot  interest  our  people  very  much 
about  stories  of  the  Reformation,  about  things  that  are  secular.  Illus- 
trations of  that  kind  in  many  instances  do  not  strike,  but  the  Gospel 
of  the  Son  of  God  always  goes  home  tlo  the  hearts  of  the  people  who 
hear  it.  We  are  trying  to  preach  that  simple  Gospel,  that  thing  that 
we  believe  will  save  the  world  at  last.  We  are  not  inclined  to 
secularism,  we  are  not  inclined  to  go  after  the  world,  and  sometimes  I 
fear  that  we  have  not  gone  after  it  enough.  We  belong  to  a  class  of 
people  that  have  been  singing  a  long  time  :  "  You  may  have  all  the 
world,  give  me  Jesus  Christ."  I  believe  the  other  part  'of  the  world 
is  taken,  sure  enough.  But  if  we  have  Jesus  Christ,  God,  and  the  hope 
of  -glory,  we  are,  after  all,  the  richest  people  in  God's  universe.  With 
Him  we  work,  for  Him  we  shall  live,  and  in  Him  we  hope  to  die. 

One  tother  thought.  We  believe  that  it  is  dangerous  to  tamper  with 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  We  believe  that  it  is  dangerous  to  undertake  to 
put  in  any  alteration  of  "  Thus  saith  man,"  but  all  should  accept  as 
"  Thus  saith  the  Lord."  Thus,  then,  for  the  Church  Avhich  I  represent, 
and  for  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Master,  I  appear  before  you  this 
morning. 

The  Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
said  : 

I  have  a  fear  that  modern  apologists  for  our  Christianity  are  too 
much  on  the  defensive,  and  rfot  enough  on  the  aggressive.  As  I  read 
the  books  that  are  being  published  in  these  days  in  defence  of  Chris- 
tianity they  seem  to  me  to  be  too  largely  an  attempt  to  ward  off  the 
blows  of  the  enemy.  Any  system  that  is  too  much  on  the  defensive 
will  be  certain  to  lack  aggressive  power.  I  read  the  writings  of  the 
fathers,  and  they  were  not  so  much  on  the  defensive  as  they  were  on 
the  aggressive.  It  has  always  been  true  that  when  Cliristianity  has 
assumed  the  attitude  of  aggressiveness  it  has  been  a  conquering  power, 
and  just  to  the  extent  that  we  lose  the  spirit  of  aggressiveness  in  our 
attitude  towards  modern  unbelief  we  will  find  ourselves  more  and 
more  weakened  in  the  propagation  of  Christianity.  I  would,  there- 
fore, call  attention  to  this  thought,  whether  we  are  not  losing  in  our 
Theological  Faculties,  in  the  new  world  and  in  the  old,  the  spirit  of 
aggressiveness  that  obtained  among  the  fathers  in  the  days  when 
Christianity  was  a  conquering  force  in  the  world. 

I  think  we  can  find  out  what  our. attitude  towards  modem  unbelief 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  23 1 

ehould  be  by  the  attitude  of  our  Master  towards  unbelievers  in  His 
day,  and  by  the  attitude  of  the  Apostles  and  of  the  Early  Christian 
Church.  We  will  dio  well  in  these  days  to  study  the  attitude  of  Our 
Lord  towards  the  doubt  of  His  day,  for  the  doubt  of  all  days  is  very 
much  alike.  Our  Lord  assumed  the  attitude,  first,  of  very  great  kind- 
ness towards  those  that  were  without,  towards  tltose  that  were  His 
enemies  ;  but  He  had  a  definite  and  distinct  testimony  to  bear.  You 
remember  His  conversation  with  the  Pharisee,  JS^icodemus — how  He 
held  him  to  the  one  great  central  truth,  "Ye  must  be  born  again." 
He  would  not  stop  for  one  moment  to  attempt  to  explain  the  mystery, 
nor  to  attempt  to  tell  how  it  was  done  ;  but  He  simply  held  Nicodemus 
to  the  one  great  truth,  "Ye  must  be  born  again." 

When  you  take  up  the  teachings  of  the  Apostles  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, you  find  that  they  assume  the  very  same  attitude  as  did  the 
Master  towards  the  unbelieving,  the  doubting  world  ;  and  they  went 
out  to  preach  the  doctrines  of  Christ,  and  not  to  apologise  for  them,  as 
being  in  any  manner  things  that  were  to  be  questioned  or  doubted. 
St.  Paul  did  not  hesitate  to  preach  Jesus  and  the  Resurrection,  and  he 
never  spoke  a  word  to  explain  how  the  Resurrection  was  brought 
about.  He  puts  into  one  chapter,  in  one  of  his  Epistles,  his  teaching 
concerning  the  doctrine  of  the  Resurrection,  and  he  asserts  it  and 
leaves  it  there.  In  those  four  "  its  " — "  it  is  sown  in  corruption,  it  is 
raised  in  incorruption  ;  it  is  sown  in  dishoniour,  it  is  raised  in  glory  ; 
it  is  sown  in  weakness,  it  is  raised  in  power  ;  it  is  sown  a  natural  body, 
it  is  raised  a  spiritual  body,"  he  asserted  this  truth,  and  left  it  in  the 
minds  and  the  hearts  of  the  people. 

In  like  manner  these  old  teachers  went  forward,  lovingly  declaring 
the  great  doctrines  of  Christianity,  and  not  trying  to  find  out  how  many- 
things  'Were  to  be  set  aside,  not  spending  time  in  trying  to  explain 
away  the  things  to  which  the  objectors  levelled  their  heaviest  artillery  ; 
but  they  simply  went  forward  lovingly  bearing  testimony  to  the  truth. 
Christianity  must  be  a  witness  to  an  experience,  and  it  must  proclaim 
a  life  and  a  death  for  the  world's  redemption.  It  must  be  a  witnessing 
Church  ;  it  must  testify  to  something  it  knows  about  thoroughly.  Its 
attitude  towards  unbelief  must  be  that  of  the  witness  who  stands  in  the 
witness-box  to  tell  about  something  he  knows.  We  are  not  to  testify 
to  things  we  believe,  but  we  are  to  testify  to  things  that  we  know  in 
the  realm  bf  the  experimental.  I  am  always  glad  that  the  Lord  Him- 
self locates  this  question  of  the  reality  of  our  faith  in  the  realm  of 
experience.  The  eye  may  deceive  me,  the  ear  may  deceive  me,  the 
tongue  may  deceive  me,  and  I  may  be  deceived  by  all  the  sentinels  that 
stand  about  my  being  more  readily  than  by  my  experience. 

Tho  Kev.  Jbssb  B.  Youno,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
said  : 

I  want  to  express  my  gratification  and  gratitude  in  view  of  the  sane, 
safe,  clear  paper  of  Dr.  Beet,  and  I  want  to  express  my  sense  of  obli- 
gation to  him  and  Dr.  Davison  and  Dr.  Tigert  for  their  utterances  on 
Saturday  morning  with  regard  to  Biblical  study  and  the  attitude  of 
the  Church  towards  modern  critical  investigation  of  the  Scriptures.  I 
am  glad  that  thus  far  there  has  been  no  hysterical  shriek  in  this  body 
lest  the  critics  were  destroying  the  Bible'.  Sonic  year  or  two  ago  a 
man  I  met  in  a  railway  train,  who  was  a  trustee  in  a  College,  °and 
a  Methodist  layman,  unfortunately  said  to  me,   "The  Higher  Critics 


232  CHRISTIANITY   AND   MODERN    UNBELIEF. 

are  tearing  the  Bible  to  pieces."  I  am  glad  if  that  belief  is  cherished 
here  that  the  man  who  believes  it  has  kept  silent,  for  it  is 
my  profound  conviction  that  sort  of  hysterical  outbreak  is  making 
infidels  by  putting  the  wrong  stress  on  the  Scripture,  or  the  stress  on 
the  Scripture  in  the  wrong  place.  The  question  whether  there  were 
two  Isaiahs  or  not,  and  the  question  whether  Moses  wrote  the  Book 
of  Deuteronomy  in  its  present  form,  are  questions  for  the  critics  to 
settle.  They  are  still  fighting  over  them.  But  a  man  may  be  a  devout 
believer  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  he  may  be  an  orthodox  believer  ; 
he  may  be  a  consistent  worker  and  leader  in  the  Church ;  and  yet 
take  either  side  of  the  case,  and  I  am  glad  that  there  has  not  been 
an  utterance  thus  far  in  this  body  to  the  contrary. 

The  Rev.  John  Hallam  (Primitive  Methodist  Church)  spoke  as 
follows : 

I  wish  to  say  how  much  I  enjoyed  Dr.  Beet's  address,  and  how  much 
it  stirred  me.  I  especially  rose  to  say,  as  a  practical  teacher  from 
the  pulpit  and  in  social  life,  I  join  in  the  closing  words.  My  experi- 
ence is  that,  if  We  can  show  the  Christian  spirit,  embody  what  Dr. 
Beet  closed  his  essay  with,  we  have  little  to  fear  in  working 
among  secularists  and  those  that  are  troubled  with  unbelief.  It  is 
not  simply  those  that  write  apologies  that  have  to  deal  in  their  own 
way  with  unbelief,  but  we  have  to  deal  with  it  in  our  Church  life,  and 
in  connection  with  those  who  are  round  about  us  in  our  ordinary  life. 

I  wish  that  the  Churches,  and  that  Christian  people,  could  somehow 
or  other  cease  to  create  secularists  and  doubters.  I  believe  that  the 
Christian  Church  has  not  only  to  defend  the  faith,  but  also  to  try  to 
avoid,  far  more  than  it  does,  the  faulty  expressions  of  the  Christian 
life.  I  stood  in  a  pulpit  not  a  month  ago,  and  I  was  almost  unnerved 
for  my  service  by  seeing  a  well-meaning  man  go  to  a  youth  of 
eighteen  years  of  age  and  say,  "You  must  take  another  seat.'  He 
and  his  mother  rose  and  left  the  place,  and  I  was  not  surprised.  I 
have  myself,  as  a  minister,  been  one  of  eleven  persons  turned  out  of  a 
pew  in^  a  Methodist  Church  by  a  young  lady  who  would  call  herself 
a  Christian,  and  not  more  than  four  persons  sat  in  that  pew  all  the 
evening.  I  claim  that  the  way  in  which  we  have  in  practical  life  to 
deal  with  unbelief  and  secularists — and  some  of  my  best  friends  have 
been  those  that  have  doubted  the  Christian  faith — is  to  embody  the 
Christian  life,  and  treat  those  about  us  with  kindliness  as  well  as  with 
forceful  teaching.  If  we  exhibit  the  kindly  and  tolerant  spirit,  show- 
ing it  to  the  utmost  of  our  ability,  we  shall  win  men  from  doubt  and 
from  secularism,  and  it  is  better  to  win  them  into  than  to  drive  them 
from  the  Christian  Churches. 

The   Rev.  W.  H.   Nelson,    Ph.D.,    D.D.    (Methodist  Episcopal 

Church),  said: 

Our  Saviour  sounded  the  keynote  which  is  the  salvation  of  the  world 
primarily  upon  His  first  journey  to  Jerusalem,  when  He  said  to  that 
ruler  of  the  Jews,  "  Ye  must  be  born  again."  The  only  way,  among 
the  many  ways,  of  fighting  down  the  evils  of  which  we  speak  to-day 
is  by  first  calling  upon  men  everywhere  to  be  born  again.  The  ten- 
dency of  the  present  day  is  largely  to  get  men  into  the  Church  in 
great  numbers,  of  which  we  mav  be  able  to  boast.  I  believe  in  a  great 
Church,  but  I  do  not  believe  that  we  should  be  hasty  in  getting  men 
into  the  Church  without  emphasising  the  necessity  of  a  new  birth. 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  233 

Then,  I  Relieve  that  when  wc  have  got  men  up  info  the  Church, 
through  a  knowledge  of  their  sins  forgiven,  they  will  put  into  practice 
Ihe  life  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Practical  Christianity,  then,  is  the 
most  essential  of  any  phase  of  our  Christian  endeavour.  It  is  not 
possible  for  us  to  convince  the  world  that  we  love  Jesus  and  His 
Church  unless  we  impress  upon  the  people  to  whom  we  preach  to  live 
that  life  which  they  profess.  Live  Christ  in  spirit,  live  Christ  in 
example,  live  Christ  every  day. 

Again,  I  believe  in  that  Christianity  which  does  not  only  live 
Christ,  but  which  believes  in  Christ,  and  shows  this  belief  continually 
by  every  act  of  life.  Away  with  that  form  of  godliness  which  only 
professes  but  does  not  put  into  practice,  and  does  not  believe  fully 
in  what  it  says !  If  the  Christian  world,  especially  the  pulpit,  goes 
forth  with  a  faith  demonstrating  that  it  believes  what  the  Word  says, 
that  faith  itself  will  be  one  of  the  most  potent  powers  for  bringing 
men  to  their  knees. 

Then  I  believe  in  consistent  Christianity.  I  believe  in  that  Chris- 
tianity in  England,  in  America,  in  Cliina,  and  in  Africa,  which  is  the 
same,  and  puts  on  the  same  phase  at  all  times.  I  believe  in  a  Chris- 
tianity that  embraces  the  white  man,  and  the  black  man,  and  the  red 
man  as  brothers,  and  does  not  change  its  form  of  tactics  under  any 
circumstances  wherever  a  man  is  found.  Jesus  Christ  tasted  death 
for  every  man.  Consistent  Christianity  is  the  Christianity  that  will 
save  the  world. 

I  also  believe  m  earnest  Christianity.  The  most  powerful  Chris- 
tianity is  that  of  earnestness.  When  we  go  after  a  man  with  an 
endeavour  to  save  him,  there  is  no  power  that  can  overcome  the  power 
of  the  Gospel,  and  whenever  a  man  has  been  sought  through  earnest 
prayer  and  effort  there  will  be  no  failure.  The  failure  at  this  present 
time  in  overcoming  secularism  and  unbelief  is  largely  a  matter  of 
earnestness.  Whenever  a  man  knows  you  are  in  earnest  to  save  him 
he  cannot  very  well  resist  the  efforts  that  shall  be  attended  by  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

The  Rev.  Chancellor  N.  Burwash,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of 
Canada),  continuing  the  discussion,  said  : 

The  words  of  Dr.  Leonard,  to  my  mind,  have  a  very  great  and  impor- 
tant significance  in  our  dealing  with  the  unbelief  of  the  present  day. 
The  souls  of  men  are  hungry,  not  for  negations,  but  for  positive  truths. 
But  that  positive  truth  must  be  the  truth  that  appeals  to  the  conscience 
and  to  the  religious  heart  of  humanity.  It  must  be  truth  that  will 
save  men  ;  the  truth  that  comes  home  to  them  with  strong,  positive, 
and  living  conviction  ;  the  truth  of  which  our  Lord  spoke  when  He 
said,  "  The  words  which  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit  and  they 
are  life "  ;  the  truth  that  Tertullian  referred  to  when  he  made  his 
appeal  to  the  soul  of  the  common  man  as  we  find  him  in  the  market- 
place and  the  highways  of  life. 

At  the  same  time  there  is  another  important  side  which  we  must 
not  forget,  and  which  is  equally  illustrated  by  the  teaching  of  our 
Divine  Master.  Never  in  all  the  history  of  religious  life  in  the  world 
was  the  Eevelation  of  God  more  heavily  overlaid  by  the  traditions, 
interpretations,  and  dogmas  of  men  than  it  was  in  the  time  of  the 
Master,  and  you  know  how  unsparingly  He  dealt  with  those  traditions, 
how  loudly  He  protested  against  that  overlaying  of  the  truth  by  the 
teachings  of  men.     One  great  part  of  His  work  was  to  sweep  away 


234  CHRISTIANITY   AND   MODERN    UNBELIEF. 

these  hindrances  lo  true,  simple,  honest  faith.  The  words  (if  Dr. 
Beet,  therefore,  are  of  the  very  strongest  importance,  and  require  the 
strongest  empliasis  in  our  day.  In  entering  into  this  conflict  we 
should  not  merely  come  furnished  with  fulness  of  positive,  saving 
truth,  but  we  must  be  very  careful  not  to  intermingle,  not  to  overlay, 
not  to  hinder,  not  to  weaken  that  truth  by  traditional  interpretation 
and  dogmas  that  have  not  their  foundation  in  the  teaching  and  inspira- 
tion of  the  Spirit  of  God. 

The  Rev.  George  Parkin,  M.A.,  B.D.  (Primitive  Methodist 
Church),  made  the  followiag  remarks  : 

I  wish,  in  the  first  place,  to  thank  Dr.  Beet  for  the  very  careful 
paper  which  he  has  read  to  us.  I  think  that  the  attitude  of  the 
Christian  Church  towards  the  unbelief  of  the  present  day  should  be 
one  of  calmness  and  tolerance.  The  reconstruction  of  our  religious 
creeds  is  a  necessity.  We  have  been  told  oil  the  highest  authority 
that  the  most  sacred  possessions  which  a  man  has  are  his  religious 
beliefs.  But  a  creed  can  only  represent  the  thought  and  feeling  of 
the  age  when  it  is  formulated,  and  as  thought  and  feeling  grow,  a  time 
of  necessity  comes  when  that  creed  fails  to  represent  the  thought 
and  feeling  of  the  men  who  are  living.  When  that  time  comes — and 
it  has  in  our  'Own  age,  for  ours  is  a  transition  age — I  think  that  we  ought 
to  stand  by  and  be  calm.  If  our  religion  be  a  religion  of  facts,  which 
we  believe  it  to  be,  I  do  not  see  any  reason  why  we  should  be  dis- 
turbed. When  the  struggle  is  over  we  shall  find  that  what  is  good  and 
beautiful  in  our  creed  will  enter  into  other  combinations,  for  truth, 
like  God,  is  immortal.  That  is  one  reason  why  I  think  we  ought  to 
be  calm.  Another  reason  is  this :  We  have  before  our  eyes  the 
Christian  Church,  and  there  can  be  no  Christian  Church  apart  from 
a  llisen  Christ.  We  should  also  be  tolerant  as  well  as  calm.  We  can 
afford  to  be  tolerant  to  the  men  who  differ  from  us.  As  one  of  my 
revered  tutors  once  said — and  I  have  pleasure  in  quoting  his  words — 
"  The  wounds  of  reason  can 'only  be  healed  by  reason,  and  it  ill-becomes 
us  as  reasonable  men  to  act  unreasonably  towards  those  who  differ 
from  us."  Reference  has  been  made  to  the  attitude  of  our  Master. 
We  know  how  tolerant  He  was  with  Thomas,  and  that  tolerance,  I 
think,  helped  to  retain  Thomas  within  the  sacred  circle  ;  and  all  of 
us  will  say  that  Thomas  was  a  blessing  to  the  Church,  I  am  not  saying 
that  we  ought  not  to  be  dogmatic — we  ought ;  but  our  dogmatism 
should  not  be  an  unreasonable  dogmatism,  and  there  is  no  reason  why 
it  should  be.  We  have  truth  on  oiu-  side,  and  all  that  we  require  to 
do  is  to  assert  it,  and  the  Divine  Spirit  who  makes  truth  one  of  the 
great  channels  through  which  He  operates  on  the  souls  of  men  will 
operate  on  them  through  our  utterances. 

Our  Church  has  always  taken  up  the  attitude  which  I  am  advocating. 
John  Wesley  was  tolerant — not  tolerant  towards  what  he  knew  to  be 
error — ^but  he  was  tolerant  towards  men  who,  he  thought,  were  strug- 
gling for  the  truth.  We  go  forward  to-day  with  truths  for  the  intellect 
of  men,  and  we  also  go  forward  with  a  Divine  Person  for  the  affection 
of  men,  and  for  that  reason  we  have  no  cause  to  fear. 

The  Rev.  P.  A.  Hubbard,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  said : 

I  am  in  hearty  accord  with  the  papers  read,  but  I  am  more  joyed  to 
be  permitted,  as  one  of  the  products  of  American  slavery,   to  appear 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  235 

beforo  this  great  Conference  this  morning.  One  of  the  speakers  said 
that  tho  cure  fur  anarchy  was  the  monarchy  of  Jesus  Christ.  This 
great  Conference  and  tlie  Christian  worhl  cannot  rest  until  men  every- 
where stand  upon  one  common  level.  Not  only  lias  anarchy  given  us 
trouble,  but  we  have  great  troubles  in  our  own  country.  The  religion 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  sufficient  to  cleanse  the  world,  and  when 
the  Man  upon  the  White  Horse  shall  ride  in  full  triumph,  and  shall 
reign  in  every  heart,  and  in  every  home,  and  in  every  land,  and  in 
every  clime,  all  men,  regardless  of  race  and  previous  condition  of  servi- 
tude, shall  stand  upon  one  common  level. 

Christ  has  done  much  for  the  world.  The  great  Methodist  Church 
has  done  much  for  the  negro  race.  I  stand  this  morning  as  one 
of  the  products  of  American  slavery,  rejoicing  in  God  that  the  Methodist 
Church  and  the  civilised  Christian  world  has  come  to  recognise  that  a 
man  coming  from  slavery  may  stand  with  other  men  upon  the  common 
platform  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  tell  the  story  of 
the  cross.  We  are  here  to  play  our  part  in  subduing  the  world  for 
Christ.  Although  we  have  suffered  much,  we  are  following  in  your 
footsteps.  You  have  done  much,  but  I  ask  the  prayers  of  tms  mighty 
Conference.  We  are  all  one,  of  one  blood.  God  made  all  the  nations 
to  dwell  upon  all  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  I  say,  with  the  earnestness 
of  a  Christian  minister,  that  He  is  to  reign  from  the  heads  of  the 
rivers  to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  to  ride  upon  the  White  Horse, 
crowned  with  many  crowns,  with  the  inscription  upon  His  thigh,  "  Lord 
of  Lords  and  King  of  Kings,"  until  the  Faith  shall  cover  the  earth  as 
the  waters  the  channels  of  the  mighty  deep. 

The  Rev.  Geo.  Elliott,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
spoke  as  follows : 

If  as  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  I  felt  that  at  any  time  the  obligation 
were  upon  me  to  convince,  by  any  of  the  methods  of  formal  proof, 
the  people  before  me  of  the  truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  as  the  pre- 
requisite to  their  acceptance  of  my  message,  I  should  feel  that  I  had 
a  hopeless  task.  I  am  not  sure  but  what  I  should  resign  my  charge 
at  once  to  the  Bishop.  It  is  because  the  message  which  we  have  to 
bring  has  its  own  force  of  appeal,  because  it  has  in  it  elements  of  self- 
evidence  that  I  dare  to  speak,  believing  that  in  the  end  it  is  the 
Holy  Ghost  that  must  convince  the  world.  This  is  the  teaching  of 
Jesus — that  where  there  is  a  moral  attitude  secured  towards  His  truth, 
there  shall  be  no  difficulty  about  its  acceptance. 

It  was  a  French  pastor  who  said  that  while  human  things  must  be 
known  to  be  loved.  Divine  things  must  be  loved  to  be  known.  Jesus, 
through  St.  John,  has  told  us  that  "  he  that  loveth  not  knoweth  not 
God,  for  God  is  love "  ;  but  He  has  also  said  that  "  if  any  man  will 
do  His  will  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine."  In  this,  it  seems  to  me, 
is  the  strength  of  our  new  apologetic — that  we  no  longer  are  thrusting 
miracles  and  prophecies  in  the  face  of  men  to  whom  we  ought  to  pre- 
sent Jesus  Christ,  that  we  no  longer  are  making  a  primary  insistence 
on  the  resurrection,  until  we  bring  them  face  to  face  with  Him  whom, 
when  they  meet  Him,  they  shall  know  as  living  and  alive  from  the 
dead.  Those  of  us  who  know  indeed  our  Lord  to  be  alive,  and  have 
a  certainty  which  is  greater  than  all  that  can  be  given  us  by  even 
the  most  thorough  historical  research,  have  come  to  that  faith,  first 
through  spiritual  convictions,  and  through  a  moral  vision,  which  at  last 
sees  the  history  as  its  only  explanation.     Therefore,  I  must  insist  that 


236  CHRISTIANITY   AND   MODERN   UNBELIEF. 

in  dealing  with  unbelief  we  must  depend  more  and  more  upon  the 
intrinsic  self-evidencing  character  of  our  faith,  and  thus  I  welcome  the 
spirit  of  so  wise  and  thoughtful  a  paper  as  that  of  Professor  Beet, 
because  its  primary  emphasis  was  laid  upon  the  internal  evidence  lead- 
ing up  to  the  larger  external  and  historical  evidence  for  the  truth  of 
our  h'oly  religion. 

There  was  one  phrase  Dr.  Beet  used  which,  I  think,  deserves  still 
larger  consideration.  Speaking  of  scientific  research,  he  said  that  it 
had  banished  to  some  extent  the  unknown,  that  the  unknown  receded 
as  the  known  grew  clearer.  May  we  not  supplement  that  remark  with 
this  thought,  that  the  larger  the  circumference  of  known  things  is  the 
larger  is  the  number  of  the  points  at  wliich  we  touch  the  unknown, 
that  the  mere  widening  of  the  radius  of  our  knowledge  makes  wider  the 
circumference  of  thought  which  at  every  point  goes  out  into  mystery. 
I  can  never  believe  that  the  largest  and  fullest  understanding  of  our 
universe  shall  ever  but  make  more  great  the  sense  of  wonder  and  of 
mystery  with  which  men  ever  stand  in  the  presence  of  the  Unseen  ; 
and  that  sense  of  wonder  and  mystery,  which  all  men  feel  when  they 
reach  the  margin  of  their  thought,  we  can  appeal  to  with  the  largest 
and  fullest  confidence. 

The  Rev.  T.  Rider  (Methodist  New  Connexion)  was  the  next 
speaker.     He  said : 

Christian  apologetics,  eo  far  as  they  render  service — and  sometimes 
they  render  disservice — it  appears  fo  me  are  useful  in  confirming  the 
faith  of  believers.  In  this  view  I  very  greatly  appreciate  the  paper  of 
Dr.  Beet,  and  the  other  papers  brought  before  us  this  morning.  But 
I  am  a  Methodist  preacher.  I  often  deal  largely  with  working  people, 
and  I  meet  from  time  to  time  with  working  peSople  who  are  sceptical. 
The  principal  thing  I  want  to  know  is  this — ^How  am  I  best  to  deal 
with  these  people?  I  find  that  ordinary  apologetics  do  not  meet  this 
case. 

When  I  speak  with  a  man  whto  makes  some  objection  to  our  Christian 
faith,  this  is  my  method.  I  will  give  you  the  result  of  my  experience. 
I  ask  the  man  what  he  does  believe,  and  he  at  once  begins  to  tell  me 
that  he  does  not  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  he  does  not  believe  in  the 
Bible,  he  does  not  believe  in  Christianity,  and  he  does  not  believe  in 
Churches.  I  at  once  arrest  him.  "I  do  not  want  to  know,  my  good 
fellow,  what  you  do  n'ot  believe.  That  will  help  nothing.  It  will  not 
help  you,  and  it  will  not  help  me.  Will  you  tell  me  what  you  do 
believe  1 "  We  begin  there.  The  definite  positive  belief  in  relation  to 
spiritual  and  moral  truth  of  ,s'ome  of  the  men  of  that  class  is  a  very 
minus  quantity.  In  dealing  with  one  man  I  was  told  by  him  that  he 
did  not  believe  this,  and  would  not  believe  that,  and  would  not  accept 
this  and  the  other.  At  length  I  arrested  him  with  this :  "  My  dear 
fellow,  will  you  admit,  at  any  rate,  that  two  and  two  make  four?" 
"  No,"  he  said,  "  I  won't."  He  was  not  prepared  to  admit  anything. 
Our  best  plan  is  always  to  get  to  the  root  of  the  matter,  and  find 
whether  the  man  who  professes  to  be  sceptical  believes  anything  at  all, 
and  then  begin  from  that  and  show  that  you  have  a  better  reason  for 
spiritual  truth  and  belief  in  Christianity  than  he  has  for  not  believing 
these  things. 

The  next  plan  I  adopt  is  this — ^I  give  you  my  experience  again — ^I 
appeal  to  the  experience  of  life.  On  one  occasion,  dealing  in  argument 
with  a  sceptical  engineer,  we  went  along  a  good  while  on  the  line  of 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  237 

apologetics,  and  at  length  he  pulled  me  up  by  saying,  "You  can  very 
well  beat  me  in  argument.  You  are  an  expert.  I  am  simply  a  working 
man.  The  argument  is  not  fair."  I  said,  "We  will  take  some  argu- 
ment which  will  make  your  hands  equal  to  mine.  You  shall  stand,  let 
us  say,  at  the  beginning  of  London  Bridge,  and  you  shall  take  the  first 
hundred  people  that  are  sceptics  and  inquire  into  their  lives,  and  you 
shall  take  the  first  hundred  Christians  and  inquire  into  their  lives.  T 
dare  to  stake  the  truth  of  Christianity  upon  the  result  of  your  judg- 
ment."    What  did  he  say?     "In  that  case  you  would  win." 

The  Rev.  R.  H.  Gilbert,  D.D.  (Methodisit  Episcopal  Church), 
said  : 

I  might,  were  I  so  disposed,  in  contributing  some  part  to  this  discus- 
sion, feel  like  the  Apostle  Paul,  and  magnify  my  office  as  a  minister 
of  the  Gospel.  But  it  has  not  been  unduly  emphasised  at  this  Con- 
ference at  several  of  its  .sessions  that  under  the  Christian  dispensation 
the  Christian  Church  is  an  entirety.  We  all  belong  to  the  Royal 
Priesthood,  are  a  peculiar  people,  a  chosen  generation.  Under  the 
broad  fraternity  'of  which  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Elder  Brother,  the 
Supreme  Head,  the  lines  of  demarcation  between  pulpit  and  pew  are 
not  worthy  of  much  emphlasis.  Having  cleared  myself  of  any  undue 
disposition  to  laud  the  position  I  occupy  as  a  preacher,  I  feel  that  this 
discussi'on  warrants  emphasis  on  this  point — that  an  emasculated  pulpit 
results  in  an  inconsistent  pew  ;  and  the  inconsistent  pew  of  to-day  is 
one  of  the  chief  bulwarks  of  modern  infidelity.  If  we  could  Jiave  some 
way  of  distinguishing,  in  order  to  avoid  rufiiing  the  sensibilities  of 
some  people  who  are  hypersensitive  as  between  dogmatic  preaching  and 
aggressive,  this  discussion  would  not  be  so  involved.  But  there  are  so 
many  people  who  in  this  age  of  freedom  and  independence  resent  any- 
thing like  an  ultra  dominance  on  the  part  of  the  pulpit.  Yet  that  pulpit 
must  somehow  or  other  come  to  the  manly  and  Christlike  assertion 
of  truth  wrthout  the  undertone  of  pleading  subservience,  not  always 
the  apologetic  but  distinctly  declarative,  believing  that  there  is  a 
mission  for  the  pulpit,  and  that  the  consummation  alone  will  witness 
the  termination  of  that  mission. 

An  inconsistent  pew,  when  the  doctrines  professed  and  the  life  lived 
are  in  manifest  contradiction,  furnishes  no  little  of  the  material  that 
modern  infidelity  so  skilfully  employs  in  the  assaults  made  upon  the 
citadel  of  Christianity.  With  due  deference  to  the  brethren  in  the 
pews,  who  are  by  no  means  indisposed  to  whip  out  of  their  .quivers 
sharp  arrows  when  the  pulpit  is  the  target  of  their  shot — who  dare  to 
say,  as  was  said  on  the  other  side  of  the  sea,  as  one  of  the  arguments 
why  the  time  limit  should  be  removed  in  order  that  the  pulpits  might 
be  put  upon  their  mettle,  that  the  Churches  were  suffering  from 
innocu'ous  desuetude,  or,  in  plain  old  English,  dry  rot  ;  that  the 
Churches  were  suffering  because  such  a  condition  obtained  in  the  pulpit 
— I  dare  to  fling  back  the  charge  that  the  pulpit  alone  is  the  cause  of 
the  innocuous  desuetude  in  the  pew.  There  is  innocuous  desuetude  in 
the  pew  as  well  as  in  the  pulpit.  If  we  can  somehow  or  other  get 
the  pew  bo  interpret  the  doctrines  of  the  pulpit,  so  that  the  outside  life 
shall  be  compatible  with  the  faith  professed,  modern  infidelity  will  be 
shorn  of  very  much  of  its  power. 

Nut  long  ago,  in  conversation  with  a  physician  who  was  at  the  head 
of  a  sanatorium  that  I  was  necessitated  to  use  for  a  while,  we  were 
speaking  of  Church  matters,  and  he  said  :  "  Some  time  ago  I  ,was  visited 


238  CHRISTIANITY   AND   MODERN   UNBELIEF. 

by  a  deputation  of  men  from  a  near-by  church  who  wanted  me  to 
become  connected  with  their  organisation.  'Why,  gentlemen,  I  can- 
not join  that  church.  I  do  not  believe  its  doctrines,'  I  said.  '  Well, 
we  don't  either,'  they  said,  with  a  smile  ;  'come  and  join  anyhow.'" 
Wlien  men  of  that  type,  invertebrates  spiritually,  have  no  definite 
doctrinal  standard  to  which  they  can  cling,  what  wonder  that  keen 
men  on  the  street  dare  to  ask  the  question,  when  appr'oached  by  a 
minister  to  join  the  Church  :  "  Why  should  we  join  the  Church  1  We 
do  not  do  things  different  from  those  men  who  d'o  belong.  We  drink  ; 
so  do  they.  We  gamble ;  so  do  they.  We  patronise  places  of  worldly 
amusement;  so  do  they."  We  shall  be  minus  various  essential 
elements  in  the  matter  of  our  successfully  contesting  with  modern 
infidelity,  until  the  pews  and  the  pulpit  are  one  in  the  determination 
to  exalt  the  Christ,  who  alone  is  the  salvation  of  the  world. 

Mr.  R.  G.  Rows,  J.P.,  C.C.  (United  Methodist  Free  Churolies), 
said : 

I  wish  to  express  my  obligation  to  Dr.  Beet  for  his  paper,  and  also 
specifically  to  refer  to  one  part  of  it.  He  referred  to  the  Gospel,  and 
the  great  centre  of  the  Gospel,  the  Incarnation,  as  being  super- 
natural. That  remark  I  thoroughly  endorse  ;  but  there  are  statements 
not  infrequent  from  our  pulpit  which  I  do  not  thoroughly  endorse, 
statements  which  go  to  show  that  in  the  minds  of  the  speakers  super- 
natural and  unnatural  are  synonymous  terms.  In  my  judgment,  they 
are  not.  I  hold  that  it  is  one  of  the  most  natural  things  in  the 
universe  for  God  to  love  men  ;  and  yet  as  the  heavens  are  higher  than 
the  earth  so  are  His  manifestations  of  love  than  any  earthly  exhibitions 
of  it. 

i)r.  Beet  dealt  with  the  Resurrection.  May  it  not  be  true  that  the 
Resurrection  is  in  obedience  to  a  universal  law  that  life  comes  out  of 
death,  that  there  cannot  be  surrender  without  an  equivalent,  and 
greater  than  an  equivalent?  No  teaching  to  me  is  clearer  than 
the  apprehension  of  this  law  by  the  Apostle  Paul  himself, 
and  that  surely  induced  him  to  say  in  those  wonderful  words 
we  read  in  our  burial  service,  "If  Christ  be  not  risen  then  is 
our  preaching  vain.  And  your  faith  is  also  vain."  Why?  Surely  if 
Christ  had  never  come  out  of  the  tomb  we  should  have  had  His 
beautiful  life,  we  should  have  had  His  teaching,  His  ethics,  which 
have  been  the  foundation  of  ethics  from  His  times  to  this — ethics 
which  have  given  shape  and  character  to  the  laws,  and  manners  and 
institutions  of  the  wisest  and  best  nations  of  the  earth.  We  should 
have  had  the  cross  and  a  great  deal  of  what  it  embodies  and  contains. 
But  what  should  we  also  have  had?  We  should  have  had  a  break- 
down of  that  law  which  Paul  pronounced  to  be  universal.  How  could 
Paul  have  gone  about  preaching  that  if  we  are  planted  in  the  likeness 
of  Christ's  death  we  shall  also  be  in  the  likeness  of  His  Resturrection, 
if  that  great  law  which  he  fully  recognised  broke  down  at  its  head? 
In  my  judgment,  the  greatest  evidence  for  the  Resurrection  of  Christ 
is  to  prove  by  the  spiritual  resurrection  of  the  Cliurch  that  that 
law  obtains  throughout  God's  universe.  If  we  die  with  Christ  we 
shall  live  with  Him  ;  if  we  suffer  with  Christ  we  shall  reign  with 
Hiiu.  It  was  because  of  the  profound  depths  into  which  Christ  went, 
according  to  Paul's  own  teaching,  that  His  heights  were  more  suldime. 
When  Paul  refers  to  His  becoming  "  obedient  unto  death,  even  the 
death  of  the  cross"  the  issue  was  clear.     "Wherefore,"   he  said— 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  239 

because  Christ  went  down,  not  to  an  arbitrary  death,  but  in  obedience 
to  God's  universal  law,  and  because  His  depths  were  more  profound 
than  any  other,  so  was  His  exaltation  more  sublime — "Wherefore 
God  hatii  highly  exalted  Him  and  given  Him  a  name  that  is  above 
every  name,  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  shall  bow." 

The  great  proof  of  a  risen  Christ  will  be  in  a  resurrected  Church. 
We  claim,  in  the  presence  of  the  sceptic,  that  the  Christian  Church, 
in  all  that  expresses  higher  spiritual  life,  is  infinitely  ahead  of  them. 
We  say  that  scepticism  chills  and  represses  the  free  play  and  develop- 
ment of  spiritual  life.  We  shall  have  to  prove  that,  and  not  merely 
in  debate.  Anything  can  be  proved  in  del)ate  if  you  put  a  man  keen 
of  tongue  on  the  one  hand  and  a  man  slow  to  express  himself  (Ui  the 
other.  We  have  proved  it  to  our  own  satisfaction  here  this  morning  ; 
but  the  only  proof  the  outsider  will  recognise  is  that  we  throw  up 
types  of  Christian  men  and  women,  giving  evidence  that  they  are  raised 
from  the  dead  by  the  poAver  of  Christ. 

The  Rev.  R.  J.  Cooke,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
made  the  following  remarks  : 

I  would  not  undervalue  the  importance  of  apologetics  in  the  Christian 
Church.  I  think  that  science  has  its  place,  but,  after  all,  the  argu- 
ment for  Christianity  is  a  holy  life.  The  Christian  Church  is  not  in 
danger  so  much  from  the  infidelity  without,  as  from  the  infidelity 
within  ;  it  is  not  in  danger  so  much  from  the  attacks  of  cultivated 
Intellect  upon  miracles,  and  upon  the  existence  of  God,  and  these 
other  questions  which  apologetics  deal  with,  ^as  it  is  from  the  secular- 
ism within  the  Church. 

In  the  early  ages,  when  Tertullian  and  Athanasius  and  all  the  ante- 
Nicene  fathers  were  battling,  when  the  Church  was  poor,  when  the 
Church  was  putting  itself  upon  the  side  of  the  tenants  upon  the  banks 
of  the  Tiber,  or  down  in  the  slums  of  Alexandria,  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  was  conquering  the  world  ;  but  when  she  ascended  the  throne 
of  tlie  Caesars  and  hid  the  cross  of  Christ  in  the  imperial  purple,  then 
secularism  began  '  to  creep  in.  The  officers  of  the  Church  sought  a 
place  in  the  State,  sought  wealth,  sought  power,  and  from  that  day  to 
this  the  struggle  has  been  to  expel  the  foreign  body  from  within  her- 
self. The  great  danger  of  our  own  time  is  the  love  for  worldly 
display  in  the  Church,  so  that  our  young  people  go  out  after  the 
things  of  the  world.  Our  elder  people,  engaged  in  business,  _  forget 
the  obligations  to  the  Church,  and  worldliness,  worldly  thinking, 
worldly  forms  of  amusement  creep  into  the  Church  and  paralyse  her 
very  best  energies.  The  Church  of  Christ  can  never  do  what  it  is 
possible  for  her  to  do,  until  she  puts  herself  not  upon  the  side  of 
wealth,  not  upon  the  side  of  poverty,  not  upon  the  side  of  capital,  not 
upon  the  side  of  the  working  man,  but  until  she  puts  herself  upon 
the  side  of  men,  and  stands  for  men,  and  puts  herself  against  every 
form  of  oppression,  so  that  Christian  men,  men  wearing  the  badge  of 
Christ  Jesus,  will  not  engage  in  enterprises  the  success  of  which 
depends  upon  the  success  of  the  sweating  shop,  upon  oppressing 
labouring  men,  grinding  them  down  and  brutalising  them  by  long 
hours  of  labour. 

The  Churcli  of  Jesus  Christ  must  seek  to  help  men,  and  she  can 
only  do  that  by  expelling  from  within  herself  all  desire  for  worldly 
glory,  all  desire  for  worldly  grandeur,  all  desire  to  be  great,  and 
simply  seek  to  lift  men  up  to  the  great  level  where  they  can  sit  with 


240  CHRISTIANITY   AND   MODERN    UNBELIEF. 

their  brothers  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  realise  now,  as  in  the  first  century, 
that  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  friend  of  the  poor,  as  well  as 
of  the  rich,  that  it  is  the  friend  of  humble,  lowly  living,  and  does 
not  wish  to  follow  the  desires  of  the  world  under  the  garb  of  religion. 
In  Cincinnati,  some  time  ago,  a  friend  of  mine  went  down  into  the 
.slums  rather  than  take  his  summer  vacation.  A  young  woman  went 
to  him,  and  said:  "It  is  very  good  of  you  to  come  and  work  among 
us  poor  people  ;  but  a  member  of  your  Church  has  a  clothing  store 
here,  and  when  some  ladies  came  in  and  wanted  to  buy  some  goods,  I 
told  them  the  quality  of  the  goods,  and  they  went  out.  My  employer 
came  to  me  and  said,  ' Why  did  not  you  sell  those  goods V  'I  could 
not  tell  a  falsehood  to  the  lady.'  He  said,  '  I  want  you  to  sell  goods.' 
'  But  I  could  not  tell  a  falsehood.'  'But  I  want  you  to  sell  goods,  and 
if  you  cannot  sell  goods,  I  will  get  someone  else  that  can.'  I  had  to 
take  the  alternative  of  staying  in  that  store  and  selling  goods  any  way 
I  could,  or  walk  out.  If  I  went  out  who  would  buy  medicine  for  my 
little  brother  up  there  on  a  mattress  in  a  top  room  in  a  tenement 
house?  Who  would  support  my  aged  mother  ?  It  is  very  good  for  you 
men  with  three  or  four  thousand  dollars  a  year,  living  in  a  fine  house, 
and  associating  with  nice  people,  surrounded  by  art  and  culture — it  is 
all  right  for  you  people  tu  come  down  and  tell  us  poor  people  in  the 
slums  how  to  be  good.     Lift  us  up  where  you  are,  and  we  can  be  good." 

The  Rev.  John  0.  Park,  B.A.  (Irish  Methodist  Church),  also 
spoke.     He  said : 

I  want  to  put  in  a  word  on  behalf  of  two  classes  of  doubters  and 
unbelievers,  with  whom,  in  our  Irish  ministry,  we  specially  come  in 
contact.  We  are  not  face  to  face  with  a  great  body  of  Protestant 
unbelievers,  if  I  may  be  excused  the  term,  such  as  our  brethren  in 
America  and  in  England  have  to  deal  with.  The  unbelief  that  we 
have  to  contend  with  is  one  that  grows  up  in  our  own  families,  and 
that  shows  itself  sometimes  in  the  lives  of  our  young  people  as  the 
result  of  pure  superficiality.  It  is  very  largely  the  outcome  of  the 
destructive  influence  of  the  light — ^not  immoral,  but  superficial — 
literature  of  the  times.  Another  kind  of  infidelity,  or  rather  unbelief, 
is  the  result  of  a  growing  earnestness  in  our  people,  and  the  deter- 
mination not  to  take  things  for  granted  without  being  sure  of  them. 

I  want  this  morning  to  speak  on  their  behalf,  and  to  plead  for  more 
philosophic  preaching.  Do  not  let  me  be  misunderstood.  I  do  not 
think  that  the  dragging  of  old  philosophies  into  the  pulpit  is  of  any 
use.  I  believe  that  the  time  has  come  when  we  must  be  philosophic 
in  the  true,  natural,  simple,  and  Methodistic  sense  of  the  word.  We 
must  recognise  that  there  is  a  unity  in  every  part  of  the  work  and 
words  of  God.  That  when,  for  instance,  God  put  man  at  the  top  of 
creation,  it  is  philosophic  for  us  to  take  for  granted  that  all  the 
creation  that  went  before  looked  up  to  man,  and  that  if' we,  as  men, 
want  to  understand  God,  we  must  find  in  every  part  of  creation,  a 
mirror  in  which,  to  some  extent,  man  sees  himself  or  some  aspect  of 
the  truth  of  God. 

It  seems  to  me  that  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  shameful  mistakes 
of  the  present  day  is  that  we  so  seldom  try  to  bring  our  young  people 
down  into  the  workshop  of  God  in  order  to  teach  the  character  of  tJlie 
Creator,  and  that  sometimes  when  we  bring  them  down  we  show  our- 
selves to  be  but  fools  in  the  issue.  If  I  want  to  understand  an 
Edison,  do  I  study  merely  the  few  monographs  he  may  have  issued,  or 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  24 1 

do  I  go  down  into  his  laboratory  and  there,  amid  his  inventions  and 
the  products  of  his  great  genius,  try  to  understand  him?  I  hold  that 
when  we  bring  our  young  people  with  us  into  the  beautiful  realms  of 
botany  or  geology,  into  the  avenues  of  chemistry,  or  of  those  other 
departments  on  which  the  finger  of  God  is  for  ever  most  wondrously 
impressed,  that  we  are  leading  them  into  His  presence.  A  truly  philo- 
sophic teaching  will  make  God's  works  illustrative,  and  not  merely 
illustrative,  but  will  show,  as  that  great  first  chapter  of  Genesis  shows, 
that  opposite  every  stage  in  the  creation  of  the  world  there  stands  at 
stage  in  the  moral  and  spiritual  creation  of  man,  amd  that  just  as  the 
biological  man  is  the  crown  of  the  physical  creation,  so  the  man  in 
the  image  of  God  is  the  crown  of  the  moral  creation. 

I  hold,  further,  that  it  is  philosophical  to  assert  that  the  belief  in 
Christ  is  exactly  the  same  thing  as  the  belief  in  one's  father,  the  belief 
in  the  reliability  of  anything  on  wliich  we  put  our  feet,  confident  that 
it  will  hold  us  up.  One  thing  more  I  thirJi  we  must  do  if  we  would 
be  philosophical.  Instead  of  beginning  our  theology  with  a  meta- 
physical God,  and  arguing  by  the  logic  of  Aristotle,  we  must  begin 
our  theology  with  a  man  and  work  our  way  up  through  Christ  to  God. 
How  can  a  man  understand  Jesus  Christ  who  does  not  understand 
that  he  is  himself  a  trinity  in  unity,  and  does  not  use  the  golden  key 
of  that  marvellous  fact  which  stands  in  the  very  forefront  of  the  Bible, 
"In  the  image  of  God  created  He  him."  I  see  in  my  brother  whom  I 
can  love,  the  known  image  of  God  whom  I  cannot  perfectly  know  and 
understand,  except  through  the  love  of  my  brother.  I  plead  to-day 
that  if  we  are  to  get  at  our  young  people  who  are  in  danger  of  scepticism 
we  must  especially  make  ourselves  familiar  with  God  through  His 
works,  through  His  eternal  and  consistent  reason,  and  through  His 
great  image,  His  child  man. 

The  Rev.  Isaac  Rooney  (Australasian  Methodist  Chiurch.)  spoko 
as  follows  : 

There  is  one  point  which  has  not  been  touched  upon  in  this  dis- 
cussion to-day,  and  that  is  the  uplifting,  civilising  power  of  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ.  It  was  supposed  by  some  Christian  people  one 
hundred  years  ago  that  savage  races  were  unfit  and  unable  to  receive 
the  Gospel,  and  that  it  was  necessary,  in  order  to  fit  them,  that  ther 
should  be  civilised.  Missionaries  of  civilisation  were  sent,  artisans 
to  teach  them  trades  and  raise  them  in  the  scale  of  civilisation,  so' 
that  they  might  be  fit  and  capable  of  receiving  the  Grospel.  That 
mission,  the  mission  of  civilisation,  failed  in  every  case.  Many  of 
those  who  were  sent  to  the  Pacific  were  put  in  the  oven  ;  the  natives 
did  not  wish  to  be  taught  their  trades.  A  few  years  later  missionaries 
of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  followed  them,  and  those  men  sncceeded  where 
the  artisans  failed. 

I  have  not  time  to-day.  nor  is  it  necessary,  for  me  to  tell  you  what 
Fiji  was  like  sixty  years  ago,  when  the  servants  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
missionaries  of  the  Wesleyan  Missionary  Society  in  England  intro- 
duced the  Gospel  there.  But  within  forty-five  years  from  the  intro- 
duction of  Christianity  into  Fiji  the  whole  of  the  population  of  that 
group — 160,000 — had  embraced  Christianity,  and  there  were  at  that 
time  some  40,000  members  in  the  Church.  At  that  time,  just  about 
the  time  Christianity  overspread  the  whole  group,  t/he  islands  were 
annexed  by  the  British  Government,  and  the  Government  found  theii 
work  very  simple  and  very  easy  because  the  missionaries  had  preceded 
them,  and  the  people  had  become  amenable  to  law  and  order. 

17 


242  aiRISTIANITY   AND   MODERN   UNBELIEF. 

At  that  time  we  commenced  a  new  mission  in  New  Britain  ;  the 
natives  there  were  utterly  savage  and  degraded.  No  white  man  was 
able  to  live  in  that  group  of  islands.  There  had  been  two  traders 
there,  but  they  had  fled  for  their  lives.  George  Brown  went  with  a 
number  of  native  teachers,  and  introduced  the  Gospel  to  those  people. 
To-day  life  is  safe,  and  throughout  the  group  there  are  traders  every- 
where, and  very  little  danger,  and  a  large  number  of  the  people  are 
to-day  attending  our  services,  clothed  and  in  their  right  mind.  The 
Gospel  has  uphfted  them,  and  civilised  them,  wRat  no  other  power 
on  earth  could  do. 

Sir  William  McGregor,  who  was  for  fifteen  years  Governor  of 
Fiji,  was  appointed  Governor  of  New  Guinea.  The  people  there  were 
savage  and  ignorant.  He  found  he  could  do  nothing  in  his  position 
as  Governor.  He  could  not  come  in  contact  with  them,  did  not  know 
their  language,  could  not  bring  the  laws  to  bear  upon  them.  He  went 
to  Sydney,  and  personally  interviewed  the  Board  of  Missions,  begging 
them  to  commence  a  mission  in  the  Islands  of  Eastern  New  Guinea, 
400  islands.  He  was  not  so  much  thinking  about  the  spiritual  con- 
dition of  the  people,  but  knowing  and  admitting  what  a  help  it  would 
be  to  the  Government,  and  to  him  personally.  The  Board  acceded  to 
his  request.  They  sent  the  largest  staff  of  missionaries  that  I  believe 
has  ever  been  sent  to  open  a  Methodist  mission.  That  was  ten  years 
ago,  and  the  success  has  been  something  wonderful.  Three  years  ago, 
when  Sir  William  McGregor  was  leaving  New  Guinea,  Geo.  Brown, 
our  Missionary  Secretary  in  Australia,  who  opened  the  mission,  asked 
him,  "What  is  it  that  strikes  you  most  with  regard  to  these  people?" 
Sir  William  said,  "It  is  only  seven  years  since  the  missionaries  landed 
here.  Is  it  not  the  change  that  has  been  wrought  in  the  faces  of  the 
people  ?  They  are  not  like  the  same  people  ;  they  are  civilised,  they 
are  in  their  right  minds,  uplifted  by  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ."  Ho 
was  succeeded  by  another  Government  oflScial  from  Fiji,  Mr.  Leigh 
Hunt,  who  was  also  many  years  in  Fiji,  and  knew  the  power  of  the 
Gospel  there  ;  and  since  he  has  been  in  New  Guinea,  on  his  return 
for  a  short  while  to  Queensland,  he  has  borne  public  testimony  in 
meetings  to  the  success  and  power  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  He  said : 
"  Now  a  Government  ofiicial  need  not  go  ashore  with  weapons,  and 
surrounded  by  a  bodyguard  ;  you  can  go  ashore  with  your  umbrella  and 
be  perfectly  safe,  because  the  missionaries  have  been  before  you  and 
the  people  have  received  the  Gospel." 

The  Rev.  D.  K.  Tindall,  Ph.D.,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  concludied  the  discussion  as  follows : 

I  represent  a  very  large  territory  known  as  the  Tentli  General  Con- 
ference District,  embracing  Nebraska,  Colorado,  Wyoming,  and 
Dakota.  I  have  very  greatly  enjoyed  the  essay  of  Dr.  Beet,  and  the 
speeches  made  upon  the  subject  of  the  paper  have  hit  the  matter 
squarely  on  the  head — or  some  of  them  have,  and  some  of  them  have 
missed  it  probably  by  about  a  mile.  I  was  reminded  very  much  of 
a  man  who  wanted  to  get  married,  and,  being  a  Methodist,  wFshed 
to  be  married  according  to  the  Methodist  discipline.  He  set  to  work 
to  master  the  answers  to  the  questions  propounded,  but  he  opened 
the  discipline  at  the  wrong  placg,  at  the  baptismal  covenant,  instead 
of  at  the  marriage  ceremony.  The  day  of  the  marriage  came,  and  the 
minister  asked  the  groom,  "Wilt  thou  have  this  woman  for  thy 
wedded  wife?"     He  said,   "I  renounce  them  all!*'     "You   must  be 


BUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS.  243 

a  fool,"  said  the  ministor.  "  All  this  I  steadfastly  believe,"  replied 
the  man.  Said  the  minister,  "You  go  to  grass,"  and  the  answer  came, 
"  I  will  endeavour  so  to  do,  the  Lord  being  my  helper."  I  hope  not 
tio  miss  the  question  quite  so  much  as  this  man,  or  perhaps  as  some  of 
the  speakers  this  morning. 

I  believe  that  the  antidote  for  secularism  and  modern  unbelief  is 
more  religion  in  the  preacher  and  in  the  Ohurch.  I  come  from  Omaha. 
We  glory  in  Omaha  because  it  is  the  present  episcopal  home  of  our 
present  beloved  Bishop  McCabc.  We  glory  in  Oma.lia  because  it  was 
formerly  the  episcopal  residence  of  the  eloquent  Bishop  John  P. 
Newman.  We  glory  in  Omaha  because  it  is  a  Methodist  city,  the 
greatest  church  in  the  city  being  a  Methodist  church.  We  glory  in 
Omaha  because  it  is  one  of  the  greatest  beef  and  pork  packing  cities 
in  the  world,  where  we  constantly  see  the  saying  illustrated  that  the 
pen  is  mightier  than  the  sword.  We  glory  in  Nebraska  because  it 
has  less  ignorance,  less  illiteracy  per  capita  than  any  other  State  in 
the  Union.  We  glory  in  Nebraska  because  it  has  in  its  sparsely 
settled  territory  something  like  60,000  Methodist  members.  We  glory 
in  the  great  Nebraska  University,  which  recently,  through  the  inde- 
fatigable labours  of  the  great  Bishop  McCabe,  has  been  lifted  out  of 
debt  and  put  upon  a  solid  basis  of  prosperity.  We  glory  in  our 
sunshine,  in  our  atmosphere  ;  we  g'lory  in  our  vast  territory  and  in 
our  fertile  soil.  But  tlie  thing  that  we  glory  most  in,  in  Nebraska,  is 
that  we  are  getting  men  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  I  believe  that  the 
greatest  thing  in  tiliis  world  is  a  bright,  happy,  concise,  conversion 
of  the  immortal  soul  to  Gotl  ;  the  greatest  experience  in  this  world, 
if  not  in  all  worlds,  in  this  life  if  not  through  all  eternity.  We  believe 
in  revivals ;  our  founder  believed  in  revivals.  We  have  built  greater 
churches  than  Mr.  Wesley  was  able  to  build  in  his  day,  and  have 
established  institutions  greater  than  he  was  able  to  establish. 

The  Rev.  John  Bond  (Secretary)  presented  for  the  examination 
and  report  of  the  Business  Committee  a  resolution  on  the  need 
for  thoroughly  trained  missionaries,  signed  by  the  Rev.  A.  B. 
Leonard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  and  the  Rev.  W.  R. 
Lambuth,  M.D.,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South).  The 
Rev.  John  Bond  (Secretary)  further  announced  that  the  Editors 
■who  had  in  charge  the  preparation  of  the  volume  containing  the 
Report  of  the  Conference  would  send  out  proofs  to  the  authors  of 
the  essays  and  invited  addresses,  and  it  was  requested  that  they  be 
promptly  returned  to  the  Convener  of  the  Editorial  Committee.  As 
to  the  other  addresses,  the  Editors  trusted  that  the  speakers  Wiould 
follow  the  reports  contained  in  the  Daily  Issue  of  the  "Methodist 
Recorder,"  and,  should  any  speaker  of  those  addresses  wish  to  cor- 
rect the  report  of  his  speech,  he  was  requested  to  send  a  marked 
copy  of  that  part  of  the  "  Methodist  Recorder  "  which  contained  his 
speech  at  once  to  the  Convener,  the  Rev.  Andrew  Crombie,  119, 
Salisbury  Square,  Fleet  Street,  London,  E.G. 

The  Doxology  wag  sung,  the  Benediction  pronounced,  and  the 
lession  terminated. 


244  INDIFFERENTISM    AND   APATHY. 


SECOND     SESSION. 

TOPIC  : 
INDIFFERENTISM    AND    APATHY. 


The  Conference  resumed  its  sittings  in  the  afternoon,  Bishop  Johm 
H.  Vincent,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  again 
occupying  the  ohair.  Prayer  was  offered  by  the  Rev.  E.  J.  Grat, 
D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

The  Rev.  J.  Bond  (Secretary)  said  there  was  no  news  of  Bishop 
R.  Dubs,  D.D.  (United  Evangelical  Church),  and  as  he  was 
announced  in  the  programme  to  take  a  part  in  the  C<onference  on 
Saturday,  the  matter  was  referred  to  the  Business  Committee. 

The  President  read  the  following  telegram  addressed  to  the 
Chairman  of  the  Methodist  (Eomnenical  Conference,  Wesley's 
Chapel,  from  Joseph  H.  Choate,  the  American  Ambassador : "  Accept 
thanks  of  the  American  people  for  your  cordial  expression  of 
sympathy  wth  the  President,  and  your  earnest  prayer  for  bis 
recovery — Joseph  H.   Choate,  Ambassador." 

The  Rev.  John  Handlet,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
moved  that  a  Committee  of  five  be  appointed  to  take  into  considera- 
tion the  advisability  of  arranging  a  pilgrimage  to  Epworth,  and 
to  report  at  a  later  stage.  The  Rev.  J.  Bond  (Secretary)  said  that 
Messrs.  Thomas  Gook  and  Son  were  proposing  to  arrange  an  excur- 
sion  to  Epworth,  details  of  which  would  be  given  later. 

The  Rev.  Prof.  William  I.  Shaw,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Church 
of  Canada),  opened  the  afternoon's  programme  with  an  essay  on 
"  Modem  Indifferentism."     He  said  : 

Religious  indifferentism  is  unfortunately  nothing  new.  The  pro- 
gress of  an  individual,  of  a  Church,  of  humanity,  is  a  constant  illus- 
tration of  ebb  and  flow ;  some  would  say  of  the  process  of  evolution, 
but  all  changes  are  not  the  product  of  this  process,  which  works  to 
given  ends  by  unerring  aim  and  invariable  law  and  with  fatalistic 
certainty.  Human  freedom  can  survey  the  wide  range  of  all  con- 
ceivable possibilities,  and  choose  a  path  for  itself  with  or  against 
the  strongest  surrounding  influences.  This  is  the  basis  of  our 
Wesleyan  and  Arminian  view  of  human  responsibility.  If  there  be 
retrogression  in  my  life  it  is  my  fault,   not  another's.     The  respon- 


ESSAY  OF  REV.  PROFESSOR  W.  I.  SHAW.  245 

sibility  is  not  with  God,  not  with  nature,  but  with  self ;  so  with  all 
the  units  of  a  Church,  of  a  community,  and  of  society.  K  there  be 
a  general  decay  of  faith,  and  a  consequent  collapse  of  morals,  as 
foretold  by  Goldwin  Smith  and  scores  of  other  prophets  of  evil,  as  well 
as  by  the  Evangelist  Moody,  the  fault  will  be  all  our  own.  We  are 
under  no  law  of  retrogression  necessitating  such  a  result. 

Still,  while  our  moral  and  religious  history  is  not  the  product  of 
evolution,  it  is  yet  true  that  indifferentism  has  appeared  at  varying 
intervals  in  history,  and  our  age  with  all  its  triumphs  and  progress 
must  be  regarded  confessedly  as  largely  under  its  control,  Ovid,  in 
the  golden  age  of  Augustus,  deploring  the  moral  desolation  of  his  day, 
gave  out  the  wailing  lament, 

Omne  nefas.     Fugere   pudor,   verumque,    fidesque. 

The  Israelites  "kept  not  the  covenant  of  God  and  refused  to  walk 
in  His  law,"  and  amid  their  religious  degeneracy  Elijah  in  the  desert 
of  despair  heard  the  Divine  voice  summoning  him  back  to  brave  and 
patient  and  trustful  service,  "What  doest  thou  here,  Elijah?"  In  the 
very  blaze  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  Christ  had  occasion  to  upbraid 
His  disciples  with  their  unbelief,  as  with  dimmed  hope  and  wearied 
faith  one  timidly  asked,  "  Are  there  few  that  be  saved  ? "  The  Re- 
formation of  the  sixteenth  century  was  a  resurrection  from  a  stagna- 
tion worse  than  anything  of  the  kind  to-day.  Leo  X.  with  his  classical 
culture,  and  his  patronage  of  Michael  Angelo,  did  not  escape  the 
merited  suspicion  of  scepticism  as  to  the  great  doctrines  of  Christian 
faith.  "  The  Platonic  Academy  in  the  gardens  of  the  Medici,"  says 
Hase,  "  defended  only  a  few  of  the  religious  ideas  peculiar  to  Chris- 
tianity." The  Revival  of  Learning  quickened  the  intellectual  life,  and 
demanded  something  more  intelligent  and  intelligible  than  an  ignorant 
priesthood  with  an  ignorant  following,  making  our  holy  Christianity  a 
fetish  ;  and  because  the  spiritual  need  of  society  was  not  met  either 
by  dead  forms  or  by  living  humanism,  religious  indifference  was  the 
result,  until  the  mighty  reform  was  initiated  in  1517,  producing  not 
merely  a  political,  social,  theological  and  ecclesiastical  revolution,  but 
best  of  all  a  spiritual  revival. 

The  religious  indifference  of  England  at  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century  and  its  consequent  moral  desolation  are  phases  of 
history  familiar  to  this  Methodist  assembly,  abundantly  justifying  to 
this  hour  our  organised  existence  as  a  branch  of  the  CathoUc  Church. 
The  demoralisation  is  described  not  merely  by  our  Methodist  his- 
torians, Smith  and  Stevens  and  Tyerman,  but  by  men  of  the  world  like 
Lecky,  Green,  Leslie  Stephen,  Birrell,  and  Gladstone,  and  by  eccle- 
siastics like  Farrar,  Stoughton,  and  Overton,  nearly  all  of  whom  attri- 
bute to  the  Wesleyan  Revival  the  rescue  of  England  from  the  horrors 
of  revolution.  France  refused  the  Reformation  and  got  the  Revolu- 
tion. As  Froude  has  said,  "It  rejected  the  light  and  was  blasted  with 
the  lightning."  England  accepted  the  revival  of  Evangelical  faith, 
and  walked  into  the  nineteenth  century  in  newness  of  life. 


246  INDIFFERENTISM   AND    APATHY. 

In  tlescril)ing  the  indifferentism  of  our  times  much  will  depend 
on  our  standpoint  of  observation,  and  more  on  our  spirit  of  observa- 
tion. If  with  the  premillenial  adventist  wc  think  the  world  is  neces- 
sarily growing  worse,  we  must  regard  the  dispensation  of  the  8pirit  as 
a  failure,  and  only  the  literal  reign  of  Christ  on  earth  can  "  make  all 
things  new."  If  with  the  naturalistic  evolutionist  we  consider  Chris- 
tianity as  almost  effete,  and  giving  place  to  something  new  and  pre- 
sumably better,  we  shall  be  complacently  reconciled  to  the  religious 
indifference  which  to-day  we  deplore.  But  even  if  our  spirits  be 
most  hopeful,  and  our  faith  intelligently  and  immovably  firm,  we  must 
still  admit  there  is,  alas,  much  about  us  on  all  the  continents  from 
which  we  come  to  cause  us  the  deepest  concern  as  to  the  religious 
condition  of  our  age.  There  seems  to  be  some  authority  in  fact  for 
the  statement  of  Dr.  Bellows,  an  eminent  Unitarian  divine,  quoted 
in  that  excellent  work,  Dorchester's  "Problem  of  Religious  Progress"  : 
"There  are  millions  of  people,  not  the  least  intelligent  and  useful 
citizens  in  all  cases,  who  never  enter  a  church  door.  The  professors 
in  colleges,  physicians,  teachers,  scientists,  reviewers,  authors,  are 
seldom  professing  Christians,  or  even  church-goers."  Goldwin  Smith 
has  predicted  that  "  a  collapse  of  religious  belief  of  the  most  complete 
and  tremendous  kind  is  apparently  now  at  hand."  Said  Moody,  "The 
gulf  between  the  Church  and  the  masses  is  growing  deeper,  wider,  and 
darker  every  hour." 

These  alarming  statements  seem  to  be  confirmed  by  statistics  col- 
lated by  Drs.  Strong  and  Gladden.  For  example,  in  certain  parts  of 
the  State  of  New  York  only  23  per  cent,  of  all  the  people  ever  attend 
church,  and  they  are  mostly  women.  In  Maine  seventy  towns  are 
without  any  religious  service  whatever.  The  Governor  of  New  Hamp- 
shire three  years  ago  called  upon  the  people  to  humble  themselves 
beiore  God,  and  to  return  to  the  neglected  sanctuaries  which  were 
abandoned  by  scores  throughout  the  State.  Archdeacon  Farrar  is 
quoted  as  saying  that  not  three  per  cent,  of  the  working  classes  in 
Great  Britain,  who  represent  the  great  mass  of  the  people,  are  regular 
or  even  occasional  communicants.  The  Home  Missionary  Committee 
of  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland  has  just  reported,  July,  1901, 
that  462,000  people  in  Glasgow,  out  of  a  population  of  750,000,  never 
attend  any  church.  Without  further  array  of  figures,  the  painful  fact 
must  be  recognised  that  an  immense  and  growing  number  of  people 
never  darken  a  church  door.  Is  it  strange  that  society  is  widely 
demoralised,  political  and  municipal  life  is  corrupted,  the  rum  power 
is  becoming  more  and  mere  entrenched  behind  the  battlements  of 
wealth,  and  political  influence  and  religious  life  is  paralysed  ? 

Limitation  of  time  to  twenty  minutes  permits  only  the  barest  out- 
line, first  of  the  causes,  and  secondly,  of  the  remedies  of  this  modern 
indifferentism. 

I.  Causes. — 1.  We  have  come  to  the  age  of  creed-revision,  if  not 
of  creed-annihilation,  producing  an  indifference  as  to  all  creeds  and 
their   contents.     Instability  of   religious    opinions   is   necessarily    de- 


ESSAY    OF    REV.    PROFESSOR    W.    1.    SIIAW.  247 

moralising.  Let  a  man  once  think  it  is  no  matter  what  he  believes, 
and  it  will  not  be  long  bcfure  he  thinks  it  is  no  matter  what  he  does. 
The  elimination,  for  example,  of  distinctively  Calvinistic  tenets  brings 
serious  peril.  In  this  process  there  is  a  tendency  with  the  unstable 
to  relegate  to  the  adiaphora  in  turn  every  vital  truth,  from  the  Eule 
of  Faith  to  the  Doctrine  of  Eetribution,  and  no  tenet,  however  impor- 
tant, is  regarded  as  essential.  Since  the  inception  of  Calvinistic 
doctrines  by  Augustine  in  the  fifth  century,  they  have  had  marvellous 
sway,  and  we  gladly  acknowledge  that  in  their  name  have  been  for- 
warded the  great  Evangelical  movements  of  history  represented  by  the 
Lollards,  Albigenses,  Waldenses,  and  almost  entirely  by  the  Reformers 
of  the  sixteenth  century  in  Switzerland,  Holland,  France,'  Scotland, 
and  largely  in  Germany  and  England.  Calvinism  so  entrenched  is  not 
to  be  shaken  from  its  position  without  widespread  unrest. 

2.  The  reaction  from  Romanism  necessarily  begets  unbelief  and 
indifference.  Plutarch  1,800  years  ago,  in  his  treatise  on  Superstition 
and  Lifidelity,  showed  the  reciprocal  action  of  these  two  forces. 
Romanism,  with  all  its  artificial  and  un-Christian  props,  is  declining 
in  moral  as  well  as  intellectual  and  political  power,  and  where  Roman- 
ism has  most  flourish.ed  there  unbelief  is  most  active  and  the  revolu- 
tionary spirit  most  rampant.  The  condition  of  the  Latin  nations  of 
the  world  will  summarily  settle  this  question  of  fact,  as  has  been 
well  shown  by  Emile  de  Laveleye  and  many  others.  We  would 
readily  join  forces  with  the  Church  of  Rome  against  the  common 
enemy  of  infidelity,  but  such  a  rapprochement  seems  impossible. 
With  the  very  scepticism  produced  by  reaction  from  Romanism, 
Romanism  itself  is  often  found  in  actual  alliance  against  Protestantism, 
eo  increasing  the  peril  there  is  to  Evangelical  faith. 

3.  Sabbath  desecration,  for  which  infidelity  and  Romanism  are 
equally  responsible,  must  stand  as  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  objec- 
tive causes  of  religious  indifference.  Where  the  Sabbath  is  surren- 
dered to  pleasure,  it  will  sooner  or  later  be  sacrificed  to  business, 
and  the  terrible  greed  for  gain.  Let  me  say  that  if  we  were  atheists 
we  should  still  resist  this  invasion  of  the  Day  of  Rest,  if  only  for  the 
protection  of  the  social  and  physical  rights  of  the  working  classes. 

4.  Agnosticism,  practical  and  scientific,  if  such  a  thing,  because 
espoused  by  some  great  scholars,  can  ever  be  called  scientific,  must 
inevitably  cause  a  blight  to  Christian  faith  and  religious  life,  and 
logically  lead  to  indifferentism. 

5.  Modern  Criticism — which,  we  must  indict  with  wise  and  just 
discrimination,  distinguishing  between  that  which  handles  the  sacred 
text  with  devout  reverence,  as  well  as  scholarly  skill,  and  that  which 
leaves  the  Bible  in  ruins,  a  mass  of  contradictions  and  forgeries,  fit 
only  to  be  cast  out  and  trodden  under  foot  of  men — Modern  Criticism, 
at  least  in  its  radical  and  destructive  forms,  inevitably  saps  religious 
life,  and  leaves  a  shrivelled  faith  of  no  moral  or  spiritual  potency. 

6.  Hedonism,  the  love  of  pleasure  and  ease  as  the  chief  aim  of  life, 
must  have  a  prominent  place  in  this  long  black  list.    The  forces  of 


248  INDIFFERENTISM   AND   APATHY. 

nature  opening  to  us  means  of  comfort  and  convenience,  which  to 
our  fathers  would  seem  as  tales  of  the  Arabian  Nights,  we  are  abusing 
to  the  dishonouring  of  God,  in  whose  hands  are  all  material  resources, 
and  to  the  deadening  of  all  spiritual  aspiration  and  activity.  To 
this  must  be  added  the  love  of  gain,  which  is  becoming  more  than 
ever  an  all-controlling  passion,  and  with  it  is  the  demon  of  intem- 
perance, which  stupefies  before  it  murders,  before  whose  foul  breath 
every  religious  sentiment  must  die,  the  mightiest  force  for  wickedness, 
guilty  of  the  greatest  crime  of  the  centuries. 

7.  I  must  mention  sectarianism,  because  so  many  attribute  to  it  the 
chief  responsibility  for  the  evils  we  deplore.  There  is  not  so  much 
bigotry  in  the  Church  as  the  worldling  and  the  sceptic  assert.  Still, 
there  is  too  much,  and  amid  sectarian  strife  the  man  of  unsettled 
faith,  and  unsettled  religious  life,  is  apt  to  renounce  all  faith,  and  all 
religious  activity. 

8.  Then  there  is,  especially  in  great  manufacturing  centres,  the 
rapid  divergence  of  the  labouring  classes  from  the  Churches.  This  is 
promoted  by  demagogues  of  malicious  intent,  and,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, by  the  widening  breach  between  capital  and  labour,  and  in 
some  instances  by  the  failure  of  the  Church  to  reach  the  ideal  of 
brotherhood  which  the  world  owes  to  the  Carpenter  of  Nazareth.  We 
thank  God  that  Methodism  influences  so  largely  the  world's  toilers. 
In  fact,  most  of  our  seven  millions  of  communicants  are  agriculturists 
or  artisans.  Next  to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  Methodism  in 
Anglo-Saxon  lands  has  most  effectively  influenced  the  industrial 
slasses.  But  the  number  of  mechanics  who  are  drifting  into  absolute 
religious  indifference,  anl  so  into  scepticism  and  consequent  im- 
morality, is,  we  fear,  in  many  industrial  centres,  appallingly  on  the 
increase.  The  ideal  for  which  we  long  is  that  our  Churches  should 
be  the  spiritual  homes  of  both  scholars  and  working  men,  both  of 
men  of  highest  culture  and  of  simplest  life,  where  both  alike  naay  find 
rest  and  light  and  strength. 

9.  The  tendency  to  irreverence  is  on  the  increase,  and  the  painful 
fact  is  that  the  Churches  are  helping  it  by  forms  of  activity  and 
entertainment  which  kill  all  feeling  for  sacred  things,  places,  and 
truths.  Consequent  upon  irreverence  is  frivolity,  of  which  Baron  Von 
Humboldt  has  truthfully  said,  "  Frivolity  undermines  all  morality  and 
permits  no  deep  thought  or  pure  feeling  to  germinate.  In  a  frivolous 
soul  nothing  can  emanate  from  principle.  Sacrifice  and  self-conquest 
are  out  of  the  question."- 

10.  The  Reformation  has  brought  to  humanity  incalculable  good, 
but  it  has  also  brought  most  serious  perils,  and  one  of  these  is  the 
tendency  to  abuse  the  Protestant  doctrine  of  freedom  of  judgment, 
and  to  develop  an  individualism  which  knows  no  control,  and  which 
not  merely  says  of  the  world's  Redeemer,  "We  will  not 
have  this  Man  to  reign  over  us,"  bu(t,  "  We  will  have  no  one  to 
reign  over  us."  Traditional  theology  and  ecclesiasticism  being  repug- 
nant, and  with  some  reason,  to  this  independent  spirit,  all  religious 


ESSAY   OF   REV.    PROFESSOR   W.   I.    SHAW.  249 

restraint  disappears,  and  indiflEerence  clouds  the  life.  In  the  modern 
democracy,  which  knows  no  political  or  geographical  limits,  everything 
made  sacred  by  tradition  is  challenged,  monarchies,  religions,  social 
customs,  polities,  theologies,  authorities  human  and  Divine,  every- 
thing is  questioned,  examined,  and  either  approved  or  abandoned. 
To  this  process  we  Protestants  cannot  consistently  object,  but  the 
practical  result  of  its  abuse  is  moral  and  religious  indifference.  Again, 
the  fact  of  sin — not  the  doctrine,  but  the  fact  of  sin— is  being  more 
and  more  ignored,  and,  of  course,  laxity  as  to  sin  produces  laxity  as 
to  retribution,  and  utter  indifference  as  to  religious  obligations.  To 
all  who  further  this  tendency  the  reproach  from  Ezekiel  is  appropriate, 
"  With  lies  ye  have  made  the  heart  of  the  righteous  sad,  whom  I  have 
not  made  sad  ;  and  strengthened  the  hands  of  the  wicked,  that  ho 
should  not  return  from  his  wicked  way  by  promising  him  life." 

II.  Remedies.  1.  In  searching  for  relief  from  the  conditions 
described  we  find,  first,  a  remedy  in  part  is  to  be  sought  in  a  ministry 
combining  moral  earnestness  and  intellectual  conviction.  Neither  of 
these  alone  will  serve.  Cold  intellectualism  is  powerless.  Emotion 
without  intelligence  will  likely  evaporate  into  fanaticism.  It  is  a 
law  of  nature  which  it  is  useless  to  ignore,  that  advancement  in 
intelligence  and  culture  diminishes  demonstrativeness  in  emotion. 
The  emotional  element,  although  most  valuable,  is  insufficient  alone. 
An  untrained  or  half-trained  ministry  to-day  will  not  get  a  hearing 
from  those  who  mould  the  thought  and  destiny  of  the  world.  If 
indifference  be  removed,  it  will  be  by  the  combination  in  our  ministry 
of  thorough,  honest,  scholarly  thought  with  deep  feeling,  whether 
this  be  shown  by  calm  but  forceful  utterance,  or  by  intensely  impas- 
sioned delivery.  It  is  a  fair  question  for  us  to  take  to  heart  to-day 
how  far  the  pulpit  is  responsible  for  the  widespread  indifference  we 
deplore.  The  ideal  ministry  for  which  we  all  long  is  God's  great 
agency  for  rousing  a  sleeping  Church,  and  arresting  a  scoffing,  infidel, 
hostile  world.  Many  of  us  have  come  from  distant  continents  to 
London,  the  centre  of  modern  history,  to  study  the  success  of  the 
parent  Methodism,  more  virile  than  ever,  in  its  grand  forward  move- 
ments represented  by  such  names  as  Thompson,  Hughes,  Garrett, 
Johnson,  of  Belfast,  Collier,  Chadwick,  Lidgett,  Geo.  Jackson,  and 
others — movements  which  are  marked  both  by  deepest  sympathy  with 
the  masses,  and  an  educational  force  which  prompts  to  an  intelligent 
acceptance  of  Christ,  and  His  great  salvation.  (Ecumenical  Method- 
ism, CEcumenical  Christianity,  has  much  to  learn  to-day  from  British 
Metliodism  in  its  various  branches,  on  the  secret  of  ministerial  success. 

2.  Next  we  must  be  true  to  our  tradition  as  a  witnessing  Church. 
The  great  medium  of  Christian  testimony  is  the  Eucharist,  but  while  that 
offers  its  mighty  silent  witness  for  Christ,  still  there  is  need  that  more 
explicitly  "  with  the  mouth  confession  be  made  unto  salvation."  The 
Methodist  Church  can  never  afford  to  lose  what  has  been  its  glory  in 
this  regard  as  a  witnessing  Church.  If  it  loses  this,  and  the  vitality 
whicii  this  represents,  it  is  helplessly  maimed.     Even  as  an  external 


250  INDIFFERENTISM    AND   APATHY. 

organisation,  with  all  its  numerical  strength  as  the  largest  Protestant 
Denomination  to-day,  except  the  Lutheran,  it  will  be  sure  to  decline 
unless  it  contributes  its  quota  to  the  spiritual  life  of  the  world  in  the 
form  of  consistent  Christian  testimony.  The  Anglican  Church  has 
social  prestige,  and  the  Presbyterian  Church  has  literary  and  educa- 
tional attainments,  which  give  them  relative  permanence,  even  with- 
out the  growing  spiritual  life  which,  we  are  glad  to  say,  they  so  largely 
possess  ;  but,  I  say  it  charitably,  Methodism,  if  worthy  of  its  history 
and  true  to  its  Divine  mission  of  resisting  worldliness  and  religious 
indifference,  must  be  spiritually  better  than  they,  or  be  imperilled  in 
its  separate  existence. 

3.  The  next  remedy  we  mention  is  more  general  activity  of  our  mem- 
bers. Woe  to  us  if  we  lapse  into  the  condition  from  which  Wesley 
under  God  delivered  the  Church — ^a  condition  in  which  the  distinction 
between  clergy  and  laity  was  so  drawn  that  the  latter  were  only  idle 
adjuncts  to  the  ecclesiastical  body,  and  a  man  entering  the  holy  ministry 
was  spoken  of,  as  in  some  quarters  he  still  is,  as  "  entering  the 
Church."  Wesley  did  much  in  rescuing  practically  in  the  eighteenth 
century  the  doctrine  which  Calvin  rescued  theologically  in  the  sixteenth 
century — that  of  the  universal  priesthood  of  believers.  All  Christians 
must  be  active  in  Christian  service  or  cease  to  live.  Forms  of  activity 
and  organisation  necessarily  change.  It  is  a  mark  of  life  for  ever  to 
change  its  form.  The  substance  of  Christian  life  is  "  faith  working  by 
love,"  producing  liberality  in  gifts,  fidelity  in  Christian  worship,  and 
especially  heartfelt  interest  in  the  spiritual  and  temporal  interests  of 
others.  No  stubbornness  nor  unbelief  can  stand  before  the  loving  sym- 
pathy of  a  Christian  who  speaks  without  any  professional  function. 
The  unselfishness  of  Christian  service  is  invincible.  Of  course,  this 
activity  must  be  directed  by  intelligence.  We  love  enthusiasm,  but, 
alas,  how  much  there  is  of  it  going  to  waste  through  departure  from  the 
apostolic  order,  "  In  your  faith  supply  courage,  and  in  your  courage, 
knowledge  "  1 

4.  The  supreme  remedy  for  indiflEerence  is  the  Baptism  of  the  Holy 
Ghost — a  baptism  described  by  Joel  as  a  pouring-out  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  a  mighty  supernatural  power  which  only  they  who  experience  it 
know,  giving  impulse  to  holy  purpose,  loving  sympathy  to  our  words, 
and  an  invincible  energy  to  our  lives — a  power  which  honours  the  ever- 
blessed  Spirit  by  honouring  the  Divine  Christ,  not  as  "  the  hero  Jesus," 
magnified  by  myth  into  the  traditional  Redeemer,  but  as  "  the  wisdom 
of  God  and  the  power  of  God,"  "God  manifest  in  the  flesh."  This 
Baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  not  a  fancy,  but  a  fact ;  not  a  dead  dogma, 
but  a  living  force  ;  not  a  traditional  figment,  but  a  Divine  energy,  as 
potent  as  that  which  created  the  world.  May  we  so  prove  it  this  hourl 
Even  now  and  all  through  our  sessions  may  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
be  ours. 

We  have  candidly  described  the  indifference  which  dishonours  to-day 
the  Church  and  the  world,  but  we  are  not  to  conclude  that  Christianity 
has  lost  its  Divine  power,  or  is  on  the  decline ;  nor  need  we  deceive 


ADDRESS    OF    REV.    JOSEPH    RITSON.  25 1 

ourselves  to  keep  up  our  courage  ;  but,  intelligently  looking  at  human 
conditions,  past  and  pret^ent,  we  are  assured  by  the  fact  that  the  loving 
Saviour  is  enthroned  in  more  hearts  and  lives  to-day  than  ever.  Wh'.lo 
religious  forces  are  not  to  be  determined  by  counting  heads,  nor  the 
power  of  God  measured  by  mathematics,  still,  the  fact  is  significant 
that  Christ's  sceptre  now  holds  at  least  nominal  sway  over  half  a  billion 
of  redeemed  humanity.  In  the  year  1000  the  figure  was  only  fifty  mil- 
lions, or  one-tenth  as  many.  Statistics  are  available  to  show  that  after 
all  the  wailings  of  pessimism  there  is  a  marked  relative  decrease  of 
pauperism  and  crime,  and  even  of  consumption  of  distilled  spirits,  and 
an  amazing  advance  in  education  and  philanthropy. 

In  this  forward  movement  Methodism,  growing  faster  to-day  than 
ever,  has  had,  under  God,  a  very  prominent  place,  non-Methodists 
themselves  being  judges.  But  Methodism  untrue  to  this  mission  is 
doomed.  Its  mere  testimony  to  Arminiaii  theology  is  not  now  an 
adequate  raison  d'etre,  for  all  Christendom  is  becoming  Arminian  ;  nor 
e\en  its  prominence  in  moral  reform,  nor  its  hold  upon  the  democracy. 
It  dies  altogether  if  it  dies  spiritually,  and  if  it  fails  to  supply  the  heart- 
hunger  of  humanity.  But  whatever  Denominations  in  the  Catholic 
Church  may  rise  or  fall,  "  Christ  ever  liveth."  "  If  we  deny  Him  yet 
He  abideth  faithful."  No  amount  of  infidelity  can  annihilate  the  Son 
of  God.  The  earth  is  not  to  be  a  great  moral  cemetery  for  Christianity. 
It  could  not  hold  in  its  death-grasp  our  mighty  Lord  Himself,  neither 
is  it  to  be  the  burial-place  of  His  truth.  It  contains  the  graves  of 
many  religious  systems,  and  of  their  founders,  but  never  shall  it  witness 
again  the  interment  of  the  "  Prince  of  Life,"  "  Who  must  reign  till  He 
hath  put  all  enemies  under  His  feet,"  including  the  indifferentism  by 
which  the  religious  life  of  our  age  is  to  some  extent  blighted. 

To  hasten  this  universal  victory  of  the  world's  Saviour  is  the  object 
of  our  assembly.  If  this  great  Oecumenical  gathering  is  only  a  demon- 
stration of  sectarian  pride,  it  is  a  failure,  and  worse.  If  we  assembled 
our  vast  constituency  of  thirty  millions  of  members  and  adherents  from 
all  continents  and  isles  of  the  sea,  and  took  some  weeks  or  months  in  a 
continuous  procession  of  them  through  the  streets  of  London,  it  would 
certainly  amaze  the  world,  but  it  would  do  nothing  to  help  on  the  King- 
dom of  Christ.  This  gathering  is  not  a  parade.  If  it  is  anything 
worthy  of  our  name  and  cause,  it  is  rather  a  council  of  war,  in  which  we 
consider  the  forms  of  opposition  confronting  us,  the  forces  available  for 
the  conflict,  and  the  wisest  and  most  effective  methods  of  conducting 
the  campaign,  and  delivering  the  Church  from  the  paralysis  of  religious 
indifferentism  by  which  in  many  quarters  it  is  enfeebled. 

The  Rev.  Joseph  Ritson  (Primitive  Methodist  Church)  followed 
with  an  address  on  "  Apathy  m  the  Church."     He  said  : 

Medical  students  are  required  in  connection  with  certain  of  their 
examinations  to  deal  with  an  actual  patient  in  the  presence  of  their 
examiners.  They  must  make  a  diagnosis  of  the  case,  describe  the 
treatment  they  would  adopt,  and  then  make  a  prognosis— that  is,  tell 
how,  in  their'  opinion,  the  case  would  end.     In  the  present  case  the 


252  INDIFFERENTISM   AND   APATHY. 

patient  is  the  Church.  Some  five  hundred  professors  and  practitioners 
are  gathered  together  in  this  historic  building  from  all  parts  of  the 
world  ;  and  I  am  the  unfortunate  person  whose  duty  it  is  to  deal  with 
the  patient.  As  the  next  speaker  is  appointed  to  state  what  remedy 
the  patient  requires,  I  assume  that  my  work  is  limited  to  diagnosis.  The 
gentlemen  who  have  prepared  the  programme  have  stated  that  the 
Church  is  suflfering  from  a  malady  called  "Apathy."  In  their  judg- 
ment the  facts  are  so  patent  as  to  be  beyond  dispute.  I  am  not  pre- 
pared to  say  they  are  wrong,  but  it  may  be  well  to  verify  their  conclu- 
sions by  an  examination  of  the  symptoms  which  have  manifested  them- 
selves. 

First,  the  Church  complains  of  a  most  alarming  weakness — a  weakness 
so  great  that  she  is  incapable  of  discharging  the  functions  for  which 
she  exists.  Among  these  functions  may  be  named  that  of  witnessing 
The  Church  is  required  to  witness  for  Christ,  and  the  measure  of  her 
faitlifulness  in  this  regard  will  indicate  the  state  of  her  spiritual  health. 
We  fear  it  cannot  be  said  that  the  witness-bearing  of  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  members  of  the  Church  is  as  bold,  as  consistent  and  effective 
as  it  should  be,  even  although  our  conception  of  witnessing  be  of  the 
broadest  kind.  The  most  important  function  of  the  Church  is  the  con- 
version of  men.  It  is  undeniable  that,  to  a  very  large  extent,  the 
Church  is  failing  in  this  respect.  Conversions  are  few  and  far  between. 
Something,  therefore,  must  be  seriously  wrong. 

A  second  symptom  is  the  lack  of  a  healthy  appetite.  In  the  days 
when  John  Wesley  ministered  in  this  building  the  appetites  of  the 
people  were  so  good  that  they  would  come  to  a  service  at  five  or  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  they  could  do  with  three  or  four  more  of 
such  meals  during  the  day.  In  addition  to  the  Sunday  services,  they 
would  attend  the  class  meeting  and  the  preaching  services  during  the 
week.  But  now  the  degenerate  children  of  Wesley  get  up  on  Sunday 
morning  at  nine  or  ten  o'clock,  and,  remarking  that  it  looks  like  rain, 
or  that  they  are  rather  tired,  they  decide  to  stay  at  home.  In  the  even- 
ing they  come  to  public  worship  with  an  appetite  so  languid,  and  a 
digestion  so  weak,  that  the  meal  will  last  them  for  a  whole  week. 

Yet  again  there  is  the  symptom  of  apathy — for  apathy  is  only  a 
symptom.  When  a  person  loses  all  interest  in  the  work  of  life  we  con- 
clude there  is  either  mental  or  physical  disease.  In  like  manner,  when 
we  find  a  large  proportion  of  the  members  of  the  Church  apathetic  in 
relation  to  the  real  spiritual  work  of  the  Church,  we  are  driven  to  the 
conclusion  that  all  is  not  as  it  should  be.  How  many  of  our  Church 
members  are  in  downright  earnest  about  the  conversion  of  souls  ?  Their 
indifference  is  astounding. 

There  are  no  doubt  other  symptoms  to  which  attention  might  be 
called,  but  those  already  named  are  among  the  most  important,  and 
will  enable  us  to  diagnose  the  case  with  sufficient  accuracy.  The  symp- 
toms point  to  an  imperfect  spiritual  vision  as  the  malady  of  the  Church. 
She  is  apathetic  because  she  cannot  see  the  infinite  value  and  transcen- 
dent importance  of  the  things  that  are  spiritual  and  unseen.  Men 
cannot  be  earnest  and  enthusiastic  about  things  the  reality  of  which 
they  do  not  see.     It  is  when  the  eyes,  not  of  the  understanding,  as  the 


ADDRESS   OF   REV.   JAMES  M.   KING.  253 

Authorise*!  Version  of  the  Bible  has  it,  but  of  the  heart,  as  tlic  words 
should  be  rendered,  are  enlight«ned,  that  men  lose  their  apathy  and 
become  earnest  in  the  pursuit  of  the  great  spiritual  ends  of  life.  This 
faculty  of  spiritual  vision  is  in  the  Scriptures  called  faith,  so  that  we 
must  trace  all  the  symptoms  to  which  reference  has  been  made  to  the 
want  of  faith.  An  age  of  faith  is  never  an  age  of  apathy.  It  is  the  man 
of  faith  who  possesses  the  earnestness  which  commands  success. 

It  is  often  an  advantage  to  a  patient  to  know  what  has  caused  his 
disease,  and  if  you  asked  me  what  are  the  causes  of  the  existing  apathy 
in  the  Church,  I  would  indicate  two.  The  first  is  peculiar  to  the  age, 
an:i  I  am  a  little  uncertain  as  to  how  far  it  operates.  I  refer  to  the 
temporary  unsettlement  produced  by  what  is  called  the  Higher  Griii- 
cism.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  Church  is  in  a  transition  state  between 
two  Bibles.  It  is  a  fact  that  many  people  do  not  know  what  to  believe. 
I  have  no  fear  as  to  the  ultimate  issue,  but  in  the  meantime  members 
are  in  a  state  of  doubt  and  uncertainty,  which  is  fatal  to  earnestness  and 
enthusiasm.  A  second  and  far  more  universal  cause  is  the  inordinate 
pursuit  of  wealth  and  amusement.  Men  have  no  time  for  the  spiritual, 
because  they  do  not  keep  resolutely  in  a  subordinate  place  the  things  of 
the  world.  This  could  not  be  if  the  Church  possessed  a  strong,  vigorous 
faith.  Such  a  faith  would  not  only  give  her  a  clear  vision  of  things 
more  valuable  than  wealth  or  amusement,  such  as  would  make  the  pur- 
suit of  these  higher  things  the  main  business  of  life,  but  would  so  link 
her  with  the  great  Source  of  life,  that  weakness,  lack  of  appetite,  and 
apathy  would  alike  disappear. 

The  Rev.  James  M.  King,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
gave  a  complementary  address  on  "  The  Antidote  for  Indifferentism 
and  Apathy."     He  said  : 

As  Methodist  preachers  and  laymen,  believing  in  the  priesthood  of 
the  people,  and  in  our  call  to  promote  righteousness  both  by  precept  and 
example,  in  considering  the  antidote  for  the  disease  of  indiflferentisin 
and  apathy  we  must  recognise  existing  conditions.  We  must  apprehend 
the  things  we  are  firmly  to  desist  from  doing  ;  we  must  comprehend  the 
things  we  must  persistently  do.  The  disease  exists.  We  know  its 
symptoms.  It  can  be  cured.  Its  germs  can  be  destroyed  by  furnishing 
the  life  germs. 

Unbelief  has  been  engendered  by  discredited  Scriptures.  The  Scrip- 
tures are  not  recognised  as  the  final  judgment  seat  for  conscience.  Mul- 
titudes have  no  settled  belief  in  the  immortahty  of  the  soul.  The  re- 
ligious thought  and  conscience  of  the  people  are  being  confused  by  dis- 
cussions concerning  the  authority  of  the  Scriptures  ;  and  so  long  as 
thought  and  conscience  are  distracted,  the  concentration  of  thought  and 
the  candour  of  conscience  essential  to  conviction  for  sin  are  impossible. 
Magnifying  sociological  theories  to  the  belittling  of  distinctively  reli- 
gious work  puts  a  premium  on  religious  indifference,  and  religious  in- 
difference breeds  apathy.  The  Church  has  no  sociological  relation  to 
the  people,  and  never  had,  other  than  its  relation  as  a  disseminator  of 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  remedy  for  all  evil::.     An  enlightened 


4 54  INDIFFERENTISM    AND    APATHY. 

expediency  in  the  method  of  applying  the  remedy  prescribed  by  Lhis 
Gospel  is  all  that  is  delegated  to  us.  The  institutional  Church  theories 
magnilied  niay  promote  pure  humauitarianism,  but  not  spirituality. 
Institutional  methods  and  work  can  only  be  counted  as  aids,  and  not 
substitutes,  for  the  preaching  of  the  Law  and  the  Gospel.  They  are 
corollaries,  and  not  original  propositions,  in  Christian  work. 

The  Church,  we  apprehend,  is  losing  something  of  the  fearlessness 
with  which  it  once  declared  the  Law  of  God  against  individual  vices  of 
society.  With  corruption  in  the  Church,  it  is  powerless  to  cure  the 
corruption  without.  The  unregenerate  world  too  often  has  excuses  for 
laughing  at  the  reproaches  of  the  Christian  Church  against  its  follies 
and  its  sins.  Religious,  moral,  and  social  forces  are  seemingly  getting 
more  and  more  cowardly  in  the  presence  of  giant  monopoly  and  money 
power.  What  are  we  going  to  do  about  it?  The  legislative  and  ad- 
visory action  of  the  Church  on  almost  all  the  social  questions  of  the  day 
is  of  a  commendably  high  standard.  But  its  practical  application  of  its 
legislative  and  advisory  action  needs  a  new  baptism  of  courage.  We 
need  to  look  at  the  condition  of  the  field  which  Methodism  was  raised 
up  to  cultivate  in  England.  Justification  by  faith,  and  the  witness  of 
the  Spirit,  were  denied  in  the  pulpit,  although  found  in  the  creeds.  In 
many  of  the  Churches  predestination  decrees  had  engendered  anti- 
nomianism,  and  in  others  had  displaced  the  saving  doctrines  of  the 
cross.  Orthodoxy  has  never  been  the  boasted  conservator  of  the  inner 
life  of  Methodism,  but  the  spiritual  life  has  preserved  its  orthodoxy. 

Protestantism  has  three  historic  germinal  points :  Luther  led  the 
Practical  movement,  Arminius  the  Theoretical,  and  Wesley  the  Spiri- 
tual. One  restored  Courage  to  the  Church,  one  the  ancient  Truth,  and 
one  Religious  Life.  Anglo-Saxon  civilisation  is  now  to  the  front  as  the 
force  controlling  the  destinies  of  man.  It  was  created  by  the  preaching 
and  teaching  of  the  fundamentals  of  the  Christian  Gospel.  Its  virility 
and  aggressive  power  can  only  be  preserved  by  adherence  to  these 
fundamentals.  We  need  to  stop  debating  and  making  explanations 
which  do  not  explain,  and  confine  ourselves  to  declaring  the  Law  and 
preaching  the  Gospel.  The  people  will  not  believe  what  we  say  unless 
we  believe  it  uncompromisingly,  and  declare  it  as  God's  Word  unhesitat- 
ingly. The  world  needs  Divine  truth  and  light,  and  not  dissection  of 
the  truth  with  incident  darkness  and  doubt.  The  weary  and  sin-cursed 
heart  of  man  is  hungry  for  the  Bread  of  Life,  the  spiritual  food,  and 
cares  little  for  the  theological  microscope  and  the  scholastic  scalpel. 
It  is  famishing  for  bread,  and  not  for  treatises  on  the  chemistry  of 
bread-making.  Do  not  put  off  hungry  men  by  explaining  to  empty 
stomachs  the  chemistry  of  bread-making.  Give  them  bread 
promptly,  and  while  it  is  being  digested  and  assimilated 
God  vnll  take  care  of  the  chemistry.  We  must  not  experi- 
ment with  learned  disquisitions  on  penitents  sick  with  sin, 
but  make  them  sick  of  sin  ;  then  they  will  not  want  apologetics,  but 
the  "Thus  saith  the  Lord."  Sinful  man  needs  to  feel  authority,  and 
not  listen  to  apologies  for  God's  claims.  We  need  to  stop  attempting  to 
adapt  or  accommodate  the  Law  and  the  Gospel  to  what  are  called  the 


Address  of  rev.  james  m.  king.  255 

rhaiii;;c(l  conditions  and  environment  of  sinners.  The  Law  and  tlio 
(idspcl  need  no  apology;  they  are  adapted  to  everyone;  they  will 
adapt  themselves  to  every  condition,  or  they  are  not  from  God.  Stop 
dissecting  the  Scriptures,  and  stop  apologising  for  the  Word  of  God. 

Protestantism  must  reassert  itself  ;  it  needs  a  new  baptism  of  self- 
respect.  It  must  stop  compromising  with  formalism,  and  with  Roman- 
ism, and  with  its  dangerous  counterfeit  and  counterpart,  Ritualism. 
We  must  reassert  and  emphasise  fundamental  doctrines.  The  original 
Wesleyan  movement  was  an  antidote  for  indifferentism  and  apathy, 
and  how  was  the  antidote  administered  ?  A  century  and  a  half  ago, 
when  the  Wesleyan  Reformation  began,  the  English-speaking  religious 
world,  and  the  religious  world  at  large,  was  in  a  condition  of  indifference 
and  apathy.  The  Wesleys  preached  the  fundamental  and  saving  truths 
of  the  Law  and  Gospel,  and  religious  life  came  to  indifferent  souls,  and 
incidental  religious  activity  killed  apathy.  We  are  Methodists,  and, 
therefore,  having  a  conquering  creed  which  requires  no  time  to  amend, 
we  can  devote  all  our  time  to  authoritative  uncompromising  declaration 
of  truth.  Methodism  is  doctrinal.  We  must  not  change  our  forms 
and  doctrines  to  please  men.  The  twentieth  centurj  does  not  need  a 
creedless  Church,  while  righteousness  is  the  pressing  need  of  the  day. 

The  following  doctrines,  briefly  stated,  have  been  the  powers  em- 
ployed by  victorious  Methodism  : — Free  Will,  placing  the  responsibility 
of  sin  on  the  sinner  ;  Unlimited  Atonement,  offering  free  salvation  to 
all  ;  Gracious  Ability,  encouraging  and  leading  the  sinner  to  faith  ; 
Witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  leading  the  convert  to  communion  with 
God  ;  Possible  Apostasy,  warning  him  to  "  hold  fast  the  profession  of 
his  faith,''  with  Assurance  of  Present  Salvation,  and  Entire  Sanctifica- 
tion,  inspiring  him  to  press  on  to  every  height  of  holiness.  Methodism 
has  taught  Christendom  that  the  doctrine  of  holiness  is  not  to  be  ac- 
cepted first  as  a  part  of  systematic  divinity,  but  as  a  great  experimental 
fact.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  while  other  Churches  are  being  stirred  by 
the  entertaining  of  this  central  idea  of  Christianity,  Christian  purity, 
the  heritage  of  faith,  we  have  been  compelled  to  devote  so  much  time  to 
the  rebuke  of  crude  and  fanatical  vagaries  on  the  subject 
that  we  are  losing  sight  of  the  blessedness  and  power 
of  the  doctrine.  We  need  a  revival  of  denominational  self- 
respect.  It  is  our  right  and  duty  to  go  anywhere  and  every- 
where, because,  as  we  have  seen,  we  have  the  theology  for  the 
world.  The  fundamentals  of  the  Christian  faith  are  being  debated  in 
other  Denominations,  and,  unfortunately,  to  a  degree,  among  us.  Still, 
Methodism  boasts  that  it  has  never  given  birth  to  a  heresy.  Our  peril 
lies  not  so  much  in  the  direction  of  heresy  in  doctrine  as  in  the  tacking 
on  of  political  fads  and  special  legislation  to  our  economy,  and  making 
the  race  a  handicap  for  us. 

The  memorable  opening  sermon  of  this  Conference  said  that  the 
declaration  of  truth  must  be  "positive  afhrmation"  in  the  nature  of 
"Divine  Dogmatism."  The  doctrine  and  instruction  of  that  sermon 
illustrated  and  practised  would  kill  both  indifferentism  and  apathy. 
The  voice  of  certainty  must  be  heard.    We  must  make  morally-diseased 


256  INDIFFERENTISM    AND    APATHY. 

and  sin-cursed  men  feel  that  we  speak  with  authority,  and  thai  we 
know  the  Physician  we  recommend.  Preachers  should  believe  and 
know  a  few  things  for  certain,  and  preach  them  with  awful  earnestness 
and  Christlike  tenderness.  A  few  Sundays  since  I  heard  two  sermons 
in  London.  One  in  the  morning  in  a  temple  in  the  presence  of  a  multi- 
tude of  people.  The  prayer  brought  every  heart  in  conscious  contact 
with  Divinity.  The  sermon  declared  God's  truth  without  apology,  and 
every  soul  felt  that  God  was  speaking  through  the  preacher.  A  busi- 
ness man  of  large  wealth  said  to  me  as  we  passed  out  of  the  temple, 
"God  is  in  this  place."  In  the  afternoon  I  attended  a  service  in  a 
cathedral.  Thousands  were  assembled.  The  music  was  grand.  The 
ritual  service  I  suppose  must  have  been  majestic,  but  not  one  word 
could  be  heard  as  English.  The  sermon,  by  a  high  ecclesiastic,  pos- 
sessed one  virtue :  it  could  be  heard  by  the  vast  assemblage.  It  was 
made  up  of  forty-five  minutes  of  stentorian  platitudes.  It  contained 
no  food  for  the  soul,  no  inspiration  for  the  intellect,  no  in- 
struction for  the  conscience.  Indifferentism  and  apathy  would  fatten 
on  3uch  food.  We  must  preach  the  Gospel,  and  not  about  the  Gospel. 
Failure  to  recognise  the  difference  between  these  two  preachings  is  the 
j)rolific  parent  of  indiflEerentism  and  apathy.  They  are  the  legitimate 
children  of  such  a  parentage.  I  heard  a  sermon  recently  on  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  and  the  arguments  which  led  to  Christ's  utter- 
ance, "  Because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also  "  were  calculated  to  breed  doubta 
and  unfit  the  mind  for  faith  in  Christ's  utterance.  We  are  not  called 
to  preach  what  has  been  said  about  the  Gospel,  but  to  preach  the 
Gospel.  The  authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  must  not  only  be  ac- 
cepted, but  preached  without  apology.  Men  will  neither  believe  in  the 
duty  of  living  a  self-sacrificing  life,  nor  in  the  duty  of  devoting  their 
lives  to  the  propagation  of  Christian  truth,  unless  they  have  unshaken 
confidence  in  the  Holy  Book  as  the  Word  of  God.  There  must  be 
more  personal  and  less  proxy  work  by  Christians,  fewer  substitutes  and 
more  volunteers. 

Cicero  said,  "All  who  live  by  mercenary  labour  do  a  degrading 
business  ;  no  noble  sentiment  can  come  from  a  workshop."  But  the 
sentiment  that  came  forth  from  the  workshop  of  the  Carpenter  of 
Nazareth  gave  a  new  conception  of  man.  It  taught  humanity  that  it 
was  possible  to  endure  poverty  without  despair,  and  that  riches  might 
be  accumulated  and  used  without  sensuality  and  pride.  Is  the  Church 
of  Christ  enforcing  this  sentiment  of  its  Founder?  The  Church  is 
making  an  inadequate  impression  upon  the  social  conditions  of  cities, 
and  the  centres  of  population  of  composite  character.  We  spend 
too  much  time  in  explaining  the  reason  why  we  fail,  and  assert  that 
conditions  have  changed,  as  though  that  fact  relieved  us  from  obliga- 
tion to  forward  the  Gospel  remedy  for  all  maladies  and  all  wrong. 
After  all,  no  chaaige  of  conditions  can  be  conceived  that  can  challenge 
the  success  of  the  Gospel,  unless  we  confess  that  the  Gospel  is  not 
designed  to  be  a  universal  remedy  to  save  the  race.  The  substance 
and  power  of  Christianity  are  not  changed  by  changes  in  times,  places, 
races,  classes,  climates,  or  Governments.    The  only  recognition  giren 


ADDRESS   OF    REV.    JAMES   M.    KING.  257 

to  social  distinctions  by  iirophccy  is  that  of  smiling.  Christ  came  to 
humanity,  and  social  distinctions  giving  root  to  social  problems  are 
all  of  human  and  not  of  Divine  origin  or  purpose.  The  Gospel  was 
made  for  man,  as  man.  Opposition  and  antagonism  it  will  meet, 
and  principally  in  social  problems,  but  it  is  not  a  question  of  debate 
with  those  who  have  this  Gospel  committed  to  them  as  to  whether 
antagonism  shall  be  met,  and  opposition  overcome,  but  how  ami 
when.  The  Gospel  is  not  a  thing  to  be  mended,  its  original  power 
rested  in  the  Divine  and  human  personality  of  Christ,  and  that 
power  is  unchanged  in  the  face  of  changing  conditions. 

The  Church  in  its  sociological   relation  to   the  people  must  teach 
that  the  purpose  of  Christianity  is,   by  the  life  and  example   of  its 
Founder,  to  effect  a  spiritual  change  in  the  individual,  and  recognise 
His  essential  priesthood  as  distinguished  from  the  teachings  of  Latin 
Christianity,  which   does   not  magnify  the    importance    of  change   in 
character,  but  belief  in  the  authority  of  the  Church,  and  of  an  order 
of   men,    and    in    the    sole   competency    of    the    Church   to    dispense 
efficacious  sacramental  ordinances.     The  teachings  of  the   Church  of 
Christ  have  brought  about  in  English-speaking  nationalities  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  people,   and  their  elevation  to   supreme  power,    and 
sociological    questions    now    become    political    questions.     When    the 
Church  of  Christ  is   left  out  of  these  questions,    despite   her   short- 
comings, there  is  little  left.     Do  not  let  us  act  like  pessimists,  who 
of  two  evils  always  choosa  both,  and  repudiate  facts;   but  let  us  try 
and  bring  the  Church  up  to  her  responsibilities.     Abel  Stevens  wrote  • 
The  causes  of  the  success  and  influence  of  Methodism  are  so  evident 
and  so  clearly  do  they  show  its  appropriate  policy  for  the  future  that 
xf  ever  the  mighty  movement  should  fail  of  its  still  greater  practical 
results    by  the  errors  of  its  leaders,  it  must  be,  in  spite  of  a  hundred 
years  of  the  most  demonstrative  lessons  which  have  been  recorded  in 
the  history  of  Christianity  since  the  age  of  its  apostolic  founders." 

Methodism  has  an  historic  basis  for  gratitude  and  self-respect. 
The  importance  of  Methodism  in  human  history  consists  in  the  fact 
that  with  it  dawned  a  better  day  for  humanity  in  a  work  of  God  by 
a  revelation  of  a  new  Divine  purpose  to  promote  the  renovation 'and 
salvation  of  the  race.  Dean  Stanley  said  :  "  The  Methodist  movement 
in  both  Its  branches,  Arminian  and  Calvinistic,  has  moulded  the 
spiritual  character  of  the  English-speaking  Protestantism  of  the 
world.  Dr  Sehaff  said:  "Methodism  is  the  youngest,  and  yet 
numerically  the  strongest,  of  the  larger  Protestant  bodies  in  America 

hVl  ^wr""'/  "''  ^'.''^  Anglo-American  Eevival,  conducted 
by  John  Wesley,  the  organiser,  Charles  Wesley,  the  hymnist  and 
George  Whitefield,  the  evangelist,  of  the  religio'us  moveL^nfof  the 
eighteenth  century,  which  otherwise  figures  in  Church  history  as  a 
barren  century  of  infidelity  and  revolution."  "It  has  made  the 
Arminian  creed  a  converting  agency,  and  given  it  practical  power 
such  as  It  never  had  before.  It  is  a  well-organised  army  of  conquest 
against  the  flesh,  the  world  and  the  devil.  Its  motto,  borrowed  fl^om 
i8 


2  eg  INDIFFERENTISM    AND    APATHY. 

Wesley,  is  'The  world  is  my  pariah.*"  The  vcncrabla  Dr.  Tyng, 
the  seer  and  prophet  of  American  Protestant  Episcopaliaaiism,  said, 
at  the  Evangelical  Alliance  meeting  in  London :  "  I  come  from  a  land 
where  you  might  as  well  forget  the  proud  oaks  that  tower  in  our 
forests,  the  glowing  Capitol  we  have  erected  in  the  centre  of  our 
hills,  the  principles  of  truth  and  liberty  we  endeavour  to  disseminate, 
as  to  forget  the  influence  of  Methodism  and  the  benefits  we  have 
secured  thereby." 

One  all-important  factor  in  the  problem  is  the  money  question. 
Give  the  Cfhristian  Church  enough  money,  and  it  can  hasten  the 
coming  of  the  millennium.  What  are  the  facts  now  ?  The  unchurched 
masses  will  be  reached  when  the  churched  moneyed  masses  are  reached. 
Talent,  government,  architecture,  art,  and  learning  have  been  largely 
Christianised,  but  the  money  power  is  only  beginning  to  be.  Ex- 
President  Hill  says  :  "  The  exalted  idea  of  man  that  went  out  from 
Judea  to  change  the  institutions  of  men  was  alone  suflficient  to  recon- 
struct society,  and  inaugurate  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of  the 
world."  Love  of  wealth  was  the  teaching  of  Paganism,  but  love  of 
man  is  the  teaching  of  Christianity. 

We  must  emphasise  the  fact  that  genuine  Christianity  breaks  down 
barriers.  Civilisation  in  tenement  houses  and  sanitary  regulations 
in  the  abodes  of  the  poor  must  be  controlled  by  Christian  sentiment 
crystallising  itself  in  legislative  action.  Otherwise,  demagogues  will 
produce  dangerous  legislation.  Christianity  teaches  that  you  cannot 
cure  disease  by  doctoring  the  symptoms,  that  you  must  get  at  the 
cause.  Christianity  creates  homes,  and  a  city  and  country  of  homes 
is  safe.  The  family  and  the  home  are  inventions  of  God  ;  the  social 
unit,  the  unit  of  Anglo-Saxon  Christian  civilisation,  is  not  the  indi- 
vidual, but  the  family.  Without  Christianity  people  are  housed, 
but  they  axe  homeless.  The  cross  means  sacrifice,  and  sacrifice  means 
blood,  and  blood  means  life,  and  life  will  save  life. 

If  all  Methodism  and  Protestantism  would  in  the  future  first  prove 
experimentally,  and  then  preach  without  apology,  the  three  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  Christianity,  indiflEerentism  and  apathy  would  soon 
disappear.  They  are,  (1)  The  exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin.  Men  are 
either  denying  that  they  are  sinners  at  all,  or,  if  sinners,  sweet- 
scented  sinners.  If  men  are  not  sinners  then  no  atonement  is  needed, 
and  Christ  was  an  impostor.  (2)  Atonement  by  blood,  and  that 
without  apology.  Perhaps  an  infinitely  wise  God  might  have  devised 
some  other  method  of  saving  sinful  man,  bu!t  He  did  not,  and  that 
is  enough  for  us  to  know,  if  we  are  His  ministers.  (3)  The  per- 
sonality, office,  and  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost — the  Everlasting  He,  and 
not  the  Everlasting  It.  We  are  not  called  to  preach  our  doubts, 
and  what  we  do  not  know  ;  if  we  are,  no  removal  of  the  time  limit 
on  the  pastorate  would  be  adequate  to  meet  the  emergency.  I  believe 
in  the  highest  attainments  in  scholarship,  and  in  the  most  scientific 
application  of  criticism  to  the  authenticity  and  veracity  of  Ihe  Scrip- 
tures, but  let  no  man  bring  out  of  his  study  untempered  mortar,  and 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  259 

pretend  with  siirh  stuff  to  l)o  building  for  God.  Let  the  masters 
teach,  but  let  llio,  great  rank  and  tilt-  of  preachers  preach  the  few 
things  they  know  experimeutally  for  certain,  and  be  honest  enougli 
not  to  preach  at  all,  unless  they  experimentally  know  the  saving 
truths  of  the  Gospel. 

The  Rev.  Manley  S.  Hard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Churob), 
opened  the  general  discussion,  as  follows : 

By  the  great  orations  and  eloquent  essays  that  have  been  delivered 
by  these  competent  men  I  have  been  greatly  instructed  and  profited. 
My  heart  has  been  a  little  heavy  to-day,  in  that  there  seems  to  have 
been  a  steady  moan  about  what  the  Church  is  not,  about  what  we  are 
not  doing,  about  the  successes  that  have  not  been  coming  to  us. 
I  feel  that  there  are  more  people  who  have  knelt  down  at  family 
altars  this  morning  tJian  on  any  morning  since  the  sun  began  to  come 
up  ;  there  are  more  people  who  love  God's  Word,  and  are  on  their 
way  to  Zion,  than  on  any  other  day  since  men  began  to  be  ;  there 
are  more  who  would  make  a  great  line  of  martyrs,  if  you  needed  them, 
and  called  for  them,  than  on  any  other  day  before.  I  can  put  my 
hand  in  a  minute  on  a  man  who  has  been  accustomed  to  have  great 
crowds  listen  to  his  preaching,  but  every  night  at  the  close  he  said, 
"We  will  go  down  into  the  prayer-room,"  and  it  has  been  no  un- 
common thing  to  have  one  to  ten  persons  converted  any  and  every 
Sunday  night  in  that  place.  I  believe  that  the  efficiency  and  power 
of  the  Church  has  not  departed,  but  that  if  half  what  these  brethren 
have  just  said  be  true  God  will  wonderfully  and  mightily  carry  on 
His  work. 

I  have  been  going  about  with  Methodists  for  some  little  time. 
The  first  man  I  ever  remember  to  have  seen  was  a  Methodist  preacher, 
and  his  wife  was  my  mother,  so  that  I  have  been  knowing  something 
about  these  people  all  along.  I  shall  never  forget  when  my  father 
rose  one  morning,  and  with  his  Bible  in  his  hand,  about  to  have 
family  worship,  he  said  to  my  mother — they  both  had  Bible  names, 
Amos  and  Elizabeth — "  Elizabeth,  somehow  I  feel  we  ought  to  have  a 
great  revival  in  Brockport."  My  father  was  the  pastor  there.  My 
mother  said,  "That  will  be  a  good  thing,  Amos.'  He  said,  "Eliza- 
beth, if  we  are  to  have  a  great  revival  I  must  get  mightiy  baptized  from 
on  High."  My  mother  said,  "  That  will  be  a  good  thing,  Amos." 
My  father  said,  "What  about  you,  Elizabeth?"  "Well,"  my  mother 
said,  "  Amos,  I  will  go  with  you,"  and  my  father  added,  "  Now, 
Elizabeth,  if  every  time  I  ask  somebody  to  come  forward  you  will 
come  right  up  by  the  altar  and  stand  by  me,  I  believe  the  Lord  will 
give  us  a  glorious  revival  in  Brockport."  My  mother  said,  "I  have 
never  disappointed  you,  Amos  ;  I  will  stand  by  you."  I  remember 
they  knelt  down  for  family  worship.  My  father  prayed  and  my  mother 
prayed,  and  then  they  prayed  over  again.  They  were  an  hour  or  so 
at  prayer  when  there  came  a  rap  at  the  door.  My  mother  opened  the 
door,  and  in  walked  one  of  my  father's  class  lecturers,  Martin  Atkins, 
a  splendid  figure,  and  noble  mind.  My  father  never  offered  to  get 
up,  but  said :  "  Martin,  we  are  going  to  have  a  great  revival  in 
Brockport,  but  I  must  get  mightily  baptized  from  on  High  first." 
Martin  Atkins  came  and  knelt  by  my  father  and  said,  "  Brother  Hard, 
this   iB  what  I  have  long  been  wanting."    My   father  prayed,    my 


26o  INDIFFERENTISM    AND    APATHY. 

u.otlier  prayed,  and  Martin  Atkins  prayed,  and  thus  another  hour 
was  spent.  Then  iny  father  got  up,  and  walked  up  and  down  the 
place,  and  repeated  that  hymn  I  had  not  heard  before  : 

"  My  chains  fell  off,  my  heart  was  free, 
I  rose,  went  forth,  and  followed  Thee."- 

I  remember  on  the  next  Sunday  morning  I  sat  in  the  gallery  by  a 
woman  who  lived  in  the  town,  a  singer,  and  a  doer  of  every  good 
thing  she  could  do.  I  was  a  boy  of  eight.  She  said  to  her  brother, 
who  was  leader  of  the  choir,  "I  wonder  what  is  the  matter  with 
Brother  Hard  ;  I  have  never  heard  him  preach  in  this  fashion."  I 
could  have  told  them  what  had  happened  to  my  father.  I  remember 
at  the  close  my  father  said  "  Will  somebody  seek  the  Lord  this  morn- 
ing ? "  We  usually  do  that  in  the  evening-^nobody  thinks  of  inviting 
sinners  forward  in  the  morning— but  my  father  said,  "  Will  somebody 
seek  the  Lord  this  morning  ? "  Seven  men  went  forward  that  very 
morning  and  knelt  down.  My  conviction  is  that  God  wants  mightily 
to  honour  the  truth  we  preach,  and  if  we  have  it  warm  from  our  hearts 
God  will  gloriously  bless  it  to  our  good. 

The  Rev.  E.  J.  Gray,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  said : 

There  is  only  one  antidote  for  apathy  or  indifference  of  the  mind  or 
heart  towards  the  cause  of  God  as  a  whole,  or  toward  any  particular 
phase  of  the  cause  of  God,  as  there  is  only  one  remedy  for  sin.  Apathy 
or  indifference  is  not  necessarily  the  fruit  of  ignorance,  and,  therefore, 
you  cannot  educate  men  out  of  indifference  into  interested  thought  and 
enthusiastic  energy  by  ordinary  processes  of  intellectual  culture.  It  is 
not  an  unusual  experience  that  the  man  with  the  broadest  mental 
vision,  acquired  by  wide  reading  and  careful  study,  along  lines  of 
religious  thought,  especially  in  the  realm  of  theological  investigation,  is 
the  most  indifferent  man  concerning  the  promotion  and  increase  of 
vital  godliness  in  the  community  in  which  he  lives,  or  throughout  the 
Church  as  a  whole.  It  sometimes  happens  that  the  man  best  versed 
in  Bible  lore,  the  man  most  familiar  with  the  history,  biography,  lan- 
guage, literature,  theology,  and.  general  doctrines  of  the  sacred 
Scriptures,  is  a  formidable  stumbling-block  in  the  way  of  all  spiritual 
work  in  the  local  church.  In  some  instances  that  man  is  the  minister 
of  the  church. 

Religion,  which  may  be  quite  different  from  Christianity,  may  be 
Avholly  of  the  head — the  resultant  of  processes  which  have  only 
quickened,  and  awakened,  and  interested  the  brain.  Or  it  may  be 
largely  or  entirely  of  the  heart,  working  without  intelligent  supervision, 
liable  to  prejudice  and  superstition,  and  frequently  extremely  harmful, 
or  utterly  destructive  of  the  ends  it  seeks  to  promote.  In  either  case, 
there  is  a  large  sphere  of  thinking,  and  feeling,  and  doing  ;  and  all 
these  are  harmoniously  blended  in  all  real  Christian  experience  and 
efficient  Christian  work.  In  either  instance  I  have  cited  there  is  a 
wide  realm  of  either  theoretical  or  practical  Christianity,  or  of  both,  it 
may  be,  as  represented  by  Jesus  Christ,  towards  which  the  mind  or 
heart  is  sadly  and,  I  think,  sinfully  indifferent. 

What  is  the  remedy  ?  Education  ?  No,  not  in  its  ordinary  processes. 
In  the  one  case  it  would  be  rejected  with  contempt,  as  an  impertinence, 
and  in  the  other  it  would  be  despised.  The  one  antidote  for  indiffer- 
ence or  apathy  touching  the  cause  of  Jesus  Christ — whether  it  has  its 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  26l 

genesis  and  growth  in  a  failure  to  properly  use,  or  in  a  wrong  use  of, 
head  or  heart — is  personal  consecration  to  Jesus  Christ,  complete  and 
thorough  consecration  of  the  man,  body,  brain,  heart,  entire  devotion 
of  the  person  of  the  man  to  the  Person  of  the  Lord.  We  are  to  wisely 
differentiate  consecration  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  and  especially  some 
phases  of  the  cause  of  Christ,  frnm  consecration  to  Christ  Himself. 
We  can  readily  conceive  of  a  devotion  to  sacred  literature,  or  to  edu- 
cation, or  to  missions,  or  to  the  routine  offices  of  tlie  ministry,  or  to 
some  phase  of  one  or  more  of  these  various  Christian  enterprises,  which 
are  alike  worthy  in  themselves,  that  shall  thoroughly  engross  all  the 
energies  of  the  individual,  from  purely  personal  considerations,  from 
motives  which  have  their  birth  and  growth  into  gigantic  proportions 
from  a  personal  ambition  to  make  the  particular  cause  which  he  repre- 
sents for  the  Church  so  eminently  successful  as  to  add  to  personal 
aggrandisement,  or  become  the  stepping-stone  to  a  higher  position. 
That  is  consecration  to  a  cause  out  of  which  may  come  personal  advan- 
tage, breeding  a  personal  ambition  to  make  personal  success  in  that 
cause  conspicuous  and  overshadowing,  and  generating  indifference  to 
all  other  causes  which  do  not  contribute  to  that  result. 

Consecration  to  Christ,  or,  to  put  it  otherwise,  consecration  of  the 
person  of  the  man  to  the  Person  of  the  Lord,  is  another  thing  alto- 
gether. For  that  I  plead,  as  the  efficient,  and,  indeed,  the  only  anti- 
dote for  indifference  or  apathy  of  mind  or  heart  towards  all  good  enter- 
prises, which  must  lie  with  equal  stress  upon  the  warm  heart  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  in  whose  vision  all  phases  of  worthy  enterprises  combine  to 
make  one  great  work  which  may  enlist  the  sympathies  of  God  and 
occupy  the  energies  of  men. 

The  Rev.  W.  D.  Walters  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  made  the 
following  remarks : 

I  believe  that  the  indifference  of  which  we  are  thinking  and  talking 
is  more  apparent  than  real.  At  the  time  of  the  holding  of  the  first 
CEcumenical  Conference  in  this  chapel  Methodists  were  deploring  what 
seemed  to  be  great  religious  indifference  on  the  part  of  people  who 
Avere  surrounding  our  old  sanctuaries.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  London 
and  Manchester,  and  all  our  leading  cities,  we  had  a  number  of  large 
chapels  surrounded  by  vast  masses  of  people,  but  they  were  practically 
empty,  and  many  people  concluded  that  it  was  because  of  the  indiffer- 
ence of  the  people.     We  have  discovered  that  we  made  a  great  mistake. 

The  Wesleyan  Conference,  in  its  wisdom,  instituted  a  new  move- 
ment, in  order  to  bring  these  people  into  the  old  sanctuaries.  True  to 
its  mission,  it  felt  that  it  was  its  duty  not  merely  to  open  the  doors, 
and  to  announce  that  service  was  to  be  held,  but  to  do  something 
special  in  order  to  create  an  interest  among  the  people  surrounding 
these  old  chapels,  with  the  result  that  at  the  last  Conference  more 
than  forty  ministers,  pre-eminently  adapted  for  this  special  work,  were 
appointed  to  these  mission  centres.  We  now  rejoice  in  20,000  members 
connected  with  those  places,  largely  gathered  right  out  of  the  world, 
and  I  should  be  well  within  the  mark  if  I  w^ere  to  say  that  we  have  at 
least,  in  connection  with  these  old  sanctuaries  in  London  and  our 
great  centres,  60,000  hearers.  We  canudt  record  one  case  of  failure. 
When  we  have  really  set  ourselves,  in  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  in  imitation  of  the  example  of  John  Wesley,  to  go  after  the 
people,  the  people  have  at  once  responded. 


262  mDIFFERENTISM    AND   APATHY. 

Thank  God,  in  all  these  places  we  have  constant  conversions. 
People,  the  most  unlikely,  who  have  come  right  out  of  the  gutter, 
many  of  whom  for  the  first  time  listened  to  the  Grospel  of  the  Grace  of 
God,  have  there  and  then  submitted  to  Christ  and  been  gathered  into 
the  new  life.  Why  is  it  that  the  Churches  generally  liave  not  many 
conversions?  Because  we  have  not  people  to  convert.  The  vast 
majority  who  attend  our  regular  services  are  either  Gospel-hardened  or 
converted.  If  we  want  to  have  conversions  we  must  get  people  who 
are  not  accustomed  to  listen  to  the  Gospel,  just  as  our  fathers  did,  by 
special  effort,  and  then,  backed  by  the  power  of  the  living  Spirit  of 
God,  we  shall  always  have  conversions — conversions  every  Lord's  Day. 

Let  me  just  in  a  word  or  two  give  you  the  leading  features  of  the 
movement  which,  in  connection  with  the  London  Mission,  I  have  the 
honour  to  represent ;  but  let  it  be  remembered  that  I  pay  special  tri- 
bute to  the  splendid  efforts  of  all  the  great  missions  throughout  this 
country.  The  principles  of  this  movement  are,  first  of  all,  adaptation. 
We  believe,  with  John  Wesley,  that  it  is  not  our  duty  merely  to 
preach  so  many  sermons,  and  hold  so  many  prayer-meetings,  but  in 
some  way  so  to  adapt  our  arrangements  as  to  reach  and  save  the 
people.  That  is  Methodism,  and  I  pray  God  that  we  may  be  loyal  to 
the  spirit  of  our  founder. 

Then,  we  believe  that  it  is  our  duty  to  go  after  the  people.  When 
ministers  were  discussing  the  problem  how  to  get  people  into  the 
chapels,  Mr.  Moody,  with  his  strong  common-sense,  said  :  "  Well,  I 
guess  if  the  people  won't  come  to  our  chapels  we  must  go  to  them." 
That  is  what  we  must  do,  God  helping  us.  Do  not  talk  about  indiffer- 
ence, but  put  out  the  hand  of  brotherly  kindness,  touch  them  with  the 
sympathy  of  Christ,  and  you  will  find  that  in  the  hearts  of  the  vast 
majority,  rather  than  indifference  there  will  be  a  willingness  to  respond 
to  Christian  kindness  and  sympathy. 

Then,  the  principal  feature  of  the  movement,  which,  under  God,  has 
accomplished  marvels  for  Methodism,  not  only  in  its  direct,  but  in  its 
indirect  influence,  is  that  we  care  for  the  body  as  well  as  for  the  soul. 
We  endeavour  to  imitate  Christ ;  we  endeavour  to  follow  in  the  foot- 
steps of  John  Wesley.  There  are  some  people  who  are  everlastingly 
telling  us  that  Mr.  Wesley  said,  "All  we  have  to  do  is  to  save  souls." 
He  did  not  interpret  those  words  in  the  narrow  interpretation  we  apply 
to  them.  What  he  meant  was  this  :  "  All  we  have  to  do  is  to  save 
men  and  women,  body  and  soul,''  and  we  consider  that  everything  that 
relates  to  the  welfare  of  the  body,  as  well  as  the  soul,  should  be  taken 
into  our  thought.  I  am  simple  enough  to  believe  that  the  very  best 
Gospel  in  the  world  for  a  starving  man,  woman,  or  child,  for  the  time 
being,  is  something  to  eat ;  and  tliat  was  the  teaching  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  that  was  the  spirit  of  John  Wesley.  Let  us  show  the 
people  that  we  are  passionately  in  sympathy  with  them  ;  thai  we  are 
careful  to  attend  to  all  those  social  conditions  which  attend  to  their 
uplifting  ;  and  then,  feeling  the  magnetic  touch  of  sympathy,  they  will 
gladly  respond  to  our  appeal.  Go  to  St.  John's  Square  Chapel,  Cler- 
kenwell.  Some  fifteen  years  ago  there  was  indifference,  an  empty 
chapel,  the  vast  majority  of  the  people  in  the  neighbourhood  profes- 
sedly believers  in  secularism  and  infidelity.  Thank  God,  that  is 
changed  ;  and  in  that  old  chapel,  which  has  siiTce  been  enlarged,  every 
month  you  will  see  500  working  men  and  their  wives  commemorating 
the  Saviour's  dying  love  at  the  sacramental  services. 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  263 

The  Rev.  L.  H.  Dorchester  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church)  spoke 
as  follows : 

I  was  born  on  the  south  side  of  the  house,  and  am  an  optimist 
naturally,  hut  we  do  not  need  to  he  pessimists  to  see  indifference  and 
apathy,  and  to  feel  troubled.  Indeed,  one  of  old  who  was  an  optimist 
said,  "Not  as  though  I  had  already  attained,  either  were  already 
perfect,"  and  he  pressed  forward.  That  is  the  feeling  which  should 
animate  us  to-day  as  Methodis'ts.  We  should  not  have  any  self- 
complacency.  We  should  rather  he  disturbed  by  the  vision  of  the 
highest,  the  better  things  ahead. 

In  order  to  awaken  people  from  their  apathy,  we  need  to  act 
consistently.  The  trouble  is  not  so  much  in  what  we  believe,  or  do 
not  believe,  as  that  we  do  not  act  as  we  say  we  believe.  There  is  a 
great  divorce  between  our  statement,  our  profession,  and  our  actual 
living.  A  few  years  ago  some  people  believed  that  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  was  coming  to  a  certain  place  in  Pennsylvania,  and  being 
desirous  of  meeting  Him  there,  being  infected  with  the  Second  Advent 
doctrine  in  its  intensity,  they  made  arrangements  to  go  to  that  par- 
ticular place.  They  anticipated  the  Lord  would  oome,  and  that  the 
last  great  day  would  oome,  and  that  all  things  would  _be  closed  up. 
The  railroad  company  wanted  to  make  a  little  out  of  this  excitement, 
so  they  issued  tickets,  and  it  was  noticeable  that  every  one  of  the  faithful 
bought  a  round  trip  ticket.  You  and  I  may  not  be  guilty  of  anything 
so  ludicrous  as  that,  but  we  truly  are  as  inconsistent  as  were  they. 
If  we  felt  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin,  if  we  felt  the  tie  of  brother- 
hood which  binds  us  to  our  fellows  who  are  in  sin  all  around  us, 
indifferent  to  Christ  and  God,  we  could  not  feel  easy.  We  should  be 
disturbed  so  that  we  should  want  to  do  something  to  get  them  in,  and 
we  should  be  prompted  to  make  new  adjustments  if  our  churches 
were  not  inviting,  and  were  not  crowded  with  people.  So  we  need 
to  have  more  action  consistent  with  what  we  say  we  believe.  The  early 
Christians  were  noticed  by  the  people,  and  they  took  knowledge  of 
them  that  they  had  been  with  Jesus,  not  so  much  by  the  creed  state- 
ment as  by  their  habit  of  life.  That  is  the  fundamental  way  of  winning 
men  and  overcoming  apathy. 

One  other  thing — contact  with  men.  We  must  have  the  loving 
heart  in  contact  with  the  heart  of  the  sinner.  Sometimes  those  who 
belong  to  (brotherhoods  awaken  our  suspicion  and  our  criticism.  Again 
and  again  our  Churches  have  felt  a  certain  loss  because  of  the  various 
brotherhoods  that  have  taken  the  attention  and  the  money  and  the 
time  of  men.  But  have  we  shown  a  more  excellent  brotherhood  ?  Have 
we  not  sometimes  lacked,  in  our  special  stress  upon  the  mystical  and 
the  spiritual,  the  proper  emphasis  of  the  social  functions  of  brother- 
hood? I  was  not  a  little  touched  by  an  account  I  read  a  little  while 
ago  (it  is  vouched  for  by  a  competent  authority)  of  a  certain  com- 
mandery  of  Knights  Templars,  in  one  of  our  great  cities  in  America, 
sending  its  committee  to  visit  a  sick  brother  who  was  afflicted  with  a 
deep  wound  in  his  thigh,  a  most  ugly  sore  which  nothingr  seemed  to 
heal.  The  surgeon  told  the  committee  that  only  one  thing  would 
restore  the  'brother.  They  asked  "What?"  for  they  were  ready  to 
do  anything.  "  Nothing  less  than  covering  the  wound  with  live  skin." 
They  reported  the  facts  to  the  commandery,  which  to  a  man  took 
action,  and  said  that  they  would  present  their  members,  as  many  as 
were  needed  to  furnish  the  requisite  amount  of  live  skin.  On  the  day 
appointed  they  took  from  those  members  one  hundred  and  forty-four 


264  INDIFFERENTISM    AND    APATHY. 

square  inches  of  live  skin,  not  from  the  thick  portions  of  the  hand  or 
the  feet,  but  the  most  tender  and  delicate  throb1)ing  life-skin,  and 
placed  it  over  the  ugly  wound,  and  the  brother  was  healed.  While  we 
admire  the  skill  of  the  physician  who  could  carry  through  such  an 
operation  successfully,  we  admire  far  more  the  brotherhood  and  the 
sympathy  of  those  men. 

If  this  world,  covered  with  sores,  filled  with  iniquity  and  putridity, 
is  ever  to  be  redeemed,  it  is  because  you  and  I  have  the  heart  of  the 
Saviour,  and  come  with  loving  hearts  to  those  in  sin,  giving  of  our 
life  as  He  gave  His,  proclaiming  the  atonement,  not  merely  as  a  historic 
fact  in  the  very  distant  past,  not  merely  as  an  efficacious  force,  but 
showing  that  it  is  the  working  model  of  our  lives. 

The  Rev.  Frederick  W.  Bourne  (Bible  Christian  Church)  con- 
tinuing the  discussion,  said  : 

I  may  be  mistaken,  but  I  think  I  have  heard  'the  voice  of  the  Son 
of  God  saying,  concerning  the  multitudes  of  the  unsaved  around  us, 
and  I  suppose  there  are  many  that  have  heard  the  same  voice — "  Son 
of  man,  can  these  dry  bones  live  V  I  rejoice  very  much  in  the 
testimony  which  Mr.  Walters  has  borne  to  the  wonderful  success  of  *the 
missions  which  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  has  established  in 
many  of  our  cities  and  towns.  But  we  are  surrounded  by  multitudes 
of  people,  of  whom  it  may  be  said  they  are  indifferent,  they  are 
apathetic,  they  are  lifeless,  they  are  dead.  "  Son  of  man,  can  these 
dry  bones  live  ? "  While  I  have  been  sitting  here  it  was  only  in  a 
sigh  or  whisper  I  could  say  "0  Lord  God,  Thou  knowest." 

We  have  the  direction,  "  Prophesy  anto  them,"  preach  unto  them, 
forthtell  unto  them  all  the  words  of  life.  I  can  tell  you  from  my  own 
personal  experience  and  observation,  day  after  day,  week  after  week, 
and  month  after  month,  that  there  are  multitudes  of  people  living  very 
near  to  our  places  of  worship  who  have  not  heard  effectually  the 
glorious  Gospel  message  which  we  have  to  proclaim.  But  only  to 
prophesy  is  not  enough.  The  Word  goes  on  to  say,  "  Pray ;  Come 
from  the  four  winds,  O  Breath,  and  breathe  upon  these  slain  that  they 
may  live."  I  believe  we  shall  have  a  universal  revival  when  we  have 
as  much  prayer  as  we  have  preaching  ;  when  we  are  as  consistent  and 
thorough  in  the  preparation  we  make  for  prayer  and  for  the  blessing, 
and  when  we  use  the  means  that  God  has  placed  at  our  disposal,  as  in 
preparing  to  deliver  His  own  glorious  message. 

I  was  impressed,  I  suppose  nearly  fifty  years  ago,  by  the  wonderful 
statement  that  Dr.  John  Mason  Good  once  preached  a  sermon  in 
America  which  was  the  beginning  of  a  revival  of  religion,  and  before 
that  revival  closed  many  persons  were  converted,  and  among  them 
one  hundred  who  afterwards  became  ministers  and  missionaries  of  the 
cross.  A  note  is  appended  to  one  edition  of  that  sermon — published 
by"" the  Religious  Tract  Society  I  think — that  the  same  sermon  was  never 
preached  without  similar  results,  on  a  smaller  scale,  following.  I 
have  had  a  little  experience  of  the  same  kind.  There  is  a  certain 
preparation  of  heart  in  preaching  God's  glorious  Gospel  which  is  sure 
to  bring  results. 

In  the  county  town  of  Taunton,  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago,  there  was 
a  congregation  gathered  of  not  more  than  fifty  or  sixty  people.  The 
preacher  spoke  on  that  occasion,  I  believe,  under  the  direct  inspiration 
and  power  of  the   Holy   Spirit.     There  were  seven   persons   converted 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  265 

thati  night  out  uf  the  sixty,  the  youngest  of  wlioiu  was  seventy  years 
of  age  ;  tiiere  were  s.x  others  above  seventy  years  of  age  ;  and  when 
one  had  reached  the  great  age  of  102  he  l)ore  wonderful  and  glorious 
testimony  to  the  power  of  Christ  to  save.  We  have  the  remedy  in  our 
own  hands.  It  is  the  tone,  it  is  the  atmosphere,  it  is  being  really  in 
earnest,  in  true  sympathy  with  God,  entirely  devoted  to  Him,  making 
ourselves,  by  His  grace  and  blessing,  instruments  by  which  His  Spirit 
can  work,  and  channels  through  which  His  blessing  can  flow. 

Mr.  Joseph  Gibson  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada)  said  : 

I  am  going  to  say  a  few  words  which,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  will 
not  be  popular.  I  am  going  to  give  a  reason  why  I  think  a  serious 
attack  has  been  made  upon  the  national — not  from  a  party  standpoint — 
and  the  religious  life  of  our  country.  I  will  undertake  to  show  in  a 
minute  or  two  that  the  home  life  of  this  country  is  being  seriously 
assailed  ;  and  I  do  not  hesiitate  to  say  that  the  Church  is  not  blameless 
in  the  matter. 

What  have  we  done  ?  We  have  so  multiplied  our  meetings  that  it  is 
not  often  you  find  the  wife  and  the  hus'band,  the  father  and  the  mother, 
and  the  children  dwelling  together  in  the  home.  Look  how  many 
nights  you  take  them  out  to  Church  service.  Then  there  is  the  lodge 
claim,  the  political  claim,  the  club  claim.  In  my  judgment,  we  have 
largely,  by  the  policy  of  to-day,  emptied  our  homes  in  the  evening, 
and  a  man  can  bring  nothing  to  that  home  financially,  or  of  any  'jther 
sort,  even  though  he  goes  to  a  prayer  meeting  to  get  it,  that  will 
corppensate  that  home  for  his  constant  loss  therefrom.  We  used  to 
siag,  and  we  thought  it  was  a  beautiful  bit  of  sentiment,  "There  is 
no  place  like  home."  That  is  only  the  revival  now  of  a  passing 
memory.  If  there  is  no  place  like  home,  why  do  we  not  stay  there  1 
Wl  en  we  get  one  how  soon  we  are  somewhere  else.  I  believe  thnv  the 
formative  period  of  our  lives  is  in  our  youth.  If  you  do  away  with 
the  home  life  you  attack  the  Church  and  the  State  at  their  most 
vulnerable  points.  If  you  want  to  preserve  the  nation,  it  is  not  so 
much  by  preaching  the  Gospel- — I  have  faith  in  that — but  we  want  to 
do  something  towards  preserving  the  purity  of  the  home  life  in  this 
country  which,  I  believe,  is  Britain's  bulwark. 

Here  is  a  man,  a  ditcher,  who  only  gets  enough  to  keep  soul  and 
body  together.  Reverently  he  comes  to  his  home  at  night,  and  sits 
down  at  a  table,  and  on  more  than  one  night  in  a  week  he  will  offer 
up  God's  blessing  on  a  meal  of  milk  and  potatoes.  His  wife,  at  a  later 
stage  in  the  evening,  takes  the  little  one  and  puts  it  to  bed.  She 
reverently  kneels  down  by  that  little  humble  cot  and  asks  the  great 
God  and  Father  of  us  all  to  protect  her  darling  from  the  perils  and 
dangers  of  the  night.  Look  at  that  home  scene !  It  is  worth  looking 
at.  Some  of  you  have  not  seen  such  a  one  for  some  time.  See  the 
mother  come  back.  The  mother  and  father  gather  round  the  fireside, 
and  sit  up  many  an  hour  to  plan  and  to  sacrifice,  and  to  think  how 
that  little  child  in  the  cot  may  have  a  better  chance  in  life  than  they 
have  had.  When  a  child,  growing  up  in  an  atmosphere  like  that, 
becomes  a  young  man,  and  it  becomes  necessary  for  him  to  go  to  the 
city,  the  memory  of  that  sweet  home  will  protect  him  from  the  snare 
of  the  beer  and  the  lewd  woman,  and  the  love  that  has  centred  around 
that  sacred  spot  will  snatch  him  like  a  brand  from  the  burning.  You 
will  not  have  him  to  save  ;  you  have  saved  him  already. 

My  opinion  is  that  an  ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of  cure. 


266  INDIFFERENTISM    AND   APATHY. 

When  I  was  passing  through  the  Art  Gallery  in  Glasgow  I  saw  a  crowd 
of  people  around  a  picture.  It  was  a  picture  of  a  mother  and  some 
children  looking  lojigingly  out  of  the  window  for  the  coming  of  the 
husband  and  father,  and  I  said,  "These  Scottish  people  must  have 
some  love  of  home-life  still  in  them,  or  they  would  not  hover  around 
a  picture  like  that."  I  have  been  in  a  numiber  of  places  in  London,  but 
I  have  not  seen  a  homely  picture  yet. 

The  Rev,  G.  L.  Blackwell,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal 
Zion  Church),  said : 

Perhaps,  as  coloured  ministers,  we  have  a  different  kind  of  religious 
inditferentism  to  deal  with  to  that  of  our  white  brethren.  It  is  not 
an  indifference  growing  out  of  an  intellectual  choice  so  much  as  it  is 
an  apathy  which  is  a  direct  and  inevitable  result  of  unfortunate  religious 
training  and  neglected  intellectual  culture.  The  coloured  ministers 
in  America,  more  than  any  other  class,  have  on  their  shoulders  the 
great  responsibility  of  shaping  the  future  destinies  of  their  people. 
Perhaps  the  pulpit  among  us  is  not  so  well  equipped  as  we  could  wish 
it  to  be,  but  still  the  coloured  ministers,  up  to  this  stage  of  our 
national  citizenship,  have  had  to  shape  nearly  every  phase  of  the  life 
of  their  people.  This  state  of  things  has  militated  against  the  growth 
of  the  development  of  the  religious  life  of  our  people,  hence  a  large 
contingent  of  them  are  left  neglected,  and  the  consequent  indifference 
sets  in. 

We  have  to  deal  with  the  allurements  that  come  to  our  young  people 
in  the  streets,  and  they  are  making  large  inroads  upon  them  ;  but  I 
believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  as  you  do.  I  believe  in  God,  and  that  a  ministry 
fired  with  the  Holy  Ghost — a  ministry,  not  of  empty  words,  but  a 
ministry  filled  with  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  will  crush  out  this  indiilerence. 
Such  a  ministry  will  so  baptise  the  people  with  refreshing  showers 
from  heaven  that  our  Churches  will  catch  ablaze  again,  and  the  purposes 
and  aims  of  our  illustrious  founder,  John  Wesley,  will  be  again  realised. 
Then  we  will  not  only  have  a  large  number  of  members  in  the  Church, 
but  those  memibers  will  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost. 

The  Rev.  John  Handlet,  D.D.  (Mdthodist  Episcopal  Church), 
Bpoke  as  follows : 

As  a  pastor,  my  heart  is  intensely  interested  in  this  subject.  While 
optimistic  in.  many  particulars,  the  pastor  should  look  at  the  field  as 
it  is.  A  statistician  made  the  following  remarkable  statement  in 
America :  That  there  are  150,000  young  men  who  reach  the  age  of 
twenty-one,  and  150,000  young  women  who  reach  the  same  age,  each 
year  who  go  out  of  homes  which  ^are  professedly  Christian  where  the 
family  altar  has  been  done  away  with  ;  so  that  there  are  at  least 
300,000  young  persons  reaching  the  age  of  twenty-one  who  leave  homes 
where  the  parents  profess  to  be  Christian,  but  where  the  family  altar 
has  been  destroyed.  We  can  never  be  what  we  ought  to  be  for  God 
until  we  go  back  to  the  family  altar.  Young  men  and  women  coming 
from  our  pubUc  schools  and  higher  institutions  of  learning  will  sneer  at 
Christianity  if  they  are  not  dedicated  to  it  through  the  voice  of  the 
father  and  mother,  in  the  reading  of  the  Bible  and  the  offering  of 
prayer  at  the  family  altar.  We  are  told,  in  the  second  place,  that 
seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  boys  leave  the  Sabbath  School  at  the  ago 
of  eighteen  to  never  return  to  it.     It  becomes  the  duty  of  the  Metho- 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  267 

diet  Churches  to-day  to  see  to  it  that  in  every  Salibath  School  in  uur 
lanfl  and  your  land  a  glorious  revival  filiall  be  inaugurated  for  the  con- 
version of  the  boys  and  girla  before  they  roach  fifteen  years  of  age.  We 
should  not  be  indifferent  to  this  truth.  It  is  also  true  th;it  only  about 
twenty-five  per  cent,  of  the  population  of  any  city  get  inside  our 
churches  at  all.  It  was  my  great  privilege  to  visit  Belfast,  Glasgow, 
and  Edinburgh  ;  but  I  there  saw  on  the  Sabbath  Day  the  vast  multi- 
tude of  people  that  are  outside  the  Church. 

The  Church  is  not  the  field.  Wesley  said,  "  The  world  is  my  parish," 
and  I  believe  that  the  cause  which  has  led  to  this  indifference,  and  to 
the  wandering  away  from  oirr  homes  and  churches  of  those  who  were 
under  our  influence,  has  been  the  loss  of  our  first  love.  God  said  to  the 
Church  at  Ephesus,  "Thou  hast  patience,  thou  hast  labour,  and  thou 
hast  wealth  ;  but  I  have  somewhat  against  thee :  thou  hast  lost  thy 
first  love."  When  the  minister  or  lay  member  reaches  the  age  of  forty 
he  loses  the  yearning  for  the  salvation  of  souls,  and  there  is  a  disin- 
clination to  get  around  the  altar,  and  have  an  old-fashioned  revival, 
and  sing  the  old  songs,  and  pray  with  the  power  and  unction  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  as  our  forefathers  did.  May  God  make  us  mindful  of  the 
strict  necessity  of  a  primitive  revival  of  the  Pentecostal  kind  ! 

At  Ocean  Grove  a  few  years  ago  the  announcement  came  to  a  vast 
audience  that  there  was  a  wreck,  and  the  audience  hastened  down  to 
the  shore.  There  was  a  little  craft  going  to  pieces,  and  a  cry  was  raised 
for  volunteers.  Finally  an  old  soldier  of  the  Cross  and  Grand  Army 
said,  "Let  me  select  three  men,  and  I  will  go  to  the  rescue."  They 
pushed  the  lifeboat  out,  but  the  billows  hurled  them  back.  Three 
times  they  tried,  and  just  before  the  last  attempt  was  made  a  telegram 
was  placed  in  his  hands,  saying,  "  Your  brother  is  dying  ;  come  im- 
mediately." The  big  tears  rolled  down  his  face,  his  strong  form  seemed 
to  quiver  like  a  leaf  in  the  wind,  but  he  said,  "  Boys,  let  my  brotlier 
die  ;  he  is  saved.  We  can  save  these  men.  To  the  rescue ! "  When 
the  Church  shall  throw  out  the  hfe-line,  and  launch  the  lifeboat,  and 
get  back  to  the  spirituality  of  our  fathers, 

"  Heaven  will  come  down  our  souls  to  greet, 
And  glory  crown  the  Mercy  Seat." 

Then  Methodism  will  be  known  for  its  mighty  power  in  saving  the 
world  through  a  glorious  revival. 

The  Rev.  J.  A.  B;  Wilson,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
concluded  the  discussion,  as  follows  : 

"Modern  Unbelief  and  Indifferentism  in  the  Church"  are  cognate 
things ;  the  one  is  in  a  sense  the  father  of  the  other,  and  yet,  while 
there  is  indifference  and  unbelief,  has  there  ever  been  less  of  it  in  the 
world  and  in  the  Church  in  the  last  hundred  years  than  now?  I  am 
afraid  the  English  people  will  get  the  idea  that  we  have  lost  confidence 
in  our  own  methods  in  America.  The  Methodism  of  America  took 
ninety-nine  years  to  grow  800,000  Methodists  of  all  Denominations. 
But  we  number  about  six  millions  strong  to-day,  the  gain  of  the  last 
thirty-six  years.  My  own  Church,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
has  in  the  last  thirty-six  years  developed  a  Methodist  population  on  the 
American  Continent  that  only  lacks  500,000  of  being  as  great  as  has 
been  developed  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  since  Columbus  dis- 
covered America.    This  is  not  the  result  of  indifferentism — ^we  have 


268  BUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS. 

some  aiiinng  us — it  is  the  result  nf  the  earnest  methods  and  the  faithful 
service  of  men  and  women  of  God  who  liave  represenied  this  demand 
of  God  Almighty's  work.  There  are  some  things  to  deplore,  but  there 
is  much  to  rejoice  in. 

There  is  an  indifferentism,  however,  that  we  have  more  to  fear  from 
than  anything  else,  and  that  is  the  indifferentism  that  shows  itself 
in  the  failure  to  adapt  our  methods  to  the  conditions  of  life  about  us. 
We  have  in  America — I  hope  you  have  not — the  cry  about  certain 
churches,  "  They  must  go  "  ;  and  they  do  go.  The  ministers  are  taken 
from  down-town  sections  that  have  populations  which  are  increasing 
about  them,  and  they  go  to  the  people  who  can  best  do  without  them. 
I  dare  to  say,  in  the  presence  of  the  Bishops  of  my  Church  and  the 
other  great  Methodist  Churches,  there  is  not  a  church  in  American 
Methodism  that  cannot  be  saved  by  adapting  itself  to  the  people  who 
live  about  it.  The  fact  is,  our  conservatism  hedges  us  to  an  old  line 
of  method.  I  have  in  my  mind  a  city  where  three  churches  have  gone 
out  of  the  present  down-town  section,  and  gone  not  to  the  more  popu- 
lous, but  to  more  wealthy  sections,  and  more  desirable  residential  por- 
tions of  the  city.  There  are  three  times  as  many  people  living  there, 
and  one-third  of  the  church  accommodation  that  there  was  thirty-five 
years  ago  ;  and  yet  the  church  which  remains,  adapting  its  methods  not 
to  people  up-town,  not  to  people  on  the  other  side  of  the  city,  but 
simply  adapting  its  methods  to  the  people  who  live  about  it,  has  taken 
200  probationers  this  year,  and  its  pews  are  almost  wholly  filled  with 
devout  and  fervent  hearers. 

What  is  true  there  may  be  true  elsewhere.  There  is  the  indifference 
of  the  people  around  us.  You  find  a  good  deal  here  possibly,  and  un- 
willingness to  allow  the  adaptation  of  methods  to  the  people  who  live 
around  us,  and  constitute  the  constituency  out  of  which  the  Church 
must  be  built.  The  Church  that  neglects  the  poor  of  this  generation 
is  going  to  lose  the  rich  of  the  next  generation.  The  Church  that  takes 
care  of  the  poor  of  this  generation  will  have  the  wealthy  and  the  in- 
fluential in  the  generation  to  come.  The  rich  men  of  Methodism — who 
are  they?  They  are  the  children  of  the  labourers  of  a  generation  ago. 
A  man  has  just  died  in  San  Francisco  who  paid  SOdols.  a  year  towards 
the  current  expenses  of  the  church.  That  man  came  into  the  church 
barefooted,  and  nothing  with  which  to  buy  a  pair  of  boots,  but  that 
church  took  him  by  the  hand,  and  he  grew  from  poverty  into  the  great- 
ness of  financial  strength,  and  carried  his  church  up  with  him. 

During  the  afternoon  the  Baroness  Burdett  Coutts  arrived,  and 
stayed  for  some  time.  Bishop  J.  F.  Hurst,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Metliodist 
Episcopal  Church),  announced  the  arrival  of  her  ladyship 
to  the  Conference  as  a  lady  who  was  well  knoAvn  through- 
out this  city,  and  throughout  the  country,  and  said 
she  had  visited  the  Conference  because  of  her  pleasure 
and  interest  in  its  proceedings.  The  Chairman,  Bishop  J.  H. 
Vincent,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  said  it  would 
afford  them  very  great  pleasure  to  present  to  the  Conference  (that 
distinguished  lady,  whose  life  of  philanthropy  was  known,  not 
only  in  London  and  in  England,  but  the  world  over,  but  he  found 
it  was  quite  impracticable  even  to  propose  that.     Her  ladyship  had 


BUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS.  269 

gravitated  towards  the  ceatro  where  hearts  throbbed  with  sympathy 
for  humanity,  and  they  were  more  than  glad  to  have  her  there. 
On  the  suggestion  of  the  Chairman  the  delegates  rose  to  their 
feet  in  token  of  the  high  appreciation  in  which  her  ladyship  is  held. 
The  Baroness  was  afterwards  escorted  by  the  Rev.  C.  H.  Kelly 
(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  round  Wesley's  Chapel,  and  shown 
some  of  its  mementoes. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  Kino,  D.D.  (Secretary),  proposed  that  innnediately 
after  the  reading  of  the  Journal  to-morrow  morning  the  order  of 
the  day  should  be  the  report  of  the  Statistical  Committee,  which 
should  be  in  their  hands  as  early  as  possible.  The'  Conference 
agreed. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  reported 
that  the  Business  Committee  recommended  that  an  address  should 
be  issued  by  the  (Ecumenical  Conference  to  the  Methodists  through- 
out the  world.  He  moved  that  the  recommendation  should  be 
adopted.  This  was  following  the  precedent  of  the  American 
Conference.  The  motion  was  agreed  to,  and  upon  the 
recommendation  of  the  Business  Committee  the  following 
members  of  the  Conference  were  appointed  a  Committee 
to  draw  up  the  address :  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D., 
LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  Rev.  Chancellor  N.  Burwash, 
D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada),  Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church  South),  Bishop  John  H.  Vincent, 
D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  with  Rev.  D.  Brook, 
M.A.,  D.C.L.  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches),  as  the  Convener. 
At  a  later  session  the  Rev.  William  Redfern  (United  Methodist 
Free  Churches)  was  substituted  for  the  Rev.  D.  Brook,  M.A., 
D.C.L.,  as  Convener. 

The  report  of  the  Business  Committee  concerning  various  altera- 
tions in  the  official  programme  of  speakers,  and  the  appointment  of 
Presidents  for  the  closing  days  of  the  Conference  was  adopted. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  an- 
nounced that  the  Business  Committee  had  met  that  afternoon  and 
had  agreed  upon  the  draft  of  a  letter,  which  had  been  prepared  at 
the  request  of  the  Conference  by  the  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  to  the  Bishop  of  London. 

The  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  said  it  would  be  within  the  memory  of  the  Conference 
that  a  letter  was  read  from  the  Bishop  of  London,  expressing  his 
good  wishes  for  the  Conference,  and  also  very  definitely  expressing 
his  wish  for  the  re-union,  as  he  called  it,  of  Methodism  with  the 


270  BUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS. 

Established  Churck  His  reply  could  scarcely  be  understood  unless 
that  fact  were  remembered.  The  following  is  the  reply,  which  Dr. 
Stephenson  proposed  should  be  sent : 

Wesley's    Chapel, 
My  Lord  Bishop —  September  10,  1901. 

I  am  deputed  by  the  Conference  to  reply  on  its  behalf  to  your 
kind  and  courteous  letter  dated  the  1st  September.  The  historic  con- 
nection of  early  Methodists  with  the  Anglican  Church,  and  our  obliga- 
tions to  the  scholarship  and  saintship  of  your  communion,  make  such 
a  message  of  goodwill  very  welcome  to  our  hearts.  Though  the  last 
thing  we  would  wish  is  to  make  the  reception  of  such  a  letter  as  yours 
an  opportunity  for  controversy,  the  desire  definitely  expressed  in  your 
letter  appears  to  require  an  answer  as  definite. 

This  Conference  represents  the  whole  family  of  Methodist  Churches 
throughout  the  world.  Differing  in  some  non-essential  points  of 
Church  government,  they  are  alike  in  creed,  in  the  main  principles  of 
Church  organisation,  and  in  the  accepted  modes  of  Christian  fellowship, 
and  they  are  in  full  communion  with  each  other.  In  some  respects, 
therefore,  the  relation  of  this  Conference  to  the  Methodist  Churches  is 
similar  to  that  of  the  Pan-Anglican  Synod  to  the  Anglican  Churches  ; 
but  the  Conference  differs  from  the  Synod  in  the  fact  that  it  is  com- 
posed of  representative  ministers  and  laity.  It  has  no  authority  over 
the  constituent  Churches,  but  affects  them  powerfully  by  its  discus- 
sions, its  tone,  and  influence. 

From  this  you  will  see  that  your  suggestion  respecting  a  possible 
union  of  the  Methodist  with  the  Anglican  Church  raises  vast  and  far- 
reaching  issues.  Of  the  many  millions  of  Methodists  represented  here, 
probably  six-sevenths  live  in  the  United  States,  or  in  portions  of  the 
British  Empire  in  which  there  is  no  establishment  of  religion  by  law. 
Of  the  remaining  seventh  a  very  large  majority  would  not  consent  to 
part  with  the  perfect  independence  now  enjoyed  by  the  Churches  to 
which  they  belong,  under  the  Sole  Headship  of  Christ  our  Lord.  You 
will  see  how  powerfully  this  fact  bears  upon  your  suggestion. 

But  a  greater  and  more  permanent  difficulty  lies  in  the  way.  We 
are  not  aware  that  any  constituted  authority  in  the  Church  of  England 
has  expressed  the  willingness  of  that  Church  to  recognise  the  validity 
of  the  ministry  and  sacraments  which  we  possess  and  cherish.  That 
being  so,  any  consent  of  ours  to  a  movement  towards  corporate  union 
with  the  Anglican  Church  would  be  an  acknowledgment  of  an  invalidity 
and  inferiority  of  our  Church  Order,  which  our  convictions  would  not 
allow  us  to  make. 

None  the  less  do  we  appreciate  the  courtesy  and  kindliness  of  your 
communication.  We  pray  that  God  may  richly  bless  the  efforts  of 
yourself  and  your  brethren  for  the  spiritual  and  social  uplifting  of  the 
popiUation  of  this  country.  We  are  ready  to  co-operate  with  our 
Anglican  brethren  in  all  good  works,  so  far  as  the  beliefs  and  practices 
of  your  Church  will  allow  ;  and  we  wish  to  maintain  the  traditional 
policy  of  the  Methodist  Church  expressed  by  Wesley  himself  in  his 
famous  phrase,  'We  desire  to  be  the  friends  of  all  and  the  enemies 
of  none.* 

I  am, 

My  dear  Lord  Bishop, 

Yours  very  faithfully, 

(Signed)    T   Bowman  Stephenson. 


BUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS.  27 1 

The  Rev.  E.  J.  Watkin,  D.D.  (Australasian  Methodist  Church), 
said : 

That  letter  is  an  admirable  one  so  far  as  it  goes,  hut  I  think  Ihere 
is  a  point  that  ought  to  be  added  to  it.  The  Bishop  of  London  made 
the  statement  that  John  Wesley  never  formally  separated  from  the 
Cluirch  of  England.  That  statement  is  correct,  but  the  inference  drawn 
from  it  is  false.  John  Wesley  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  separa- 
tist from  the  Church  of  England  by  actions  that  spoke  louder  than 
words — by  his  publishing  a  Bevised  Version  of  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  by  his  altering  soine  of  the  Articles  of  Religion,  by.  his  declara- 
tion that  he  was  as  much  a  Bishop  as  any  man  in  England,  by  his 
ordaining  ministers  who  separated  from  the  Church  of  England.  The 
Bampton  Lecturer,  who  was  a  contemporary  of  John  Wesley  and  White- 
field,  stated  that  John  Wesley  and  Whitefield  were  separatists  from 
the  Church  of  England.  That  statement  was  correct,  and  I  think 
that  in  any  answer  from  this  CEcumenical  Conference  to  the  letter 
frnin  the  Bisliop  we  ought  distinctly  to  state  that,  while  John  Wesley 
did  not  formally  separate  from  the  Church  of  England,  he  did  actually 
separate  from  it.  I  think  that  much  is  due  to  us.  I  think,  in  self- 
respect,  we  ouglit  to  put  in  something  in  that  direction. 

Bishop  C.  B'.  Galloway,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  South),  said : 

I  could  not  agree  with  the  brother  who  has  just  spoken.  That  is  a 
question  of  fact,  and  our  courteous  reply  to  this  letter  should  certainly 
not  raise  any  questions  to  the  contrary.  I  think  the  letter  of  Dr. 
Stephenson  is  most  admirably  stated,  and  I  think  the  Conference  would 
do  well  to  approve  it  unanimously. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  then 
moved  the  adoption  of  the  Report  of  the  Committee  on  the  matter 
of  the  resolution,  which  was  unanimously  agreed  to. 

The  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  reported  the  result  of  his  correspondence  with  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  concerning  the  telegram,  mentioned  at  the 
opening  6t  the  Conference.     He  said : 

I  have  from  him,  written  by  his  own  hand,  a  very  cordial  and 
courteous  letter,  in  which  he  expresses  his  regret  that  there  should 
have  been  the  slightest  misunderstanding,  states  that  the  message  itself 
was  not  intended  for  the  newspaper  but  for  the  Conference  itself,  and 
asks  us  to  make  some  allowance  for  a  very  busy  man  eager  not  to  be 
behindhand  in  welcoming  a  great  body  of  devoted  servants  of  the 
common  Master.  I  feel  that  after  such  a  letter  as  that,  written  by  one 
of  the  finest  Englishmen  alive,  an  old  man  of  eighty-two,  who  has 
won  the  highest  position  in  the  Cliurch  by  ability  and  industry,  and 
without  patronage  or  family  favour  in  any  way,  I  ought  to  ask  per- 
mission to  read  the  telegram. 


272  BUSINESS   PROCEEDINGS. 

The  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  then,  by  consent  of  the 
Conference,  read  the  following  message : 

"  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  desires  to  express  his  hearty  good- 
will to  the  great  Methodist  Conference  now  meeting  in  London,  and 
prays  earnestly  that  God's  blessing  may  rest  on  their  deliberations." 

It  was  further  agreed,  on  the  motion  of  Dr.  Stephenson,  that  a 
courteous  acknowledgment  of  the  telegram  should  be  made.  The 
following  is  a  copy  of  the  reply  sent : 

Wesley's  Chapel,   London. 
My  Lord  Archbishop, 

Tour  honoured  letter,  so  clearly  stating  that  you  meant  your 
message  of  the  2nd  September  "  not  for  the  newspapers,  but  for  the 
Conference,"  has  duly  reached  me.  It  has  accordingly  been  _  my 
pleasurable  duty  to  read  your  message  to  the  Conference,  which  received 
it  with  high  appreciation. 

The  OEcumenical  Methodist  Conference,  representing  more  than  seven 
milUons  of  communicants,  earnestly  prays  that  you  may  be  spared  for 
many  years  to  fulfil  the  duties  of  your  great  office,  and  that  the  blessing 
of  God  may  abundantly  rest  upon  the  Eeformed  Church  of  England, 
over  which  you  preside. 

I  am.  My  Lord  Archbishop, 

Yours  very  faithfully, 

(Signed)    T.  Bowman  Stephenson. 

The  session  concluded  with  the  Benediction. 


STATISTICAL    REPORT.  273 


SEVENTH  DAY,   Widnesday,  September  11,  lOUl. 


TOPIC  : 
METHODIST     LITERATURE. 


FIRST     SESSION. 

Tte  Conference  resumed  its  sessions  at  10  a.m.,  the  Kev.  G.  T. 
Candlin  (Methodist  New  Connexion)  presiding.  The  Rev.  Y.  J. 
Allen,  D.D.,  LL.D  (Methodi&t  Episcopal  Church,  South),  read  a 
portion  of  Scripture,  and  the  Rev.  G.  C.  Rankin,  D.D.  (Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South),  offered  prayei\ 

The  Rev.  J.  Bond  (Secretary)  read  the  Daily  Record  for  Tuesday, 
which,  was  confirmed. 

The  Rev.  T.  Mitchell  (Primitive  Methodist  Church)  then  gave  the 
Report  of  the  Statistical  Committee.  He  said  : 

I  have  been  desired  to  submit  a  very  brief  report  of  the  Statistical 
Committee.  Bishop  Arnett  will  give  a  summary  of  the  statistics  from 
the  "Western  Section,  and  I  will  give  a  summary  of  the  statistics  from 
the  Eastern  Section.     The  following  is  the  report:  — 

To  the  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference,  London,  September,  1901. 
Dear  Brethren, — We  beg  to  submit  to  you  the  numerical  returns  of 
the  Methodist  Churches  throughout  the  world.  The  only  element  of 
uncertainty  is  the  number  of  adherents.  The  Western  Section  has 
adopted  the  ratio  of  adherents  to  membership  as  three  and  a-half  to 
one.  In  the  Eastern  Section  very  careful  inquiry  has  been  made. 
A  number  of  typical  centres  have  been  selected  of  various  branches 
of  Methodism,  and  a  kind  of  miniature  census  taken.  An  average  has 
been  struck,  with  the  result  that  about  five  to  one  is  the  propor- 
tion here.  To  avoid,  however,  any  possible  semblance  of  exaggeration, 
the  ratio  of  four  to  one  has  been  adopted,  which  it  is  confidently 
believed  is  under,  rather  than  over,  the  actual  fact. 
(Signed)  T.  B.  Stephenson,  | 

T.  Mitchell,  I      Eastern  Section. 

Edw.   Boaden,        ) 

J.  J.    TiGEHT,  \ 

B.   W.  Aknett,      V      Western  Section. 
H.  K.  Cakuoll,     ] 

19 


j^^  STATISTICAL   REPORT. 

Bishop  B.  W.  Arnbtt,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Churcb) 
gave  the  totals  of  the  statistics  in  the  Western  Section,  They  ap- 
peaa'  in  the  Appendix. 

The  itinerant  preachers  number  42,083 ;  local  preachers,  46,423. 
At  the  last  CEcumenical  Conference  the  local  preachers  and  exliorters 
were  united.  There  were  then  nearly  52,000,  including  the  exhorters  ; 
but  at  this  Conference  we  have  only  given  account  of  the  local 
preachers.  The  total  number  of  members  is  6,437,461 ;  number  of 
Churches,  62,121 ;  valuation  of  the  church  property,  180,179,750  dols.  ; 
number  of  Sunday  Schools,  62,409  ;  teachers  and  officers,  582,925  ; 
scholars  in  Sunday  Schools,  5,091,879. 

The  separate  numbers  of  the  coloured  Methodists  in  the  Western 
Section  are: — Itinerant  preachers,  14,154;  local  preachers,  30,504; 
members,  1,432,860  ;  adherents,  5,197,495. 

The  Rev.  T.  Mitchell  (Primitive  Methodist  Church)  gave  the 
totals  in  the  Eastern  Section,  and  then  the  totals  throughout  the 
world.     Tliey  appear  in  the  Appendix. 

In  the  Eastern  Section  there  are  6,276  ministers,  58,413  lay 
preachers,  27,077  churches,  1,221,824  members,  20,750  Sunday  Schools, 
273,415  teachers  and  officers,  and  2,175,632  Sunday  scholars. 

Adding  the  report  that  has  been  given  by  Bishop  Arnett  to  the  one 
just  supplied,  we  have  the  following  totals  for  universal  Methodism  :  — 
Ministers,  48,359,  an  increase  in  the  ten  years  of  3,076  ;  lay  preachers, 
104,836,  an  increase  of  5,634  ;  churches,  89,198,  an  increase  of  18,002  ; 
members,  7,659,285,  an  increase  of  1,155,326  ;  Sunday  Schools,  83,159, 
an  increase  of  1,871  ;  teachers  and  officers,  856,340,  a  decrease  of  5,052  ; 
scholars,  7,267,511,  an  increase  of  633,349  ;  adherents  on  the  basis  of 
the  calculation!  have  indicated,  28,018,770,  an  increase  of  3,118,349. 

We  are  not  able  to  present  a  comparative  account  of  the  Church 
property,  inasmuch  as  the  record  is  not  in  the  CEcumenical  Conference 
report  of  ten  years  ago.  But  the  main  outline,  I  think,  may  be  placed 
fairly  before  us.  In  the  Western  Section  there  is  property  of  the 
value  of  180,000,000  dollars,  or  about  £36,000,000.  It  is  not  easy  to 
get  full  returns  in  regard  to  the  Eastern  Section.  The  Wesleyan 
Methodists  had  no  complete  record  until  the  establishment  of  their 
Chapel  Fund  Committee  about  fifty  years  ago.  There  has  been  spent 
by  them  since  then  about  £12,000,000.  A  reasonable  estimate  would 
be  that  there  was  at  that  time  at  least  £4,000,000  worth  of  property 
in  existence  ;  so  that  I  think  we  are  well  within  the  mark  in  estimating 
the  value  of  the  property  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  to-day 
at  £16,000,000.  The  Church  property  of  the  other  Churches  would 
amount  altogether  to  about  £8,000,000.  So  that  in  the  Western  Sec- 
tion there  is  what  represents  £36,000,000,  and  in  the  Eastern  Section 
what  represents  £24,000,000.  The  property  of  universal  Methodism 
to-day,  therefore,  cannot  be  less  than  £60,000,000. 

It  is  not  all  paid  for,  but  a  very  great  deal  of  it  is.  If  you  estimate 
the  property  of  Wesleyan  Methodism  at  £16,000,000,  they  have  only 


STATISTICAL    REPORT.  275 

£1  000  000  of  debt  on  that  amount.  The  other  Churches  are  not  exacUy 
in 'such  a  happy  condition.  I  believe  they  have,  broadly  speaking, 
about  25  per  cent,  of  the  outlay  still  remaining  as  debt.  As  a  broad 
general  statement,  I  think  that  is  fairly  accurate,  so  that  I  do  not 
anticipate  that  the  entire  indebtedness  of  the  Methodist  Churches 
in  the  Eastern  Section,  with  £24,000,000  worth  of  property,  is  more 
than  about  £3,000,000— a  very  encouraging  balance-sheet,  I  think. 
That  debt,  too,  is  being  rapidly  reduced.  I  can  only  speak  confidently 
of  the  statistics  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church,  of  which  I  have 
the  honour  and  responsibility  of  being  Chapel  Secretary.  £1,000,000 
is  the  debt  on  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  property.  £70,000  was 
paid  off  last  year,  so  that,  at  the  same  rate,  in  fifteen  years  that  Cliurch, 
which  may  be  supposed  to  be  as  heavily  burdened  as  any,  will  clear 
their  debt,  if  it  is  not  added  to. 

I  submit  this  resolution  arising  out  of  the  business  : 
"Th?t  this  Conference  records  its  gratitude  to  Almighty  God  for 
the  measure  of  success  that  has  attended  the  labours  of  the  Methodist 
ChurcTies  throughout  the  world  during  the  ten  years  since  the  last 
(Ecumenical  Conference  was  held.  There  has  been  an  ^crease  of 
5,076  ministers,  of  5,634  lay  preachers,  of  18,002  fhurches  of  1,155  326 
communicants  or  members,  of  1,871  Sunday  Schools,  of  ^,349  scholars, 
of  3  118  349  adherents,  but  a  decrease  of  5,052  Sunday  School  teachers. 
The  Coiiference  fervently  prays  that  the  coming  decade  may  be  the 
most  prosperous  in  the  history  of  Methodism,  and  that  the  opening  of 
the  new  century  will  witness  a  gracious  outpouring  of  the  Divme  bpirit 
on  our  Church  throughout  the  world." 
The  Rev.  N.  Cdrnock  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Churob),  said : 
I  second  that  motion  with  pleasure.  In  doing  so  I  am  sure  I  am  only 
voicing  the  opinion  of  all  the  delegates  that  we  are  greatly  indebted  to 
the  Eev.  Thomas  Mitchell  for  the  admirably  clear  statement  which  he 
has  presented  to  us.  Although  the  statement  is  perfectly  intelligible, 
I  wish  to  ask  two  questions.  In  the  first  place,  are  we  to  understand 
that  the  adherents  are  additional  to  the  members,  or  do  they  include 
the  members  1  There  are  over  28  million  adherents.  Are  we  to  add 
to  that  number  the  number  of  member's  ? 

The  Rev.  T.  Mitchell  :  I  believe  that  would  be  the  result  of  our 
inquiry.     I  have  all  the  figures  here.  . 

The  Rev.  N.   Cubnock  :    May  I  ask  further  whether  the  basis  on 
which  the  number   of  adherents  is  calculated   is  identical   with  the 
basis  of  the  last  (Ecumenical  Conference  1 
The  Rev.  T.  Mitchell  :  I  believe  so — exactly. 
The  Rev.  N.  Cubnock  •-  That  is  to  say,  four  to  one  1 
The  Rev.   T.    Mitchell  :   Four  to  one  in  the  Eastern  Section  and 
three-and-a-half  to  one  in  the  Western  Section. 

The  Rev.  N.  Ctjenock  :  It  seems  rather  unfortunate  that  there  can- 
not be  a  common  basis  for  both.  Speaking  for  myself,  with  some 
knowledge  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  and  some  slight  know- 
ledge of  the  other  Methodist  Churches  in  this  country,  I  should  have 
thought  it  would  have  been  safer  to  have  taken  the  Western  calculation 
of  three-ana-a-half  ;  but  I  do  not  wish  to  disturb  the  calculations  which 
have  been  made  with  so  much  care,  and  with  information  that  is  not 
in  my  possession,  or  in  the  possession  of  any  except  members  of  the 
Committee. 


276  STATISTICAL    REPORT. 

The  Rev.  J.  A.  B.  Wilson,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church)  : 
Before  tliese  statistics  are  published  I  would  suggest  that  thej^  should 
be  carefully  reviewed.  The  figure  given  for  the  church  property  in 
the  Western  Section  is,  I  am  .sure,  too  small.  If  I  understood  the 
figure  right,  it  was  about  180  million  dollars.  The  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  alone,  according  to  my  calculations,  including  school  property, 
has  above  187  million  dollars'  worth. 

Bishop  B.  W.  AuNETT,  D.D.  :  No  school  property  is  included  in  this 
figure  ;  only  the  church  property. 

The  Rev.  J.  A.  B.  Wilson,  D.D.  :  I  think  we  ought  to  have  the  total 
value  of  all  church  property. 

Bishop  B.  W.  Arnett,  D.D.  :  That  is  what  I  think  myself,  but  the 
majority  of  the  Committee  thought  otherwise. 

The  Rev.  J.  A.  B.  Wilson,  D.D.  :  We  are  going  before  the  world 
with  an  exhibition  of  what  Methodism  has  done,  and  we  ought  to  have 
an  account  of  all  the  institutions,  including  churches  and  schools,  and 
I  shall  make  a  motion  that  those  be  added.  With  regard  to  the  calcu- 
lation of  the  number  of  adherents  in  the  Wesiern  Section,  I  believe  the 
adoption  of  four  to  oae  is  a  much  safer  and  wiser  basis  for  Methodists 
than  the  basis  of  three-and-a-half.  We  have  such  severe  conditions 
for  membership  that  we  have  a  larger  number  of  adherents  compared 
with  our  members  than  other  Churches,  who  have  a  milder  and  easier 
condition  of  membership.  I  shall  multiply  the  membership  of  our 
Churches  by  four  when  I  want  to  obtain  the  number  of  adherents,  for 
I  believe  that  is  the  proper  basis. 

A  Delegate  :  I  am  sure  the  Conference  will  desire  that  the  report 
of  the  Statistical  Committee  should  be  complete.  There  is  one  matter 
which  has  not  entered  into  their  Report  which  is  of  great  interest.  I 
think  that  into  their  Report  there  should  be  entered  a  statement  as 
to  the  Twentieth  Century  Funds  which  are  being  raised  throughoub 
Methodism.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  each  Church  should  give  its 
statement,  but  that  a  statement  should  be  made  of  the  total  amounts 
that  are  being  raised  by  the  Western  Section  and  by  the  Eastern 
Section. 

The  Rev.  W.  A.  Bracken  (Irish  Methodist  Church) :  There  is  one 
part  of  the  Eastern  Section  with  regard  to  which  there  can  be  no 
shadow  of  doubt.  We  know,  not  by  guesswork,  but  by  the  actual 
computation  of  the  Government-appointed  statisticians,  the  precise 
number  of  Methodists  in  Ireland,  and  we  know  that  for  every  member 
we  have  one  adherent ;  that  is  to  say,  if  you  wish  to  know  the  exact 
number  of  Methodists  in  Ireland,  you  have  to  multiply  the  membership 
by  two.  Our  conditions  of  membership  are  precisely  the  same  as  those 
which  obtain  in  British  Methodism,  and  it  has  always  appeared  to  us 
in  Ireland  that  our  friends  are  a  little  bit  too  hopeful  in  reference  to 
the  number  of  adherents  which  they  report  from  year  to  year. 

The  Rev.  D.  J.  Waller,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  : 
I  should  not  have  risen  but  for  the  remarks  of  Mr.  Bracken.  A  calcu- 
lation was  made  some  time  ago,  and  a  public  statement  made  by  Sir 
Henry  Fowler  to  the  effect  that  the  property  of  Wesleyan  Methodism 
in  England  is  about  £50,000,000.  He  is  as  likely  to  be  correct  as 
anybody  else.  We  have  500,000  members  returned  in  England  to-day  ; 
and,  according  to  Mr.  Bracken,  we  should  have  a  million  adherents. 
We  have  sitting  accommodation  in  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Churches 
in  this  country  for  two  and  a  quarter  millions.  The  Church  of  England 
claims  to  have  about  sixteen  million  members,  but  they  have  only  sitting 
accommodation  for  six  and  a  quarter  millions.     I  say  that  for  every 


STATISTICAL    RKI'OUT.  2// 

member  we  have  af  lenst  four  adiierents.  I  calculate  that  we  have  at 
least  two-and-a-half  inilhons  of  Wesleyan  Methodists,  that  is,  counting 
our  adherents,  and  if  two  and  a  quarter  millions  of  them  wanted  to  go 
to  chapel  next  Sunday  morning  we  could  tind  a  seat  for  every  one  of 
them. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church) :  It 
seems  to  me  that  when  the  report  of  the  proceedings  of  this  Conference 
goes  out  to  Methodism  and  to  the  world,  it  ought  not  only  to  be  an 
accurate  report  of  what  has  been  said  in  the  Conference,  but  of  what 
Methodism  has  done,  and  is  now  doing.  Therefore,  I  believe  that  two 
facts  ought  to  be  added  to  the  statistical  statement.  First,  as  has 
already  been  suggested,  the  Twentieth  Century  Funds,  the  culmination 
of  our  work  for  twenty  years,  and  it  will  be  a  most  creditable  showing 
throughout  the  world.  But  what  is  still  more  important  to  me  is  this. 
We  want  our  people  to  have  not  only  an  intelligent  understanding  of 
how  many  converts  we  have,  how  many  members  and  communicants 
we  have,  but  what  we  are  doing  to  educate  our  membership.  We 
ought,  therefore,  to  have  perfect  Educational  statistics— not 
simply  the  membership  of  "the  Churches,  and  how  many 
Sunday  School  scholars  we  have,  but  how  many  institutions  of  learning 
there  are,  supported  absolutely  out  of  the  funds  and  the  benevolence  of 
Methodism.  That  is  a  most  important  matter,  fully  equal  in  impor- 
tance to  the  statistics  concerning  the  members  and  probationers.  I 
desire,  therefore,  to  move 

"  That  the  Committee  be  instructed  to  add  to  their  present  statistics 
a  statement  from  the  Eastern  and  Western  Sections  of  the  Twentieth 
Century  Funds  ;  and,  secondly,  the  Educational  statistics  which  are 
furnished  by  the  different  Year  Books  of  the  different  branches  of 
Methodism  ;  and  that  when  these  statistics  are  published  they  shall 
be  so  tabulated  and  printed  in  the  book  that  they  shall  be  easy  of 
reproduction  by  securing  the  plates  for  the  Methodist  Press  throughout 
the  world." 

A  Delegate  :  I  wish  you  would  include  in  that  the  parsonage  pro- 
perty. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  :  That  suggestion  was  made  also  by  Dr. 
Wilson. 

The  Rev.  John  Handley,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church) :  The 
statistics  should  also  include  our  benevolent  institutions — our  hos- 
pitals and  homes. 

The  Rev.  J.  A.  B.  Wilson,  D.D.  :  And  our  publications. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  :  The  point  I  wish  to  make  is  that 
reference  should  be  made  to  the  Twentieth  Century  Funds  and  the 
Educational  work.  We  have  devoted  a  very  large  fraction  of  the  dis- 
cussions at  this  Conference  to  what  Methodism  is  to  do  in  the  twen- 
tieth century  in  educational  matters.  Let  us,  therefore,  have  a  state- 
ment of  what  our  status  is  as  we  enter  upon  the  twentieth  century. 
I  am  also  very  insistent  that  the  tabulated  statement  should  be  in  such 
a  form  that  all  our  publications  throughout  Methodism  will  incur  very 
little  expense  in  setting  up  the  tables,  but  that  the  plates  as  they  are 
prepared  shall  be  forwarded  to  every  Methodist  Publishing  H(.use. 

The  President  :  The  Chairman  of  the  Statistical  Committee  volun- 
teers to  include  the  two  items  referred  to.     Will  that  meet  the  case? 

The  Rev.  Wesley  Guard  (Irish  Methodist  Church)  referred  to  the 
email  increase  in  the  number  of  Sunday  Schools,  and  the  decrease  in 
Sunday  School  teachers. 


278  STATISTICAL   REPORT. 

The  Rev.  T.  MiTniKLT, :  May  I  make  a  suggestinn?  I  was  going  to 
ask  in  a  inomcnt  that  the  Committee  should  be  re  appitinted,  upon  the 
recommendation  of  the  Oommittee  itself,  for  another  purjwsc  Thcro 
is  no  difficulty  whatever  in  all  the  information  desired  being  supplied, 
if  only  we  can  get  at  it.  It  is  easier  asked  for  than  done.  I  think 
possibly  the  diminution  in  the  number  of  Sunday  School  teachers  may 
be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  instead  of  teaching  on  alternate 
Sundays  teachers  teach  continuously,  so  that  you  may  easily  have  a 
diminution  in  actual  numbers  without  any  diminution  in  the  efficiency 
of  the  Sunday  School  work.  The  purpose  I  desired  the  Committee  to  be 
reappointed  was  so  that,  if  possible,  the  statistics  of  the  Methodist 
Churches,  Eastern  and  Western,  from  the  beginning,  could  be  given. 

The  Rev.  R.  J.  Cooke,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church) .  As  it 
is  possible  that  some  important  statistics  may  be  omitted,  I  beg  to 
move  as  a  substitute  for  the  original  motion — "  That  a  summary  of  all 
the  statistics  of  the  several  branches  of  Methodism  be  published  in  the 
Official  Volume."  That  will  include  everything  which  is  included  in 
the  Wesleyan  Conference  "Minutes,"  and  nothing  of  importance  will 
then  be  omitted. 

The  Pkesident  :  The  Chairman  of  the  Statistical  Committee  has  no 
objection  to  the  substitution. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  :  The  motion  was  made  by  me,  and  I 
oppose  the  substitution  for  this  reason :  that  there  is  no  uniformity  at 
all  in  the  reports  of  the  different  Churches  concerning  the  matters 
upon  which  they  report,  and  unless  we  can  have  absolute  uniformity 
in  every  phase  of  work  we  shall  have  no  satisfactory  returns  at  all.  It 
seems  to  me  that  when  we  have  included  the  things  which  have  been 
enumerated — the  Twentieth  Century  Funds,  the  value  of  parsonages, 
the  educational  statistics,  and  the  benevolent  statistics — we  have 
covered  all  the  working  power  of  Methodism. 

The  Rev.  E.  J.  Cooke,  D.D.  :  There  are  orphan  asylums,  asylums 
for  the  deaf  and  dumb,  and  asylums  for  the  aged.  Methodism  ought 
to  show  what  she  has  contributed  to  Christian  philanthropy. 

Bishop  C.  B.  Galloway,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South),  suggested  that  the  matter  be  referred  back  to  the  Committee  to 
report  at  a  subsequent  session,  including  the  items  suggested. 

A  Delegate  :  We  are  liable  to  exaggerate  the  number  of  adherents 
by  multiplying  them  by  three  and  a  half  or  by  four.  There  are  in  the 
United  States  of  America  about  twenty-three  million  actual  communi- 
cants of  all  Churches.  If  you  multiply  that  number  by  three  and  a 
half  you  have  more  adherents  than  there  are  inhabitants  in  the  United 
States  of  America. 

The  Rev.  Professor  W.  I.  Shaw,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Church  of 
Canada) :  We  have  had  this  argument  over  and  over  again — in  the 
columns  of  the  "  Spectator,"  of  London,  and,  in  the  last  few  days,  by 
the  publisher  of  a  well-known  and  very  valuable  almanack,  who  gives 
us  the  total  population  of  Methodists  in  the  world  as  seventeen  mil- 
lions. He  does  not  say  how  he  reaches  that  low  figure,  but  that  is  all 
he  allows  us.  To-day  the  Committee  has  asserted,  I  believe,  a  correct 
principle — that  four  times  the  membership  will  give  us  the  entire 
population,  which  would  be  about  thirty-two  millions.  The  brother 
who  has  just  spoken  says  that  may  be  reduced  to  an  absurd  conclusion, 
seeing  that  the  same  principle  applied  to  all  the  Churches  in  the  United 
States  would  produce  a  population  far  in  excess  of  reality.  That  is 
the  fallacy  into  which  the  publisher  of  Whitaker's  Almanack  has  fallen. 


STATISTICAL   REPORT.  *79 

He  presumes  that  the  same  ratio  applies  in  the  ( 'lurches  of  all  De- 
nominafcions.  That  is  not  the  ('asc.  For  instance,  take  the  Anglican 
Church,  either  here,  or  in  the  Colonies,  or  in  the  United  States.  All 
their  baptised  people  are  members,  and  there  are  no  "  adherents."  In 
reality,  that  is  the  case  both  physiologically  and  in  polity.  It  is  just 
the  same  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  It  is  not  the  case  that  m 
other  Denominations  this  ratio  would  hold.  I  assert  that  for  Metho- 
dism, on  close  obsei-vation,  it  will  hold  that  four  times  the  member- 
ship will  show  what  the  real  ^wpulation  is.  It  is  so  in  Canada  by 
Government  report.  We  have  a  population  there  of  about  one  million 
Methodists  out  of  six  millions  of  people,  and  we  have  a  Church  mem- 
bership of  a  quarter  of  a  million.  You  may  safely  accept  the  ratio 
that  four  times  the  membership  will  show  the  actual  population. 

The  Rev.  J.  A.  B.  Wilson,  D.D.  :  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the  United  States  has  a  population  of 
8,500,000,  everyone  of  whom  stands  in  the  statistics  as  a  communicant, 
and  not  simply  as  an  adherent,  and  the  same  is  practically  true  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  where  the  difference  between  the  con- 
ditions of  adherentship  and  of  membership  are  very  slight.  We  think 
that  a  multiplication  of  our  membership  by  four  does  not  give  us  an 
exaggerated  conclusion,  and,  if  I  am  in  order,  I  beg  to  move  that  that 
shall  be  the  basis  of  calculation  for  this  Conference. 

Mr.  R.  Bird,  J.P.  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches) :  I  suppose 
we  are  right  in  assuming  that  in  arriving  at  the  estimate  of  the  ad- 
herents all  Sunday  School  scholars  are  included;  is  that  so? 

The  Rev.  T.  Mitchell  :  In  the  enquiry  made  by  the  representatives 
of  the  Eastern  Section  we  excluded  Sunday  School  scholars,  so  that 
these  do  not  come  in  as  adherents  in  our  calculation. 

The  Rev.  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D,  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South) : 
If  we  were  to  adopt  the  basis  of  four  to  one  it  would  be  equivalent  to 
claiming  that  every  third  person  in  the  United  States  is  a  Methodist 
or  an  adherent,  which  is  an  absurdity. 

The  Rev.  J.  Bond  (Secretary) :  The  resolution  is  that  the  report  be 
referred  back. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  :  That  the  report  be  recommitted,  with 
a  view  to  compiling  statistics  relating  first  to  Education  and  secondly 
to  the  Twentieth  Century  Funds. 

The  Rev.  R.  J.  Cooke,  D.D.  :  I  would  suggest  that  Dr.  King  should 
include  in  that  some  definite  statistics  concerning  the  contributions  of 
Methodism  for  the  furtherance  of  the  Gospel,  any  benevolent  institu- 
tions, and  also  statistics  concerning  branches  of  philanthropic  work, 
such  as  homes  for  the  aged,  asylums  for  the  deaf  and  dumb,  hospitals, 
refuges,  and  deaconess'  homes.  If  he  includes  all  these  things  we 
shall  have  a  clear  statement  of  the  work  of  Methodism.* 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  :  I  accept  that. 

The  resolution  was  then  put  and  carried. 

The  Rev.  T.  Mitchell  :  I  am  desired  by  the  Committee  to  ask  that 
you  will  allow  us  to  prepare  a  tabulated  statement  of  the  progress  of 
Methodism  from  the  beginning.  I  move  that  the  Committee  have 
authority  to  prepare  that  and  include  it  in  their  report,  if  possible. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  :  Does  that  mean  by  years  or  decades? 
It  it  means  by  years  you  will  have  to  publish  a  series  of  volumes.  I 
move  that  it  be  done  in  decades,   and  that  the  statistics  of  decades 

•  It  was  found  to  be  impossible  without  seriously  delaying  the  publication  of  the  OfiBcial 
Volume  to  prepare  all  the  statistics  suggested.  They  are,  so  far  as  it  has  been  possible  to 
compile  them  in  time  for  inclnsion,  given  in  the  Appendix. 


28o  METHODIST  LITERATURE. 

shall  not  include  those  supplementary  things  that  we  have  been  put- 
ting in — simply  the  statistics  of  membership  and  churches  and  their 
values. 

The  Rev.  N.  CrRNocK  seconded  the  motion,  which  was  agreed  to. 

The  Rev.  G.  T.  Candlin  (Chairman)  said  there  was  one  word  of 
exhortation  he  would  like  to  interpose.     He  said : 

The  subject  which  we  have  to  discuss  is  a  peculiar  one — Methodist 
literature — and  it  seems  to  me  it  is  a  day  when  we  should  be  regaled 
by  the  scholar  and  the  thinker,  not  with  hot  dishes  and  strong  condi- 
ments, but  with  the  rich,  sweet,  and  cooling  fruits  of  scholarship.  I 
have  observed,  while  sitting  in  the  area,  that  a  limited  number  of 
brethren  have  had  an  opportunity  of  speaking  to  the  subjects'  under 
discussion.  During  the  previous  six  days  of  the  Conference  we  have 
had  a  great  display  of  Methodist  zeal.  Permit  me  a  word  of  exhorta- 
tion in  favour  of  a  little  Methodist  forbearance.  I  think  I  shall  have 
the  Conference  generally  with  me  in  saying  that  it  is  desirable  to 
give  the  quiet,  timid  people,  who  are  nervous,  like  myself,  the  oppor- 
tunity of  coming  forward  and  saying  a  word.  There  is  a  game  which 
I  have  played  in  my  youth  which  is  known  as  snap.  I  should  not  like 
the  term  to  go  forth  to  the  general  public  founded  on  the  experience 
of  this  Conference,    (Ecumenical  Snap. 

The  Rev.  H.  B.  Kendall,  B.A.  (Primitive  Methodist  Church), 
gave  the  morning  essay,  his  subject  being  ''  Methodist  Literature." 
He  said  : 

"  Methodist  Literature "  is  a  big  and  fascinating  subject ;  but  as  a 
title  it  leaves  something  to  be  desired,  since  it  announces  no  particular 
proposition  concerning  it.  By  Methodist  literature  we  are  not  simply 
to  understand  the  whole  of  the  printed  matter  which  issues  from  the 
presses  of  the  various  Methodist  Publishing  Houses  throughout  the 
world.  Could  reliable  facts  and  figures  under  this  head  be  obtained, 
even  for  one  year  only,  the  information  would  be  interesting  and 
valuable  ;  and  I  trust  some  such  items  of  information  respecting  what 
we  may  call  the  publication  departments  of  the  great  Churches  of  the 
West  and  South,  and  their  methods  of  distribution,  may  be  forthcom- 
ing in  the  discussion  this  morning.  I  shall  not  trouble  you  with 
statistics,  nor  give  a  sort  of  booksellers'  catalogue  of  Methodist  litera- 
ture. I  shall  not  even  attempt  to  tackle  the  problems  relating  to 
the  production  and  circulation  of  our  literature,  but  shall  glance  at  the 
origin  and  consider  the  characteristics  of  Methodist  literature  in  either 
hemisphere. 

All  printed  matter  is  not  literature.  An  old  writer  was  wont  to 
designate  some  of  the  press  products  of  his  time  as  "  blotterature " 
rather  than  "  literature."  That  kind  of  printed  matter  is  not  un- 
known at  the  present  day.  Even  from  Methodist  Publishing  Houses 
books  and  pamphlets  may  occasionally  come  forth  that  can  only  by  a 
courteous  stretching  of  language  be  classed  as  literature.  But,  while 
we  must  not  use  the  word  "  literature  "  too  generally  and  loosely,  we 
must  not  fall  on  the  other  side  and  define  it  with  pedantic  strictness, 
so  as  to  exclude  everything  that  does  not  reach  a  high  standard  of  form 
and  finish.     For  our  purpose  to-day  our  definition  must  hold  rather  to 


ESSAY  BY    REV.    H.   B.   KENDALL.  281 

substance  than  to  form.  If  the  words  that  are  committed  to  the  press 
are  the  outcome  of  experience,  if  they  have  about  them  the  note  of 
sincerity,  and  pulsate  with  life,  such  qualities  will  atone  for  a  good 
many  extrinsic  defects. 

What  Methodism  is  must  determine  our  conception  of  what  is  charac- 
teristic of  Methodist  literature.  With  the  late  Dr.  Dale,  and  with 
]?ishop  Galloway,  in  the  noble  sermcm  preached  at  the  opening  of  this 
Conference,  I  regard  the  New  Birth  as  the  characteristic  doctrine  of 
Methodism.  It  is  the  great  supernatural  change  wrought  in  the  soul 
by  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  this  doctrine  is  causally  linked  to  other  doc- 
trines. The  fact  of  such  a  momentous  event  having  taken  place  is 
nit  to  be  left  in  doubt  and  uncertainty,  but  is  authenticated  ])y  the 
direct  witness  of  the  Spirit.  Then  the  new  life,  thus  inwrought  and 
authenticated,  will,  according  to  the  ordinance  of  God,  in  harmony 
with  the  constitution  and  laws  of  human  nature,  ard  after  the  pattern 
of  the  early  disciples,  seek  to  express  its  joy  and  longings  in  con- 
tinuous Christian  fellowship.  Above  all,  the  Divine  life  thus  im- 
parted, authenticated,  and  nourished,  will  daily  strive  after  Christian 
Perfection  as  the  goal-prize  of  blessing  promised  and  pledged  to  the 
sincere  bt 'lever.  '"  Methodism,"  says  John  Wesley,  "  is  heart  holi- 
ness." Thus,  the  characteristic  doctrines  of  Methodism,  wherever 
found,  although  happily  now  largely  shared  by  those  who  bear  not  the 
Methodist  name,  are  its  doctrines  of  the  New  Birth,  the  Witness  of 
the  Spirit,  Christian  Communion,  and  Christian  Perfection.  But 
Methodism  is  these  and  the  other  Evangelical  doctrines  transmuted 
into  experience.  Methodism  is  nothing  if  not  experimental.  It  is 
the  sum  of  God's  "dealings"  with  the  soul.  It  is  a  life;  not  life 
attained  by  human  effort  and  lived  on  a  merely  human  plane,  however 
exalted  ;  but  life  attained  and  lived  out  by  the  aid  and  continuous 
presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

The  distinctive  doctrines  of  Methodism  and  the  life  they  generate 
I  would  call  Pentecostal.  Not  that  I  would  discard  the  good  old 
word  Evangelical.  That  word  is  needed,  for  it  covers  the  entire  range 
of  redemptive  truth,  but  the  word  Pentecostal,  as  applied  both  to  the 
specific  doctrines  already  named,  and  to  the  life  the  realisation  of 
these  doctrines  superinduces,  implies  that  the  Spirit  has  been  given  as 
the  crowning  purchased  grace  of  the  risen  Christ.  The  day  of  Pente- 
cost is  not  a  day  standing  out  in  miraculous  isolation,  having  little 
practical  relation  to  the  days  that  follow.  It  inaugurated  a  new  era 
in  which  we  live,  and  the  privileges  of  which  we  are  called  upon  to 
share.  In  the  Methodist  calendar  of  experience,  Good  Friday,  Easter 
Sunday,  and  Whit  Sunday  are  rightly  ranged  together.  It  feels  the 
significance  alike  of  the  cross,  the  empty  grave,  and  the  cloven 
tongues  as  of  fire.  It  was  on  the  anniversary  of  Pentecost  that 
Charles  Wesley  found  peace.  On  the  morning  of  Whit  Sunday,  May 
21,  1738,  he  and  his  brother  John,  with  other  friends,  had  "  sung  a 
liymn  to  the  Holy  Ghost."  On  the  Wednesday  of  that  same  Whit- 
week  John  Wesley  found,  in  a  room  in  Aldersgate,  what  he  had  so 
long  been  seeking — the  jiearl  of  great  price.  It  would  be  more  appro- 
priate to  say  he  rediscovered  the  treasure  hidden  in  the  Scriptures  and 


282  METHODIST  LITERATURE. 

in  the  writings  of  some  of  the  divines  and  in  the  formularies  of  his 
own  Church. 

In  the  conversion  of  the  brothers  Wesley  Pentecostal  theology  was 
born.  As  Dr.  Rigg  and  the  Rev.  W.  F,  Slater  have  pointed  out, 
writers  belonging  to  other  schools  of  thought  have  been  quick  to  per- 
ceive the  significance  of  what  took  place  in  that  room  in  Aldersgate. 
Miss  Wedgwood  remarks :  "  The  birthday  of  a  Christian  was  shifted 
from  his  baptism  to  his  conversion,  and  in  that  change  the  partition 
line  of  two  great  systems  is  crossed."  Dr.  Curteis,  too,  in  his  Bamp- 
ton  Lecture  on  "Church  and  Dissent,"  says:  "So  on  Wednesday, 
May  24,  1738,  Wesley  persuaded  himself  that  he  had  felt  the  desired 
transition,  and  had  passed — from  what  to  what?  In  the  answer  to 
that  question  lies  the  whole  doctrinal  diflference  between  modem 
Wesleyanism  and  the  Church  of  England."  F.  J.  Snell,  M.A.,  in  his 
recent  exasperatingly  clever  "Life  of  John  Wesley,'  referring  also  to 
John  Wesley's  conversion,  says  :  "  At  length  the  Pentecostal  grace  was 
vouchsafed."  Yes,  Pentecostal  grace,  as  opposed  to  sacramental  effi- 
cacy. That  is  it.  The  antithesis  could  not,  one  thinks,  be  more 
sharply  put.  May  24,  1738,  was  the  birthday  of  Methodist  Pente- 
costal literature.  Here,  in  a  parenthesis,  let  me  say  that  the  reason 
why  the  chief  magazine  of  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church  is  called 
"The  Aldersgate"  is  not  merely  because  the  Publishing  House  is  in 
the  street  of  that  name,  but  because  Wesley  was  converted  in  a  room 
in  the  same  street.  Between  Aldersgate  and  Methodist  literature 
there  is  a  true  historical  connection.  But  to  resume :  Accompanied 
by  a  troop  of  rejoicing  friends,  John  Wesley  made  his  way  to  his 
brother's  bedside,  at  his  lodgings  in  Little  Britain,  and  they  sang  the 
hymn  which  Charles  Wesley  had  written  the  day  before.  One  verse  of 
the  hymn,  which  is  No.  30  in  the  Wesleyan  Hymn  Book,  runs  as 
fellows :  — 

"Oh,  how  shall  I  the  goodness  tell, 

Father,  which  Thou  to  me  hast  showed  ? 

That  I,  a  child  of  wrath  and  hell, 
I  should  be  called  a  child  of  God  ; 

Should  know,  should  feel  my  sins  forgiven, 

Blest  with  this  antepast  of  Heaven." 

In  that  glad  hour  Methodist  hymnody  was  born.  Charles  Wesley's 
muse  received  her  Pentecostal  baptism.  Perhaps,  tried  by  the  lofty 
standard  of  what  constitues  real  literature,  set  up  by  Matthew  Arnold 
and  his  disciples,  an  essay  on  "Methodist  Literature"  might  be  ex- 
pected to  be  as  brief  as  the  famous  chapter  on  "  Snakes  in  Ireland." 
But  not  so.  Charles  Wesley's  hymns  and  sacred  songs,  saying  nothing 
of  those  of  Thomas  Olivers  and  other  Methodist  singers  are  literature 
of  which  any  Church,  might  justly  be  proud,  and  constitute  a  priceless 
bequest.  As  the  epitaph  upon  the  tablet  to  his  memory  in  this 
Wesley's  Chapel  expresses  it. 

As    a   Christian    poet  he    stood  unrivalled, 
And  his  hymns  will  convey  instruction   and  consolation 

To  the  Faithful  in  Christ  Jesus 
As  long   as   the   English   language   shall  be   understood 


ESSAY  BY   REV.   H.  B.  KENDALL.  283 

Although,  on  the  authority  of  the  Eev.  John  Telford,  Charles 
Wesley  wrote  no  fewer  than  7,000  pieces  of  poetry,  there  are  particular 
hymns  of  his  which  have  established  his  enduring  fame.  Take  that 
"noble  hymn,"  as  Dean  Stanley  calls  it,  "Wrestling  Jacob."  Dr. 
Watts  declared  it  was  worth  all  the  verses  he  had  written,  and  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  described  it  as  "  one  of  the  most  magnificent  specimens 
of  spiritualisation  to  be  found  in  any  language."  Other  hymns  of  equal 
merit,  and  that  have  won  equal  praise,  such  as  "Jesu,  Lover  of  my 
soul,"  might  be  referred  to  ;  but  let  this  suffice.  As  a  Primitive 
Methodist,  perhaps  I  may  be  pardoned  if  I  refer  in  this  connection  to 
our  two  Hymnals— the  one  for  public  worship  and  the  other  for 
Sunday  Schools — which  are  admittedly  among  the  most  excellent  and 
eclectic  compilations  in  the  language.  Surely  these  are  literature,  or 
it  must  follow  that  what  is  literature  elsewhere  ceases  to  be  such  when 
it  issues  from  a  Methodist  Book  Room. 

Peculiarly  rich  is  our  common  Methodism  in  the  Pentecostal  litera- 
ture of  Christian  biography,  which  shows  the  manifold  dealings  of  the 
Spirit  of  God  with  the  human  soul  from  the  dawn  of  conviction  to  the 
peaceful  or  triumphant  end.  How  priceless  the  ever-accumulating  tes- 
timonies to  the  grace  of  God !  Not  only  are  these  Lives  of  testimony 
found  in  the  pages  of  our  magazines  through  the  long  succession  of 
years,  but  each  Church  has  its  cherished  biographies,  which  have 
almost  become  classics.  Take  the  "Lives  of  the  Early  Methodist 
Preachers,"  thirty-seven  in  number,  edited  by  Thomas  Jackson,  and 
the  Lives  of  such  persons  as  William  Bramwell,  David  Stoner,  John 
Smith,  Hester  Ann  Rogers,  Billy  Bray,  the  Wallsend  miner,  Joseph 
Spoor,  Thomas  Collins,  Peter  Cartwright,  Robert  Key,  and  the  Lives 
of  the  great  leaders  and  preachers  of  our  Methodism.  Apart  from  their 
abiding  influence  and  deep  spiritual  interest,  there  are  passages  in 
some  of  these  Lives  which,  in  their  artless  simplicity,  a£fect  the  heart 
more  powerfully  than  the  most  highly-wrought  literary  workmanship 
could  affect  it.     We  feel  "  the  sense  of  tears  in  human  things." 

Mr.  Telford  quotes  from  a  letter  of  Edward  Fitzgerald,  in  which  he 
refers  to  one  of  the  Lives  of  the  early  Methodist  preachers  just  men- 
tioned. "If  you  have  not  read  the  little  Autobiography  of  Wesley's 
disciple,  John  Nelson,  give  a  shilling  for  it.  It  seems  to  me  something 
wonderful  to  read  these  books,  written  in  a  style  that  cannot  alter, 
because  natural.  .  ,  .  remarkable  to  read,  pure,  unaffected,  and 
undying  English,  while  Addison  and  Johnson  are  tainted  with  a  style 
which  all  the  world  imitated."  On  my  library  shelves  stand  side  by 
side  two  very  dissimilar  books.  One  is  Amiel's  Journal,  edited  by  the 
niece  of  Matthew  Arnold,  Mrs.  Humphrey  Ward  ;  and  the  other  is 
"  The  Letters  of  James  Smetham,"  artist,  poet,  friend  of  Ruskin,  Ros- 
setti,  Dora  Greenwell,  and  a  Methodist  class  leader.  Yet  for  fine, 
genuine  literary  quality  I  would  almost  match  the  Methodist  class- 
leader's  Letters  against  the  Genevan  Professor's  Journal.  The  one 
knew  Him  whom  he  had  believed  ;  the  other  canvassed  everything  and 
seemed  sure  of  nothing.  To  Smetham  Methodism  gave  "  ample  room 
and  verge  enough  "  for  the  most  sedulous  self-culture,  and  as  the  reli- 
gion of  expression  it  suited  him  to  the  top  of  his  bent.     He  assimilated 


284  METHODIST  LITERATURE. 

the  Pentecostal  theology,  and  lived  the  Pentecostal  life.  "  I  want  not 
fame,  but  life,"  wrote  he^  "the  soul's  calm  sunshine;  life  in  the  eye 
of  God."  Again  :  "  I  have  learned — blessed  knowledge  ! — the  philo- 
sophy of  life,  as  it  respects  me  and  mine.  Eureka!  I  have  found 
Him  of  whom  Moses  and  the  prophets  did  write  ;  I  have  found  how  He 
comes  to  man's  soul,  how  He  dwells,  rules,  guides,  consoles,  how  He 
suffices.  I  have  found  the  Way,  the  Truth,  the  Life."  Yes,  Metho- 
dism has  its  long  roll  of  saints.     It  has  its  hagiography. 

"  The  healing  of  the  world 
Is  in  its  nameless  saints.     Each  separate  star 
Seems   nothing,   but  a   myriad  scattered  stars 
Break  up  the  night  and  make  it  beautiful.'' 

The  quickened  interest  taken  in  the  byways  of  our  Church  history, 
tho  chronicling  of  reminiscences  of  men  and  things  of  which  the  late 
Dr.  Gregory  was  such  a  master,  even  the  current  stories  of  the  idyll 
type,  and  the  recent  books  of  Miss  Fowler,  with  their  wider  outlook — 
all  these  are  noteworthy,  because  they  depict  the  life  of  God  in  the  souls 
of  even  the  humblest.  John  Wesley  was  the  populariser  of  literature 
and  the  pioneer  of  a  cheap  press  long  before  the  days  of  Charles 
Knight  and  William  and  Robert  Chambers.  He  knew  the  power  of 
the  Press,  and  he  undertook  the  most  gigantic  literary  labours  that  he 
might  aid  his  people  in  the  cultivation  of  their  minds  and  spread  Evan- 
gelical truth  through  the  land.  The  fourteen  volumes  of  his  own  works, 
including  his  incomparable  Sermons  and  his  wonderful  Journal,  be- 
praised  by  Mr.  Augustine  Birrell,  must  ever  be  the  solid  core  of  Metho- 
dist literature.  Now,  generically  we  are  all  Methodists,  and  if  we  imi- 
tate the  wisdom  and  faithfulness  of  our  founder,  we,  too,  as  Churches, 
shall  regard  the  printing  press  as  a  powerful  instrument  for  extending 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  use  it  increasingly  in  providing  wholesome 
literature  for  our  people. 

Much,  very  mucli,  is  being  done  by  the  Book  Departments  of  the 
various  sections  of  Methodism,  and  one  would  like  to  know  with  what 
measure  of  success  ?  Is  Methodist  literature  adequately  appreciated  by 
Methodists?  Ever  since  the  days  of  Wesley  and  Fletcher,  Methodism 
has  not  lacked  its  defenders  of  the  truth  against  Antinomian  error 
and  sacerdotal  pretensions.  In  the  early  days  Methodism  was  forced 
to  be  polemic  to  a  degree  we  in  these  piping  times  of  peace  can 
scarcely  realise.  But  the  point  I  wish  to  make  is  that  now,  when 
there  is  a  recrudescence  of  sacerdotalism  and  sacramental  efficacy 
among  us,  there  is  need  to  expound,  emphasise,  and  diffuse,  through 
the  medium  of  the  Press,  the  Pentecostal  doctrines  of  Methodism — ■ 
especially  that  of  the  Witness  of  the  Spirit — which  is  the  surest  anti- 
dote of  the  bane  which  is  spreading  so  widely.  For,  as  the  Rev.  T.  G. 
Selby  has  said,  "  If  God  Himself  become  a  witness  of  salvation  within 
me,  why  should  I  not  be  free  to  think  of  an  official  priesthood  as  of 
comparatively  limited  and  subordinate  importance.  As  we  possess  the 
inward  witness,  the  needlessness  and  impotence  of  all  pledges  and 
guarantees  will  become  more  and  more  obvious."  Again,  if  there  be 
any  doctrine  that  has  been  neglected,  unexplored,  and  unmapped,  and 


ADDRESS   BY   REV.   E.  E.   HOSS.  285 

that,  invitos  fmtlicr  discovery,  it  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Materials  are  acL-umulatiiig,  and  many  minds  are  stirred  to  investigate 
these  materials  in  the  light  of  the  Word,  and  who  more  likely  and 
fitted  to  undertake  this  needful  work  than  Methodist  theologians — the 
successors  of  Clarke,  Treffry,  Benson,  Suteliffe,  Etheridge,  and  Pope? 
Finally,  as  if  in  obedience  to  a  command  similar  to  that  which  the 
oracle  gave  to  ^neas, 

"  Go,  seek  that  mother  earth 
From  which  your  ancestors  derive  their  birth," 

we  have  come  together  from  all  parts  of  the  earth  to  this  mother 
church  of  Methodism.  Assembled  in  this  historic  building,  and  sur- 
rounded by  the  sacred  dust  of  the  makers  of  Methodism,  let  us  also  in 
spirit  mount  to  our  sources.  May  Pentecostal  doctrine,  Pentecostal 
life,  and  Pentecostal  literature  ever  and  increasingly  be  found  in 
unison  among  us. 

The  Rev.  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Chm-ch,  South) 
then  gave  the  first  invited  address,  his  topic  being  "The  New 
Demands  upon  Methodist  Authorship."     He  said  : 

I  am  asked  to  set  forth  in  ten  minutes  what  are  the  new  demands 
on  Methodist  authorship.  To  accomplish  this  task  in  anything  like 
a  satisfactory  manner  is  an  evident  impossibility.  All  that  I  can  hope 
to  do  is  to  furnish  a  few  bare  suggestions.  If  these  suggestions  prove 
at  all  helpful  in  the  way  of  stimulating  thought  and  provoking  discus- 
sion, I  shall  be  abundantly  satisfied. 

That  Methodist  ministers  should  have  ever  done  anything  valuable 
in  the  way  of  authorship  is  really  a  matter  of  wonder.  The  oppor- 
tunities that  they  enjoy  for  book-making  are  scanty  almost  beyond 
belief.  As  soon  as  any  man  appears  among  us  with  a  little  more  than 
common  intellectual  force,  he  is  put  to  such  steady  daily  work  that 
he  has  no  leisure  left  for  scholarly  pursuits.  It  has  been  so  from  the 
beginning,  and  appears  likely  to  be  so  to  the  end.  The  result  is 
that  those  of  lour  brethren  who  have  achieved  much  in  the  field  of 
letters  have  done  so  by  a  diligent  use  of  intervals  snatched  between 
routine  drudgeries.  It  is  the  implicit  belief  of  the  people  called 
Methodists  that  there  is  no  end  to  the  working  power  of  their  ministers, 
and  none  to  their  versatility.  What  other  Church  would  ever  dream  of 
transferring  a  man  who  has  been  only  a  busy  and  successful  pastor  to 
the  business  secretaryship  of  a  Cliurch  Extension  Board?  Or  to 
the  presidency  of  a  Classical  or  Theological  College  ?  Or  to  the 
editorship  of  a  great  newspaper  1  What  other  Church  would  expect 
him,  in  the  midst  of  such  multitudinous  engagements,  to  write  a 
treatise  on  the  drift  of  scientific  investigation,  or  on  the  present  aim 
and  probable  outcome  of  Biblical  criticism? 

I  am  not  saying  that  the  state  of  affairs  concerning  which  I  thus 
apeak  is  wholly  evil.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  not  wholly  evil.  Out 
of  it  has  come  much  good.     The  strenuous  life  which  it  demands  is 


286  METHODIST  LITERATURE. 

in  many  rospet'ts  a  spiritually  healthy  life.  Nevertheless,  it  must  he 
apparent  to  all  ohservant  minds  that  until  the  conditions  are  some- 
what altered  we  cannot  expect  our  Churches  to  produce  a  great  and 
fruitful  literature.  Provision  must  be  made  for  the  more  elaborate 
and  systematic  training  of  our  superior  youth  before  they  are  called 
upon  to  assume  the  active  responsibilities  of  their  higher  vocation,  and 
in  some  way  or  other  a  broader  margin  must  be  granted  them  for  the 
prosecution  of  their  studies  after  they  have  once  been  inducted 
into  their  office.  If  there  is  any  master  in  Israel  who  can  devise  an 
effective  plan  for  compassing  these  ends,  he  will  be  fairly  entitled  to  a 
monument,  amd  will  probably  get  it. 

Nevertheless,  while  the  status  quo  remains  we  must  make  the  most 
of  it.  The  Church  in  every  age  is  bound  by  all  considerations  to  do 
its  own  thinking.  To  go  on  indefinitely  accepting  and  repeating  the 
formulae  of  the  fathers,  as  if  they  possessed  some  magical  virtue,  and 
were  too  sacred  to  be  touched  or  modified  in  any  way,  is  to  commit  an 
act  of  supreme  folly.  Everybody  who  has  an  outlook  upon  the  course 
Df  history  is  aware  of  that  inevitable  process  by  which  words  that 
originally  incarnate  and  represent  a  living  truth  have  a  natural  ten- 
dency to  harden  and  crystallise  into  the  expression  of  a  dead  dogma. 
I  have  siometimes  thought  that  if  Mr.  Wesley  could  only  know  the 
extent  to  which  many  of  his  followers  have  fallen  into  the  habit  of 
repeating  the  ipsissima  verba  of  his  teachings,  as  if  they  were  a  final 
and  conclusive  statement  lof  the  truth,  he  would  turn  over  in  hid 
grave  and  groan  ;  for  he  himself,  far  from  being  the  slave  of  traditions, 
was  the  freest  and  boldest  mind  of  his  generation.  He  made  diligent) 
use  of  all  available  material,  from  every  source,  but  he  called  no  man 
master,  and  played  the  parrot  to  no  school  of  critics  or  theologians. 
Holding  fast  the  form  of  sound  words  does  not  mean  the  abdication 
of  one's  personal  right  to  consider,  to  weigh,  to  sift,  to  reconstruct, 
or  to  reject.  The  ultimate  problems  of  religion  are  eternal.  They  are 
always  emerging  with  fresh  aspects,  and  calling  for  a  new  hearing. 

It  is  impossible  for  us  to  appropriate  the  best  products  of  former 
inquiry  without  vigorous  original  research.  To  grasp  the  full  signifi- 
cance of  any  existing  tenet,  it  is  necessary  for  us  to  know  the 
circumstances  under  which  it  was  first  framed,  and  to  put  ourselves, 
as  far  as  may  be,  into  the  mental  atmosphere  and  attitude  of  the 
men  who  framed  it.  It  is  too  harsh  a  judgment  to  affirm  that  thd 
greatest  enemies  of  a  conservative  orthodoxy  are  those  belated 
dogmatists  who  still  cling  with  devout  stupidity  to  the  very  letter 
of  the  creeds  and  symbols  of  other  days.  The  Methodist  who  insists 
on  measuring  everything  in  heaven  and  earth  by  Watson's  Institutes 
or  Wesley's  Sermons  is  a  pestilent  breeder  of  heresy.  What  shall  I 
say,  then,  of  that  one  who,  with  the  commentaries  of  Meyer,  Godet, 
Lightfoot,  Ellicott^  and  Westcott,  and  the  noble  volumes  of  our  own 
Joseph  Agar  Beet,  in  his  hands  or  in  his  sight,  still  stoutly  affirms  that 
the  dictum  of  Adam  Clarke  is  the  end  of  the  law  on  a  matter  of 
exposition?    We  are  living  in  the  twentieth  century,  and,  unless  we 


ADDRESS   BY  REV.   E.  E.  HOSS.  287 

wish  to  incur  the  jusi,  suspicion  of  itliocy,  we  uuiat  gaflirr  aiirl  nso  all 
that  is  offered  to  us  by  the  master  workmen,  who  are  toiling  Avitli  such 
infinite  diligence  in  this  end  of  the  ages  to  find  out  whatever  may  be 
discovered  concerning  the  mind  and  purpose  of  God  towards  our  lost 
world. 

What  I  have  said  might  be  said  with  a  considerable  measure  of 
pertinacity  at  any  time  and  in  any  place,  but  at  this  time  and  in  this 
place  it  deserves  to  receive  a  special  emphasis.  Two  great  movements, 
m'ore  or  less  related  to  each  other,  are  passing  over  the  world.  The 
doctrine  of  evolution,  which,  in  spite  of  the  materialistic  and  atheistic 
forms  that  it  sometimes  assumes,  undoubtedly  contains  large  elements 
of  truth,  is  gaining  an  ever  wider  acceptance  ;  and  the  science  of 
historical  criticism,  which  is  a  science,  in  spite  of  the  arrogant  and 
ignorant  scepticism  with  which  it  is  often  propounded,  is  likewise 
commanding  the  attention  and  respect  of  scholars  everywhere.  These 
facts  render  it  imperative  that  those  who  would  speak  to  their  fellow- 
men  in  intelligible  and  understandable  terms  must  discard  much  of 
the  terminology  with  which  they  have  long  been  familiar,  and  clothe 
their  message,  if  not  in  a  new,  at  least,  in  an  altered  dress.  While 
we  cannot  too  earnestly  insist  upon  the  propriety  of  teaching  the 
Gospel  in  terms  of  the  Gospel,  we  shall  be  wise  if  we  likewise  remember 
that  we  must  teach  it  in  terms  that  come  home  to  the  business  and 
the  bosoms  of  the  struggling,  suffering,  and  sinning  men  and  women 
who  are  thronging  about  us  on  every  hand,  and  crying  out,  although 
not  always  in  articulate  tones,  for  guidance  and  help.  Let  there  be 
no  craven  fear  that  in  following  this  course  we  shall  get  away  from  the 
New  Testament,  or  forfeit  anything  of  the  great  inheritance  which  has 
been  brought  down  to  us  from  distant  years. 

1  confess  a  deep  personal  regret  that,  owing  partly  to  the  circum- 
stances which  I  have  already  mentioned,  and  partly  to  a  right  and 
jealous  regard  for  the  honour  of  long-established  and  well-accredited 
truthsj  our  Methodist  ministers  have  not  had  a  full  share  m  the 
critical  and  theological  discussions  of  recent  times.  I  sincerely  trust 
that  in  the  future  we  shall  show  ourselves  as  worthy  anu  as  competent 
to  be  heard  in  these  fields  as  we  have  been  in  other  spheres  of  life 
and  thought.  As  a  matter  of  course,  we  dare  not  forget  that 
Evangelism — the  direct  offer  of  salvation  to  the  world — is  our  chief 
business.  Bishop  Galloway  correctly  put  the  case  in  the  sermon  thai 
opened  the  proceedings  of  this  Conference: — "Our  Gospel  is  a  pro- 
clamation and  not  a  discussion,  a  verity  and  not  a  speculation."  That 
high  and  pregnant  sentiment  doubtless  finds  an  echo  an  all  our  hearts, 
but  the  fact  remains  that  the  intellect  has  its  rights  in  religion,  and 
that  a  living  faith  will  always  be  courageous  enough  to  confront 
without  flinching  every  issue  that  may  be  raised,  and  to  probe  to  the 
core  and  centre  every  distressing  and  paralysing  doubt  that  may  bt* 
thrust  upon  its  notice.  If  our  brightest  young  men  show  an  inclination 
to  explore  untried  territory,  let  us  not  warn  them  off  with  an  ominou^ 
shake  of  the  head  and  an  intimation  that  they  are  treading  on  dan- 


288  METHODIST   LITERATURE. 

geroiis  ground  ;  but  rather  let  us  bid  them  God-speed  in  their  glorioug 
adventure.  There  doubtless  is  occasion  for  speaking  now  and  then  a 
word  of  caution  and  moderation  to  them.  Some  of  them  may  be 
puffed  up  with  fleshly  wisdom  ;  and  some  may  even  go  so  fast  and  so 
far  as  to  cast  away  the  confidence  that  they  have  in  Christ  Jesus. 
But  if  they  have  the  root  of  the  matter  in  them  ;  if  by  blessed 
experience  they  know  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  He  has  sent,  if 
they  are  steadied  and  strengthened  by  the  assurance  in  themselves 
that  they  have  passed  from  death  unto  life — then  they  are  comparatively 
safe.  After,  perhaps,  a  little  wavering,  they  will  plant  their  feet 
upon  the  solid  rock,  and  abide  steadfast  when  the  rains  descend  and 
the  floods  come,  and  the  winds  blow  upon  them.  In  any  event,  while 
wrong  thinking  is  perilous,  not  to  think  at  all  is  absolutely  fatal. 

I  have  taken  it  for  granted  that  all  mental  activity  of  a  religious 
Siort  will  express  itself  in  a  larger  or  smaller  degree,  in  a  written 
literature.  Were  more  time  at  my  command  I  should  be  glad  to  add 
something  as  to  the  ability  and  duty  of  Methodism  to  show  its  gifts 
in  those  forms  of  literature  which  are  not  distinctly  religious  in 
character,  but  which,  nevertheless,  contribute  to  the  edification  and 
enrichment  of  the  world's  life.  There  is  scarcely  a  branch  of  our 
wide-spread  Church  that  does  not  contain  men  capable  of  using  their 
pens  with  fine  effect  in  many  directions.  It  is,  for  example,  a  cause 
for  congratulation  that  a  Methodist  minister  in  one  of  the  far-oft 
colonies  of  Australia — I  refer,  of  course,  to  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Fitchett — 
should  have  brought  forth  so  vivid  a  narrative  of  the  way  in  which  at 
the  beginning  of  the  century  England  saved  Europe.  Then,  too,  is 
it  to  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  spirit  of  minstrelsy  is  dead  in  us, 
and  that  we  shall  never  have  a  great  poet  ?  May  we  not  even  expect 
that  in  due  time  someone  shall  come  to  glorify  the  romance  of  the 
itinerancy  in  a  story  that  will  make  its  appeal  to  the  heart  of  man- 
kind by  its  high  and  enduring  worth?  There  is  much  in  the  history  of 
Methodism  for  the  past  hundred  years  that  lends  itself  most  admirably 
to  artistic  treatment  and  narration.  Shall  we  not  look  also  for 
reviewers  and  essayists  to  arise?  Are  we  doomed  to  everlasting 
barrenness  in  this  respect?  God  forbid.  In  the  meantime,  let  our 
Publishing  Houses  keep  a  look-out  for  every  sign  of  literary  activity, 
and  give  it  their  hearty  encouragement. 

Mr.  William  Brimblow,  J.P.  (Independent  Methodist  Church)  fol- 
lowed with  an  address  on  "  Methodist  Journalism."     He  said  : 

Methodism  journalism  is  a  rather  restricted  topic.  There  are  over 
2,000  newspapers  in  the  United  Kingdom.  About  sixty  are  classified 
as  religious  newspapers,  and  of  these  six  aspire  to  represent 
Methodism.  That  is  the  extent  of  Methodist  journalism  in  this 
country.  It  is,  therefore,  but  a  small  corner  of  journalism  ;  neverthe- 
less, to  Methodism  it  is  immensely  important.  Representatives  present 
from  beyond  the  seas  will  doubtless  speak  diu-ing  the  discussion  of 
their  >own  newspapers.     These  six  British  Methodist  newspapers  are 


ADDRESS   BY  MR.    WILLIAM    BRIMELOW.  289 

issued  ill  cnnne.-tiou  willi  tluci-  l.ianches  of  Methr,dism.  The 
IiidepeiKlcnl  IMetlicdist  Church,  In  which  I  belong,  while  it  has  a 
Book  Room  and  iniblications,  has  no  newspaper,  and  hence,  I  suppose, 
the  Committee  assigned  this  subject  to  me  and  gave  me  entire  freedom 
with  it. 

Methodist  journalism  has  a  history.  In  his  "  Life  and  Times  of 
John  Wesley,"  Tyerman  says  the  first  Methodist  newspaper  was  issued 
in  1741,  and  was  entitled  'The  Weekly  History."  Its  aim  was  to 
record  from  week  to  week  the  progress  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
I  have  examined  all  the  available  copies  of  this  pioneer  of  Methodist 
journahsm,  and  although  it  is  only  four  pages  of  small  size,  it  is  a 
wonderful  record  of  stirring  episodes  and  the  beginnings  of  a  mighty 
movement.  The  period  of  long  sermons  opened  by  the  Puritans  had 
not  then  closed,  and  the  first  seven  issues  are  mainly  taken  up  with  a 
truly  great  sermon,  preached  at  Charlestown,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
water,  by  Isaac  Chanler,  which  must  have  occupied  several  hours  in 
delivery.  It  was  the  period  when  Methodists  were  subject  to  coarse 
and  vulgar  abuse  and  mob  violence,  often  sanctioned  and  encouraged — 
if  not  instigated— by  the  magistracy.  To-day  Methodists  sit  on  the 
seats  of  judgment,  and  eminent  Methodists  in  some  parts  of  the 
country  even  make  benches  of  magistrates.  But  the  most  noteworthy 
feature  of  this  first  Methodist  newspaper  is  that,  not  only  were  report.-^ 
given  of  sermons  and  services,  but  of  their  results.  Those  early 
Methodist  preachers  entered  upon  discourses  as  veritable  engagements; 
with  the  enemy  of  mankind,  and  they  pressed  the  battle  on  to  victory. 
We  read  that  immense  congregations  on  both  sides  of  the  water,  after 
sermons,  were  "  bathed  in  tears,"  "  many  souls  were  wounded,"  many 
were  slain  of  the  Lord,"  "  hundreds  were  converted."  Indeed,  there 
is  a  whole  terminology  in  this  early  Methodist  newspaper  not  so 
frequently  found  in  the  journalism  of  present-day  Methodism,  except 
after  a  great  simultaneous  mission. 

Methodist  journalism,  as  we  know  it  to-day,  is  of  later  origin.  It 
began  with  the  good  old  "  Watchman,"  commenced  in  1835.  According 
to  Grant,  the  historian  of  the  Newspaper  Press,  "  The  Watchman  "  was 
the  first  religious  newspaper  published  in  the  metropolis  ;  being  issued 
in  the  pre-Gladstone  era,  it  cost  7d.  per  copy.  It  was  a  most 
ably-conducted  journal  ;  its  contributors  comprised  some  of  the  best 
talent  of  Wesleyan  Methodism  ;  but  for  some  reason  it  was  never 
a  really  popular  journal.  At  great  pecuniary  sacrifices  it  was  con- 
tinued by  the  proprietors  and  stood  for  fifty  years  the  recognised  organ 
of  the  Wesleyan  Church.  When  passing  away  in  1885  its  blessing  was 
bestowed  upon  "  The  Christian  Journal,"  which,  however,  did  not  long 
survive  its  benediction.  During  the  career  -of  "  The  Watchman "  a 
stormy  petrel  hovered  over  Methodist  waters,  "  The  Wesleyan  Times." 
Drastic  reforms  in  the  government  of  Wesleyan  Methodism  formed  its 
mission  ;  but  these  were  often  demanded  with  more  zeal  than  prudence. 
It  failed  to  secure  a  foothold  in  Methodist  esteem  and  was 
discontinued. 

Side  by  side  with  "  The  Watchman,"  issued  from  the  same  oftice. 
20 


290  METHODIST  LITERATURE. 

and  practically  in  alliance  with  it,  "  The  Methodist  Recorder  "  appeared 
ill  1861.  It  is,  therefore,  now  in  its  fortieth  year,  and  has  become, 
without  question,  the  leading  Methodist  newspaper.  How  admirably 
its  energetic  editor  and  staff  can  rise  to  the  occasion  and  worthily 
represent  Methodism  is  abundantly  manifest  by  the  special  issues  ii. 
connection  with  this  (Ecumenical  Conference.  But  one  newspaper 
cannot  represent  all  interests  and  phases  of  opinion  in  so  great  a 
community,  and  in  1885  "The  Methodist  Times"  entered  the  field. 
That  this  journal  is  distinguished  by  rare  gifts  and  consummate  ability, 
especially  as  to  its  editorial  articles,  is  acknowledged  on  every  hand. 

Because  the  "  Recorder  "  and  "  Times  "  were  regarded  as  too  wholly 
occupied  with  London  Methodism,  and  also  because  in  this  most 
difficult  national  crisis,  articles  doubtless  meant  for  peace  were  mis- 
understood as  articles  for  war,  another  Methodist  newspaper  has 
been  established  in  the  North  of  England—"  The  Methodist  Weekly," 
issued  at  Manchester.  The  Primitive  Methodists,  with  characteristic 
enterprise,  issue  two  newspapers — "  The  Primitive  Methodist "  and 
"The  Primitive  Methodist  World."  The  United  Methodist  Free 
Churches  are  worthily  represented  in  journalism  by  "The  Free 
Methodist."  These  six  newspapers  constitute  Methodist  journalism, 
unless  we  add  our  ever  genial  and  inspiring  friend,  "Joyful  News. 

They  are  Denominational  newspapers  first  and  foremost.  Their 
function  is  to  indicate  progress  in  their  respective  Denominations,  to 
emphasise  questions  of  Denominational  interest,  and  to  advance 
Connexional  projects.  Within  these  lines  thetir  work  is  well  done. 
It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  its  Press  rendered  signal  service  in 
paving  the  way  for  recent  changes  which  have  greatly  broadened  and 
liberalised  older  Methodism  ;  and  without  question  these  journals  have 
been  of  incalculable  value  in  advocating  those  magnificent  financial 
schemes,  the  Twentieth  Century  Funds,  which  are  unequalled  in  the 
history  of  the  Christian  Church. 

Methodist  journalism  has  excellent  qualities  and  is  doing  admirable 
service,  but  is  it  successful  from  the  people's  point  of  view?  Is  it 
exercising  the  influence  it  ought  to  do  upon  the  mass  of  Methodism? 
Is  there  a  Methodist  newspaper  in  every  Methodist  home?  If  not, 
why  not?  It  may  be  the  fault  of  the  people.  The  people  may  not 
be  so  deeply  interested  in  the  progress  of  their  own  Denomination  as 
they  ought  to  be.  I  do  not  hesitate  to.  say  that  Methodist  newspapers 
deserve  larger  support  from  Methodist  people  than  they  receive  ;  but 
are  Methodist  newspapers  doing  all  they  might  to  get  it  ?  Nothing  is 
easier  than  to  criticise  newspapers,  especially  by  those  who  do  not 
edit  them.  Nevertheless,  there  are  two  or  three  points  which  deserve 
attention. 

First,  Methodist  papers  issued  in  London  have  been  too  exclusively 
occupied  with  London  Methodism.  Happily,  there  has  of  late  been  a 
great  improvement  in  this  respect ;  but  it  is  not  yet  realised  that  for 
every  Methodist  in  London  there  are  ten  Methodists  in  the  provinces 
to  be  catered  for.    Secondly,  have  the  editors  of  Methodist  journals 


GENERAL    REMARKS,  2gi 

inquired  why  it  is  that,  large  numbers  of  Methodists  all  over  the  country 
prefer,  before  any  Methodist  paper,  a  brilliantly  conducted  so-called 
undenominational  newspaper,  but  with  a  tinge  of  Presbyterianism — 
a  paper  possessing  great  literary  merit  and  voicing  the  foremost 
religious  thought  of  our  time  in  theology  and  religious  literature?  It 
is  a  fact  which  cannot  be  disputed  that  Methodist  ministers  and 
educated  Methodists  in  large  numbers  are  attracted  to  the  paper  in 
question  for  light  and  leading  in  all  departments  of  knowledge  which 
interest  them  rather  than  to  their  own  Methodist  newspapers.  Can  it 
then  be  said  that  Methodist  journalism  is  adequately  fulfilling  its 
mission,  and  has  risen  to  the  full  height  of  its  opportunity,  when  some 
of  the  foremost  adherents  of  Methodism  look  elsewhere  than  to 
Methodist  journals  for  inspiration  and  guidance  in  all  the  great 
problems  arising  in  the  ever-widening  realm  of  modern  thought  ? 

Further,  Methodist  journalism  might,  with  great  advantage  to  the 
advancement  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  among  men,  follow  the  example 
of  the  first  Methodist  newspaper  and  publish,  not  merely  indications 
of  progress  by  records  of  the  accidentals  of  religious  organisation,  but 
actual  results  of  movement  in  spiritual  life — ^not  only  the  size  of  the 
vineyard,  and  the  names  of  the  labourers,  but  reports  of  the  fruit 
gathered  ;  not  only  records  of  chapels  and  places  of  worship,  but  of 
spiritual  achievements  in  them  ;  not  only  of  sermons  and  services,  but 
of  strongholds  of  evil  pulled  down,  and  the  Kingdom  of  God  estab- 
lished. Surely,  in  the  thousands  of  services  held  all  over  the  country, 
there  must  be  every  week  conversions  that  would  fill  a  page  of  any 
Methodist  newspaper  ;  and  no  intelligence  would  give  greater  impetu.s 
to  Methodist  life  and  power. 

While,  therefore,  most  warmly  and  gratefully  commending 
Methodist  journalism  as  it  is,  I  plead  for  a  higher  and  broader  concep- 
tion of  its  function  and  misision,  and  for  a  more  aggressive  tone  and 
spirit.  Methodist  people  require  to  be  reached  and  influenced  in 
larger  numbers  by  Methodist  journals.  When  the  time  comes  for  the 
establishment  of  a  great  Christian  daily  newspaper  in  this  country — 
while  it  should  not  be  a  denominational  newspaper — ^it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  Methodism  will  have  an  effective  share  in  it.  But,  taking  the 
journals  which  exist,  those  responsible  for  them  need  large  vision — 
they  should  requisition  the  highest  talent  and  the  most  gifted  writers. 
Increased  attention  should  be  given  to  temperance  and  to  social  and 
industrial  movements  affecting  the  advancement  of  Methodist  people 
in  common  with  other  members  of  the  commonwealth.  Only  in  seeking 
this  larger  and  wider  field,  and  reaching  up  to  this  higher  ideal  will 
Methodist  journals  fulfil  their  mission,  and  perform  the  great  service 
they  may  render  for  the  advancement  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  upon 
earth. 

The  Rev.  E.  H.  Pbarcb,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South),  opened  the  general  discussion  with  the  following  remarks : 

I  come  at  once  to  the  definition  of,  What  is  the  mission  of  literature? 
What  is  it,  unless  it  is  to  edify,  inform,  reform,  transform,  purify, 


292  METHODIST  LITERATURE. 

cleanse,  exhort,  and  io  ennoble  the  life  of  humanity?  The  concept 
of  its  mission  was  first  in  the  mind  of  God  when  Moses  was  commanded 
tu  wi'ite  the  outgoings  of  the  children  of  Israel  according  to  the  com- 
mandment of  the  Lurd.  It  was  reproduced  under  another  dispensation 
when  Samuel  was  ordered  to  write  the  manner  of  the  kingdom  and  lay 
it  up  before  the  Lord.  In  the  fulness  of  time  one  of  the  most  gifted 
of  all  the  penmen  that  God  ordaiBed  to  write  took  it  upon  himself  to 
say  that  he  wrote  these  things  that  the  Church  might  be  the  more 
assured  of  them.  Again,  one  of  the  very  last  mandates  is  from  the 
ordination  and  consecration  of  the  apocalyptic  pencil  commanding, 
"  Write !" 

Accepting  the  definition,  therefore,  what  may  be  stated  as  at  least 
two  reasons  why  literature  should  have  had  such  a  historic  past  in  the 
movement  and  forces  of  the  Kingdom  of  God?  First,  that  beyond 
all  other  wealth  it  has  had  a  reproductive  immortality  ;  and,  secondly, 
that  the  past  is  ever  to  be  learnt  for  the  good  of  the  present,  and  for 
God's  glory  in  the  future. 

In  connection  with  both,  definitions  of  these  two  propositions  I 
have  announced  as  the  reason  and  foundation  there  come  also  a 
series  of  questions  of  to-day,  the  elaboration  of  which  I  shall  not 
undertake,  but  leave  safely  to  the  intelligence  of  those  who  are  before 
me.  First,  does  the  literature  of  to-day  interpret  the  events  and 
opportunities  of  the  Kingdom  of  God?  Secondly,  does  it  in- 
terpret human  nature  to  itself  under  the  call  of  God's  mission  and 
regeneration  of  that  nature  ?  Thirdly,  does  it  interpret  the  spirit  of 
the  age  ?  Fourthly,  is  it  consecrated  and  ordained  to  serve  the  problems 
of  the  people?  It  is  stated  of  Gambetta  that  he  said  the  catastrophe 
which  overtook  the  French  nation  was  that  a  conflict  was  precipitated 
between  the  illiterate  sons  of  France  and  a  nation  of  schoolmasters. 
John  Fletcher's  voice  has  never  ceased  to  sound  through  the  corridors 
of  Calvinistic  controversy  for  a  hundred  years  past,  followed  by  the 
noble  exposition  and  map  of  Foster  across  the  Atlantic.  So  that 
to-day  the  very  sweetness  and  liglit  of  that  consecrated  pen  of  our 
English  ancestors  breathes  upon  the  air  an  evangel  that  sounds  to  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  and  will  never  cease  until  the  knowledge  of  God 
and  of  His  Christ  shall  have  covered  this  earth  as  the  waters  cover 
the  face  of  the  great  deep. 

That  extension  of  Christ's  knowledge,  under  God,  has  had  no  more 
signal  illustration  than  found  in  the  function  and  force  of  the  conse- 
crated literatiu-e  that  to-day  is  vital  and  central  in  the  redemption  of 
China.  Permit  me  to  illustrate.  At  the  close  of  the  China-Japan 
war,  a  few  years  ago,  which  was  so  disastrous  and  humiliating  to  China, 
the  Chinese  Government,  represented  by  the  Emperor  and  Li  Hung 
Chang*,  officially  requested  the  Eev.  Dr.  Young  J,  Allen,  a  mis- 
sionary of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  to  prepare  a  history 
of  the  struggle,  written  and  edited  from  the  standpoint  of  Western 
civilisation.  Li  Hung  Chang  placed  at  the  disposal  of  Dr.  Allen  about 
five  thousand  papers  from  the  Chinese  War  Ofiice,  representing  the 
official  record  of  the  war — a  notable  evidence  of  the  confidence  of  a 
great  Chinese  statesman  in  the  capacity  and  fidelity  of  the  Christian 
missionary.  Dr.  Allen,  a  graduate  of  Emory,  a  Southern  Methodist 
College  of  America,  who  had  for  forty  years  past  at  Shanghai  been 
engaged  especially  in  literary  labours  for  missionary  service,  and  had 
been  the  editor  of  a  magazine  that  for  years  had  found  access  to  official 

•  The  death  of  Li  Hung  Chang  has  occurred  while  this  book  is  going  through  the  Press. 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  293 

and  literary  classes  of  China  by  its  candid  but  sympathetic  treatment 
of  Chinese  conditions,  was,  under  Divine  Providence,  God's  own  Ezra 
to  chronicle  not  only  the  record  of  a  great  struggle,  but  to  faithfully 
contribute  a  literature  that  should  plainly  witness  to  China  its  supreme 
need  of  the  light  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  That  great  and  monumental 
work  Dr.  Allen  has  been  spared  to  complete,  and,  without  hesitation  or 
apology,  his  great  work  witnesses  and  urges  upon  China  that  the 
reason  of  Japan's  triumph  was  to  be  found  in  the  opening  of  her  gates 
to  the  message  of  Christianity.  That  the  Emperor  of  China  lias  made 
a  donation  of  one  million  copies  to  his  countrymen  of  that  history — 
which  is  now  an  official  and  most  popular  publication — once  more 
compels  us  to  exclaim,  "  What  hath  God  wrought ! '' 

That  great  pioneer  of  China's  Christian  literature  is  a  member  of 
this  Conference,  and  I  trust  he  will  tell  for  himself  how,  under  God, 
a  consecrated  literature  has  had  an  "  open  and  effectual  door,"  and  been 
used  and  owned  of  God  for  one  of  the  most  transcendent  triumphs  of 
the  Gospel,  since  its  Founder  commanded  the  apostles  to  "go  and 
teach  all  nations." 

The  Rev.  Homer  Eaton,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episoopal  Church),  said : 

I  am  not  an  author,  and.  have  no  right,  perhaps,  to  sit  in  judgment 
upon  Methodist  authorship.  I  happen,  in  the  order  of  Providence,  to 
be  a  publisher,  having  been  put  in  charge  many  years  ago  of  the 
Methodist  publishing  interests  in  New  York.  Wesley,  it  seems  to  me, 
in  many  respects  built  more  wisely  than  he  knew.  He  seems  to  have 
been  led  out  by  Providence  in  strange  ways.  After  the  marvellous 
results  of  his  preaching  he  found  it  necessary  to  give  his  people  a 
distinctive  literature  to  help  him  in  building  them  up  in  the  faith  which 
he  preached.  The  history  of  Methodist  literature  on  this  side  of  the 
water  is  better  known  to  you  in  this  country  than  to  me.  Crossing  the 
Atlantic,  and  establishing  Methodism  on  the  shores  of  the  New  World, 
preachers  were  raised  up  who  were  marvellous  in  their  gifts  of  rude 
oratory,  and  the  results  of  their  preaching,  as  they  wandered  up  and 
down  through  that  country,  were  so  wonderful  that  people  of  other 
faiths  looked  upon  them  with  amazement.  It  was  felt,  both  by  Wesley 
and  the  preachers  in  America,  that  there  must  be  a  distinctive  Methodist 
literature  to  supplement  the  preaching,  to  be  put  in  the  hands  of 
converts,  many  of  them  illiterate,  to  establish  them  in  the  faith  of 
Wesley.     So  a  literature  also  sprang  up  on  that  side  of  the  water. 

First,  we  imported  books  from  England,  and  then  we  established  our 
own  Book  Concern.  In  the  very  first  years  of  the  ihistory  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  America  we  established  our  Publishing 
House,  and  began  to  throw  off  from  our  press  the  kind  of  literature 
which  was  needed  to  build  up  the  young  Church  in  the  faith  of  the 
Wesleys.  That  work  has  been  continued  with  most  satisfactory  results. 
We  have  produced  some  great  authors,  whom  I  cannot  mention  here 
this  iporning.  Early  we  found  authors  who  were  worthy  to  be  the 
disciples  and  the  followers  of  Wesley  ;  and  in  these  days  we  have 
living  among  us  a  Foster,  a  Hurst,  a  Rogers,  and  others  who  are  giving 
to  us  the  kind  of  literature  which  is  needed  in  this  day,  literature 
which  does  not  exactly  follow  in  the  track  of  Wesley's  Sermons,  or 
Watson's  Institutes,  but  literature  which  is  broadening  as  the  know- 
ledge of  this  age  is  broadening,  and  thus  helping  to  keep  our  people 
in  line  for  continued  conquests  in  the  days  that  are  to  come. 

Methodist  journalism  in  America  has  assumed  large  proportions. 
Our    papers   have   a   wide   circulation,    and    yet  our   people    are    not 


294 


METHODIST  LITERATURE. 


reading  our  literature  to-day  as  largely,  in  proportion  to  our  member- 
ship, as  they  were  reading  it  in  the  days  that  are  gone.  Other  literature 
is  crowding  in  upon  us,  and  it  seems  to  me  that  in  this  age  the  great 
question  is  how  to  shape  our  literature  so  as  to  make  it  attractive  to 
our  young  people,  and  thus  indoctrinate  them  with  the  doctrines  which 
have  come  down  to  us  from  the  Wesleys,  and  to  which  we  most  iheartily 
subsciibe  in  these  days.  The  danger  is  that  our  young  people  will  be 
led  away  from  us.  Let  us  hold  them,  not  only  by  our  preaching,  but 
by  an  attractive  and  helpful  literature. 

The  Rev.  E.  J.  Watkin,  D.D.  (Australasian  Methodist  Church) 
spoke  as  follows: 

I  wish  to  speak  a  word  in  favour  of  the  old  Methodist 
hterature.  I  do  not  undervalue  the  new  Methodist  literature. 
God  be  thanked  for  the  work  that  is  being  done  by  Dr.  Beet  and  Dr. 
Davison,  and  others  ;  but  while  we  accept  the  teachings  of  the  new, 
do  not  let  us  reject  the  teaching  of  the  old.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to 
suppose  that  the  ];)ast  possessed"  all  the  truth,  but  it  is  a  greater  mis- 
take to  suppose  that  the  past  possessed  none  of  the  truth.  There  are 
a  great  number  of  subjects  upon  which  you  cannot  have  a  better 
authority  than  that  of  Adam  Clarke's  Commentaries  and  Richard  Wat- 
son's Institutes,  and  John  Wesley's  Sermons.  The  able  reader  or 
deliverer  of  an  address  referred  to  the  ipsissima  verba  of  John  Wesley. 
I  only  wish  that  those  words  were  better  known  to  the  "Methodist 
people.  It  has  been  said,  with  a  good  deal  of  truth,  that  if  a  Metho- 
dist minister  to-day  wants  to  plagiarise  another's  sermon,  and  not 
to  be  found  out,  he  cannot  do  better  than  preach  one  of  John  Wesley's 
sermons.  There  are  a  great  number  of  subjects  upon  which  we  have 
to  alter  our  view  since  the  days  of  Richard  Watson  and  Adam  Clarke. 
No  wise  man  to-day  will  go  to  Adam  Clarke  for  information,  it  may  be, 
in  reference  to  the  histories  of  some  of  the  Sacred  Books,  but  is  there 
any  modern  commentatori  who  can  teach  us  better  the  meaning  of 
justification  by  faith  and  repentance,  and  the  other  doctrines  which 
have  been  the  glory  of  Methodism,  and  which,  if  we  cease  to  proclaim 
from  our  pulpits,  as  those  men  did,  we  shall  cease  to  be  effective  ? 

Higher  criticism,  although  it  may  have  affected  our  belief  as  to  the 
authorship  of  the  Psalms,  has  it  taken  away  from  us  the  spiritual 
meaning  of  the  23rd  Psalm?  Higher  criticism  may  perhaps  have  led 
some  of  us  to  doubt  whether  one  or  the  other  Isaiah  wrote  the  words  : 
"  Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  He  may  be  found."  But  has  the  higher 
criticism  affected  the  Gospel  according  to  Isaiah  ?  I  think,  too,  it  is  a  great 
pity  when  a  Methodist  preacher  to-day  is  familiar  with  Robertson's  (of 
Brighton)  Sermons,  and  knows  nothing  about  Richard  Watson's  Ser- 
mons. I  think  it  is  a  great  pity  to-day  that  there  are  sermons  preached 
from  Methodist  pulpits  and  published  in  Methodist  magazines  that  are 
full  of  quotations  from  Shakespeare  and  Tennyson,  and'  Whittier  and 
Emerson,  and  yet  do  not  have  a  single  quotation  from  the  Oracles 
of  God.  I  think  we  need  to  go  back  to  the  old  principles,  and  to 
try  and  preach  the  Gospel  as  those  men  did,  to  whom  there  are 
memorial' tablets  round  this  historic  chapel.  The  fact  is  that  while 
God  has  not  departed  from  us,  yet  our  success  does  not  correspond 
to  our  agency,  and  that,  taking  world-wide  Methodism,  we  are  not 
as  proportionately  tft'ective  to-day  as  our  fathers  were.  I  think  that 
in  connection  with  Methodist  preaching  we  are  getting  too  much 
preaching  that  is  negative  instead  of  preaching  that  is  positive,  and  I 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  295 

believe  that  it  would  be  a  grand  thing  if  every  minister  and  layman 
would  go  away  from  this  (Ecumenical  Conference  resolved  not  to  read 
the  modern  less,  but  to  read  the  ancient  literature  of  Methodism  a  great 
deal  more. 

The  Rev.  I.  B.  Scott,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church)  was 
the  next  s-peaker.     He  saii  : 

I  consider  that  the  journalist  of  Metiiodism  is  the  historian  of  the 
Church.  He  is  called  upon  not  only  to  record  the  doings  of  his  Church, 
but  to  submit  them  to  the  people  who  live  in  his  time  who  may  pass  judg- 
ment upon  the  record  which  he  has  made.  Such  a  responsible  task 
should  be  handled  by  a  man  who  is  both  reliable  and  accurate.  I  feel 
that  there  is  much  that  belongs  to  this  class  of  work  that  those  who 
handle  it  to-day  may  not  fully  appreciate,  and  t(hat  the  journalists  of 
the  future  may  to  a  great  extent  execute.  Yet  there  is  no  denying  the 
fact  that  the  journalism  of  our  Methodism  does  much  to  keep  the 
Church  in  its  channel  from  a  doctrinal  standpoint,  and  to  inform  the 
Church  as  to  its  own  doings  in  various  parts  of  the  field  in  such  a 
way  that  the  Church  could  not  possibly  dispense  with  it  and  live. 
Again,  Methodist  journalism  is  a  medium  for  circulating  Methodist 
news,  and  for  making  the  Church  understand  itself  and  its  doings 
in  this  particular. 

As  to  the  matter  of  diligence  and  constant  watchfulness,  on  this 
point  the  secular  press  gives  us  a  worthy  example.  I  should  not 
advise  that  we  should  copy  the  secular  press  in  every  respect,  for  I 
have  been  led  to  feel  that  the  secular  press,  at  least  to  some  extent, 
misrepresents  the  facts  very  often,  instead  of  representing  them  pro- 
perly. I  do  not  know  what  your  problem  is  over  here,  but  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  problem .  of  the  American  people  to-day  is  what  the 
secular  press  is  going  to  do  with  the  country.  It  is  not  that  I  should 
advocate  the  suppression  of  free  speech,  nor  deny  to  any  writer  the 
privilege  of  expressing  his  thoughts  as  he  may  think  best.  _  Yet  you 
know  that  there  is  a  danger  line,  and  I  am  sure  that  there  is  no  one 
here  but  has  been  led  to  feel,  within  the  last  few  days,  that  sometimes 
those  teachings  that  men  claim  to  be  principles  arc  enunciated  either 
with  too  much  force  and  emphasis,  or  are  carried  too  far,  and  lead 
some  men  to  commit  violent  deeds  that  hinder  the  progress  of  civilisa- 
tion. 

In  this  particular  I  might  mention,  as  an  example,  tliat  since  I 
have  been  here  I  have  had  questions  asked  me  about  the  section  of 
the  country  from  which  I  hail,  the  South,  and  the  conditions  which 
exist  there.  There  are  some  bad  people  in  the  States  ;  there  are  bad 
black  men,  and  there  are  some  bad  white  men  ;  but  there  is  a  great 
silent  element  that  stands  for  right  and  principle  among  the  people 
of  both  races,  and  it  is  as  true  to-dajr  as  ever  it  was.  I  have  in  mind 
the  fact  that  I  have  been  led  to  believe  from  what  I  have  heard  that 
the  people  suppose  that  we  sleep  with  our  hands  on  our  guns,  and 
ready  to  defend  ourselves  at  any  moment.  There  is  no  such  feeling. 
There  is  no  such  necessity.  There  are  people  who  are  ready  to  do 
violence,  but  I  could  point  out  here  men  of  the  opposite  race  from  my 
Bection  of  the  country  who  are  diligent  in  doing  such  service  to  the 
people  of  my  race  as  you  would  not  expect  from  what  you  read  in 
the  secular  press.  There  is  a  man  here  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  whose  name  I  might  give,  who,  the  first  time  I  ever 
met  him,  was  in  a  room  of  the  house  of  a  preacher  of  my  own  race  as 


296  METHODIST  LITERATURE. 

he  lay  dying  in  an  adjoining  room,  waiting  for  his  turn  to  go  in  and 
speak  a  word  of  cheer  to  him. 

The  Rev.  C.  H.  Phillips,  D.D.  (Coloured  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  continuing  the  discussion,  said : 

I  believe  that  nobody  will  deny  the  statement  that  Methodism  has 
an  honoured  record  in  authorship  and  literary  productions,  for  litera- 
ture, like  the  Gospel,  has  become  the  heritage  of  mankind.  As  early 
as  1739  Mr.  Wesley  distributed  tracts  and  books  from  the  Foundry. 
In  thirteen  years  his  own  productions  amounted  to  a  hundred  and 
eighty-one,  and  he  treated  the  subject  in  a  way  fully  up  to  the  advance 
of  his  day.  The  best  of  it  was  that  those  publications  were  so  cheap 
that  the  very  poorest  of  the  people  could  purchase  them.  I  believe 
that  one  of  the  greatest  needs  of  Methodism  to-day  is  a  cheaper  litera- 
ture, not  literature  that  may  be  cheap  as  to  quality,  but  cheap  as  to 
price.  I  have  been  surprised  since  I  have  been  here  to  find  how  much 
cheaper  books  can  be  purchased  on  this  side  than  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Atlantic.  If  our  people,  whether  they  be  black  or  white,  are 
to  be  indoctrinated  into  the  doctrines  and  principles  of  Methodism  our 
literature  must  be  put  upon  a  basis  so  that  all  the  people  can  purchase 
it.  There  are  many  of  our  books  to-day  lying  as  dead  upon  our 
shelves  as  an  Egyptian  mummy  in  the  case  of  a  museum.  This  is  so 
because  the  masses  cannot  purchase  them.  The  phenomenal  exten- 
sion of  Methodism  throughout  the  country,  its  Providential  and 
logical  system  of  gradual  development,  its  crystallisation  into  a  move- 
ment which,  by  reason  of  its  prominence  and  success,  has  challenged 
alike  the  admiration  of  its  friends  and  its  enemies,  have  been  largely 
due  to  the  genius  of  its  missionary  spirit  and  to  the  character  and  the 
dissemination  of  its  literature. 

The  Rev.  C.  W.  Smith,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church)  spoke 
as  follows : 

On  this  great  subject  I  confine  my  thoughts  exclusively  to  the 
department  of  periodical  literature.  First,  if  we  are  to  have  an  intelli- 
gent, loyal,  hberal  membership,  we  must  have  a  reading  membership, 
a  membership  that  will  not  read  only  general  literature,  the  daily 
papers,  and  the  magazines,  but  that  will  read  Methodist  literature, 
that  is  to  say,  our  Methodist  weekly  and  monthly  publications.  What 
will  our  children  say  if  they  find  upon  the  parlour  and  library  tables 
of  their  parents  the  pohtical  paper,  the  social  paper,  the  fashion  maga- 
zine, and  nothing  whatever  concerning  our  Church?  Will  they  not 
inevitably  conclude  that  their  parents  are  more  interested  in  politics 
and  society  and  fashions  than  they  are  in  their  religion?  In  the 
second  place,  how  are  oiu-  people  to  be  informed  concerning  the  great 
movements  of  our  Churoh,  our  great  missionary  movement,  for  in- 
stance, the  subhmest  the  world  has  ever  seen?  How  are  they  to  be 
brought  into  sympathy  with  these  great  world-movements  if  they  are 
not  informed  about  them  ;  and  how  are  they  to  be  informed  about 
them  unless  they  shall  be  taught  week  by  week  through  our  publica- 
tions? I  insist  that  if  our  people  are  to  be  loyal  to  the  Church,  and 
are  to  be  liberal  to  the  Church,  they  must  be  informed  concerning  the 
Church,   and  what  it  is  doing. 

Then  if  our  people  are  to  be  thus  informed  through  the  circulation 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  297 

of  our  Church  Hternlure,  the  responsibility  for  the  circulatinn  of  this 
lileraturo  is  on  the  pastors,  the  presiding  eldei\s,  the  leading  official 
members.  The  time  was — it  is  still  in  part — when  the  Methodist 
minister  was  a  colporteur.  He  not  only  preached  the  Gospel,  but  he 
carried  the  books  in  saddle  bags.  He  circulated  the  papers  wherever 
he  went,  and  thus  he  left  behind  him  an  agent  which  crystallised  and 
secured  the  work  which  he  had  done  in  preaching  the  Gospel.  That 
day  must  not  depart  from  us  as  Methodists  if  we  are  to  maintain  our 
hold  upon  our  people.  Woe  to  us  when  our  preachers  become  too 
dignified,  and  cultured,  and  fashionable  to  be  known  as  the  circulators 
of  our  Church  literature.  It  is  just  as  much  the  business  of  Methodist 
ministers  to  circulate  literature  as  it  is  to  preach  the  Gospel,  and  it 
is  because  our  fathers  did  this  that  we  have  the  Church.  I  do  not 
say  that  this  is  so  vital  a  matter  as  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  but 
that  it  is  our  business  as  well  as  the  other.  Our  literature  has  estab- 
lished what  our  fathers  did  as  evangelists,  and  it  must  continue  to  do 
that  in  the  future.  I  beg  Methodista,  ministers,  and  laymen  to  put 
into  the  circulation  of  the  literature  of  the  Church  tdieir  very  best 
thought  and  their  largest  liberality,  that  we  may  be  an  increasingly 
intelligent  and  devoted  people. 

The  Rev.  T.  Sherwood  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches)  said : 

I  think  the  time  has  gone  by  for  us  to  make  any  apologies  for  our 
Methodism.  We  loom  large  in  the  eye  of  the  world  ;  we  sustain 
certain  relations  to  what  I  will  call  "  current  thought "  ;  we  have  set 
certain  problems  for  modern  thinkers  ;  and  it  becomes  our  duty,  I 
think,  to  make  some  contribution  towards  solving  some  of  the  problems 
which  we  have  set.  I  have  rejoiced  to  notice  that  in  this  Conference 
the  fact  of  experience  has  been  pre-eminently  emphasised,  and  I 
have  noticed  that  a  number  of  our  brethren  from  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic  seem  quite  disposed  to  rest  the  whole  evidential  case  upon 
what  I  call  experience.  But  we  must  recognise  the  fact  that  our 
Methodism  must  be  related  to  thought,  to  philosophy,  and  to  what 
I  will  call  literature  as  distinct  from  philosophy.  John  Wesley  was 
a  learned  man,  and  he  meant  his  people  to  be  a  reading  people. 
Whenever  John  Wesley  met  with  a  mystical  book,  a  book  that  spoke 
direct  to  the  soul,  he  translated  either  the  whole  of  it,  or  a  portion  of 
it,  so  that  his  people  might  become  a  mystical  people,  or  a  people 
having  spiritual  experience,  but  there  are  many  thinkers  to-day  who 
think  that  they  have  solved  this  fact  of  experience  by  one  or  two 
theories. 

There  is  the  mythical  theory  concerning  Jesus  Christ,  there  is  the 
theory  of  idealism.  Let  us  recognise  this  fact,  that  we  set  a  problem 
to  the  sceptic  just  as  the  sceptic  sets  a  problem  to  us.  How  have  we 
got  the  sinless  Christ?  Where  did  He  come  from?  He  has  a  place 
in  history,  but  how  did  He  get  into  history?  Certainly  He  has  not 
been  evolved  out  of  the  consciousness  of  men,  for  there  is  no  sinless- 
ness  in  man,  and,  therefore,  the  sinless  Christ  could  not  have  been 
evolved  out  of  a  sinful  human  consciousness.  Where  has  He  come 
from?  In  that  respect  He  transcends  the  conditions  of  history,  but 
still  He  remains  historical.  Then  we  have  been  told  that  our  experi- 
ence may  be  accounted  for  in  this  way,  that  we  think  the  Christ  and 
then  He  reacts  upon  us,  and  produces  within  us  the  experience  that  we 
previously  thought.  But  that  comes  back  to  the  old  position.  We 
cannot  evolve  Him,  for  He  is  not  within  us  to  begin  with.     Sinfulness 


298  METHODIST  LITERATURE. 

is  in  US,  but  He  is  sinless.  Therefore,  I  take  it  that  we  are  justified 
in  our  work  of  trying  to  guide  the  thought  of  the  world,  justified  in 
asking  the  sceptic  to  think  with  us,  and  if  he  is  to  think  with  us 
we  must  give  liim  something  to  think  about — we  must  address  our- 
selves to  these  problems,  and  we  must  try  to  show  that  the  assumption 
— for  all  science  really  does  rest  upon  assumption,  and  all  criticism 
must  postulate  something — that  the  assumption  that  Jesus  was  and  is 
God-given  is  an  assumption  justified  by  history  and  justified  by  modern 
psychology,  is  an  assumption  which  really,  when  considered  in  the  light 
of  history  and  psychology,  ceases  to  be  an  assumption  and  becomes 
to  us  one  of  the  oldest  facts. 

The  Rev.  T.  Parr,  M.A.  (Primitive  Methodist  Church),  made  the 
following  remarks : 

Methodist  literature  is  largely  the  offspring  of  Methodist  life  ;  not 
the  offspring  so  much  and  specially  of  intellectual  power  by  itself,  but 
the  offspring  of  the  spiritual  life  in  the  soul  that  God  has  given.  It 
has  been  observed  in  other  literatures  that  the  best  workers  are  often 
the  best  thinkers.  When  I  was  in  Edinburgh  a  graduate  of  the  Uni- 
versity was  taking  some  classes  among  the  working  men,  and  en- 
deavouring to  give  to  those  working  men  a  working  religion  scienti- 
fically expressed.  From  that  class  there  came  "  Natural  Law  in  the 
Spiritual  World."  That  which  happened  to  Professor  Drummond  in 
Edinburgh  has  hapi>ened  to  Methodism  all  along  the  line.  There  has 
been  awakened,  thank  God,  a  zeal  for  knowledge,  pursued  very  often 
under  very  difficult  circumstances.  We  ought  at  least  to  be  grateful 
for  the  success  that  has  attended  the  circulation  of  our  literature. 

Every  brother  can  speak  for  his  own  Denomination.  I  speak  for 
'our  own — not  the  largest,  but  the  second  largest  in  this  country — and 
our  profits,  I  find  from  our  Book  Room,  during  the  last  two  years  have 
been  over  £5,000  a  year.  Well,  if  we  can  make  £5,000  a  year  profit, 
somebody  has  bought  some  books,  and  somebody  has  read  them. 
Methodist  literature  will  ever  be  very  wideawake  by  reason  of  the  fact 
that  its  writers  are  in  direct  contact  with  the  people,  and  are  not  merely 
imbedded  in  their  studies,  but  are  engaged  in  work  among  the  people,  so 
that  there  will  be  a  freedom  in  the  literature,  and  there  will  be  a  bold  and 
daring  outlook.  As  many  of  our  young  people  are  to-day  attending 
the  science  schools,  we  are  not  afraid  of  science  ;  and,  indeed,  I  am 
prepared,  just  in  a  sentence,  to  say  that  we  are  prepared  to  show  that 
the  spiritual  is  the  scientific  basis  of  creation  and  the  universe.  The 
apologetic  part  of  our  literature  must  be  the  apologetic  of  experience 
and  fact. 

The  problem  is  to  combine  the  interest  that  will  attract  the  people, 
amid  the  interesting  publications  issued  all  around  of  the  "Tit-Bits'* 
variety,  with  the  instructive  element.  It  is  a  big  problem,  it  is  a 
difficult  one,  but  if  there  is  one  man  in  this  world  who  can  do  it 
it  is  a  Methodist  preacher.  I  hope  you  will  not  take  that  as  a  matter 
©f  conceit.  I  take  it  as  the  result  of  his  environment,  his  work,  and 
his  training.  But  we  ought  to  set  more  before  our  people  the  duty 
of  supporting  our  literature.  We  may  take  a  leaf  out  of  the  book  of 
the  Salvation  Army  in  that  respect.  If  we  were  as  zealous  and  earnest 
in  urging  our  people  to  support  our  literature  as  they  are  we  should 
not  have  much  to  fear. 

Has  not  the  time  come  for  a  united  Methodist  paper  in  this  country  V 
Think  it  out.     I  believe  the  united  Methodist  forces  of  this  country 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  299 

could  support  a  daily  paper.  If  there  is  one  branch  of  the  Cliuvch 
that  is  more  loyal  tliaii  another  we  contend  it  is  our  own.  We  do  not 
want  to  say  anything  unkind  of  other  Demuninations,  but  our  people 
stand  for  loyalty  If  ll'^^i'C  i«  one  Church  above  another  that  has  a 
better  opportunity  of  establishing  a  daily  paper  I  think  it  is  tihe 
Methodist  Church.  If  we  cannot  establish  a  daily,  it  is  time  we  had 
a  united  weekly,  for  I  am  sure  we  could  carry  it  through. 

The  Rev.  W.  H.  Nelson,  Ph.D.,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church)  said  : 

While  I  endorse  with  all  my  heart  all  that  has  been  said  concern- 
ing the  subject,  I  wish  to  throw  in  a  thought.  None  of  us,  while  we 
consider  the  demands  that  should  be  made  upon  Methodist  authorship, 
can  determine  what  the  demands  a  hundred  years  from  now  will  be. 
We  are  perfectly  satisfied  with  the  rich  fruits  which  have  come  to  us 
through  the  authorship  of  the  past,  but  we  have  just  crossed  the 
threshold  of  a  new  century,  a  century  which  promises  greater  demands 
from  every  point  of  view  than  any  century  past,  and  hence  Methodist 
authorship  will  be  placed  under  much  greater  responsibilities  in  the 
future  than  in  the  past. 

I  wish  to  call  attention  especially  to  the  fact  that  one  of  the  demands 
that  will  be  made  upon  Methodist  authorship  will  be  to  perpetuate 
Methodism.  Methodism  cannot  continue  to  exist  and  succeed  in  the 
future  as  it  has  in  the  past  without  an  ideal  always  running  in  that 
direction.  The  demand  will  be  made  upon  those  who  shall  write  con- 
cerning Methodism,  its  pr:nciples,  and  its  utility  in  the  world.  Secondly, 
it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  Methodism,  in  order  to  succeed  in  the 
future  as  in  the  past,  and  as  we  desire,  should  be  intelligent.  Every 
man  and  every  woman  who  is  a  Methodist  ought  to  be  able  to  give 
decisive,  clear,  and  cogent  reasons  why  he  is  a  Methodist,  and  ought 
to  be  able  to  do  so  regardless  of  whatever  may  come  forth  to  confront 
him  in  the  effort  to  overturn  or  upset  his  faith. 

The  Rev.  Geo.  Jackson,  B.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Churob)  was 
the  last  speaker.     He  said : 

I  wish  to  mention  to  the  Conference  one  or  two  facts  which  have 
come  under  my  own  personal  observation  during  the  last  year  or  two, 
which,  simple  though  they  may  be,  are  not,  I  think,  without  interest 
in  our  present  connection.  Reference  has  been  made  this  morning 
to  my  old  tutor,  Dr.  Beet,  and  to  the  work  he  has  done  for  Methodism 
in  this  direction.  If  he  were  not  in  the  Conference  I  could  say 
many  things  which  I  do  not  care  at  the  present  moment  to  say.  I 
may  remind  you,  however,  that  Scotland,  which  keeps  its  eyes  open 
in  these  matters,  recognised  Dr.  Beet's  worth,  and  a  few  years  ago 
conferred  upon  him,  through  its  Glasgow  University,  the  degree  of 
Doctor  in  Divinity.  •      *v 

I  was  in  the  study  of  a  well-known  Free  Church  Professor  m  Aber- 
deen a  Httle  while  ago,  and  he  showed  me  a  book  which  had  been  sent 
to  him  for  review,  which  he  said  was  one  of  the  best  books  in  its  own 
line  which  had  been  through  his  hands  for  years  past.  It  was  the 
"Christian  Interpretation  of  Life,"  by  the  present  President  of  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference  (Rev.  W.  T.  Davison,  M.A.,  D.D.). 
Two  eminent  Free  Church  ministers  in  Edinburgh,  well  known  here, 


300  BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS. 

although  I  do  not  care  to  mention  their  names,  were  talking,  as 
ministers  will,  about  literature,  and  one  of  them  said  to  the  other  that 
the  best  exposition  in  English  which  had  been  given  to  the  world, 
so  far  as  he  knew,  was  the  "  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,"  by  Dr.  George 
Findlay,  in  the  Expositor's  Bible.  His  friend  rejoined  that  he  was 
inclined  to  agree  with  him,  and  the  only  exception  he  thought  he 
would  make  would  be  the  volume  on  Ephesians  by  the  same  writer  in 
the  same  series.  I  was  spending  a  holiday  a  little  while  ago  in  Switzer- 
land, and  on  the  summit  of  the  Bel  Alp  I  entered  into  conversation 
with  an  old  student  of  Dr.  Gheyne,  of  Oxford.  We  fell  to  discussing 
the  relative  value  of  contributions  to  the  Christian  literature  of  Non- 
conformity and  Anglicanism.  He  stood  up  for  Anglicanism,  and  I,  as  best 
I  could,  endeavoured  to  uphold  the  view  of  Methodism.  He  said  there 
were  two  books  in  the  Cambridge  Bible  series,  one  on  Isaiah,  by  Pro- 
fessor Skinner,  and  one  on  the  Thessalonians,  by  Professor  Findlay. 
He  said  'he  believed  those  books  were  by  Nonconformists,  and  he  fur- 
ther went  on  to  volunteer  the  testimony  that  in  his  judgment  no  works 
had  been  given  to  the  Christian  world  during  the  past  few  years  which 
were  worthier  to  stand  by  the  side  of  the  late  Bishop  Lightfoot,  of 
Durham,  than  these  works  of  Professor  Findlay. 

May  I  say — it  is  a  bold  thing  for  the  youngest  Methodist  minister 
here  to  say — that  one  of  the  needs  of  Wesleyan  literature  at  the  present 
time  is  a  worthier  presentation  of  the  life  and  work  of  our  own  great 
founder.  We  are  to  have  what  we  hope  will  be  a  worthy  edition  of  the 
"Journals."  I  think  we  need  more  than  that.  We  need  two  Lives  of 
John  Wesley.  We  want  what  shall  be  the  standard  Student's  Life, 
and  the  man  who  writes  that  book  will  need  to  know  the  influences 
and  the  ideals  of  the  eighteenth  century  tlioroughly.  Beyond  that, 
and  I  had  almost  said  above  it,  we  want  a  book  on  John  Wesley  which 
the  bright,  intelligent,  thinking  youth  of  Methodism  the  wide  world 
over  will  read  and  appreciate.  My  idea  is  that  it  should  be  something 
like  the  little  "Life  of  Christ"  and  the  little  "Life  of  Paul,"  written 
by  Dr.  Stalker.  If  we  could  have  a  "Life  of  John  Wesley,"  setting 
forth  his  career  and  his  work  in  that  short,  clean-cut,  picturesque  style, 
I  beheve  the  man  who  would  write  it  would  do  a  service  to  Methodism 
throughout  the  whole  world. 

The  Rev.  J.  Bond  (Secretary)  moved  that  a  resolution,  signed 
by  the  Rev.  W.  R.  Lambuth,  M.D.,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South)  and  the  Rev.  J.  W.  Butler,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church),  asking  the  Statistical  Committee  to  furnish  statistics 
in  relation  to  Foreign  Missions,  as  to  work  and  workers,  should  be 
referred  to  the  Business  Committee,  which  was  agreed  to. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  (Secretary),  drew  attention  to  the 
following  arrangements  made  by  the  Committee  for  Provincial 
deputations : 

Sept.  18,  Bristol :  Bishop  W.  J.  Gaines,  D.D.  (African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church),  Bishop  W.  B.  Derrick,  D.D.  (African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church),  and  the  Rev.  J.  Berry  (Australasian  Methodist 
Church). 

Sept.  18,  Sheffield :  Bishop  R.  S.  Williams,  D.D.  (Coloured  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church),  Bishop  C.  S.  Smith,  D.D.  (African  Methodist 


METHODIST   YOUNG  PEOPLES   SOCIETIES.  301 

Episcopal  Church),  and  th«  Rev.  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D.  (Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South). 

Sept.  18,  Newcastle-on-Tyne :  Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South),  Bishop  G.  W.  Clinton,^  D.D. 
(African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church),  and  Professor  W.  8.  Scar- 
borough, LL.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

Sept.  18  and  19,  Leeds:  Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  Bishop  B.  W.  Arnett,  D.D.  (African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  and  the  Rev.  S.  P.  Rose,  D.D.  (Metho- 
dist Church  of  Canada).  .      ^  ^.    , . 

Sept.  18  and  19,  Manchester  :  The  Rev.  E.  J.  Watkin,  D.D.  (Aus- 
tralasian Methodist  Church),  the  Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D.  (Methodist 
Episcopal  Church),  and  Professor  W.  S.  Scarborough,  LL.D.  (African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

Sept.  19,  Birmingham:  The  Rev.  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D.  (Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South),  Bishop  W.  B.  Derrick,  D.D.  (African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  and  the  Rev.  E.  J.  Watkin,  D.D.  (Aus- 
tralasian Methodist  Church). 

Sept.  19,  Hull :  Bishop  C.  S.  Smith,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church),  and  the  Rev.  J.  0.  Willson,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South). 

No  arrangements  were  made  for  Liverpool  ;  the  arrangements  tor 
Dublin  and  Belfast  were  left  in  the  hands  of  the  Irish  friends. 

The  Session  closed  with  the  Benediotion. 


SECOND     SESSION. 

TOPIC  : 
METHODIST    YOUNG    PEOPLE'S    SOCIETIES. 


The  afternoon  session  was  opened  by  a  short  service,  the  Rev. 
G.  T.  Candlin  again  presiding.  Prayer  was  ofEered  by  the  Rev. 
J.  E.  Radcliffe  (Methodist  New  Connexion). 

The  interests  of  the  young  people  occupied  the  session,  the  Rev. 
W.  I.  Haven,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  introducing  the 
subject  with  an  essay  on  "Methodist  Young  People's  Societies." 
He  said : 

"The  world  advances  generation  by  generation."  These  are  the 
thoughtful  words  of  William  Xavier  Ninde.  What  could  better  intro- 
duce my  theme  ?  I  ask  you  to  look  out  upon  the  mighty  host,  mobi- 
lised, in  a  measure  disciplined,  with  regiments  here  and  there  akeady 
veteran,  a  host  that  had  no  being  a  generation  ago.  Twenty  thousand 
from  the  Coloured  Methodist  Church,  twenty-five  thousand  under  the 
banner  of  St.  George,  eighty  thousand-  from  the  far-stretching 
Dominion  whose  shores  are  washed  by  the  oceans,  three  hundred 
thousand  bearing  palm  branches  from  the  Methodism  of  the  Southern 
Church,    two  thousand   thousand  from   the  eldest   of  the   American 


302  METHODIST   YOUNG  PEOPLE'S   SOCIETIES. 

daughters  of  the  Wesleyan  movement — two  and  a  half  millions,  a 
company  vaster  than  one-half  of  the  entire  organised  (Ecumenical 
Methodism  of  the  first  (Ecumenical  Conference  two  decades  ago.  What 
nation,  what  empire  would  not  rejoice  in  such  a  host,  sensitive  to  its 
ideals?  I  wish  that  there  hung  before  us  here  a  war  map  of  the 
Church,  and  that  there  were  marked  upon  it  the  number  and  location 
of  these  forces  of  our  young  militant  Methodism.  I  believe  we  sTiould 
find  it  in  our  hearts  to  sing  praises  for  the  mercies  of  God. 

I  have  set  myself  to  tell  in  a  few  words  the  story  of  the  genesis  of 
this  movement,  the  most  remarkable  in  the  history  of  this  generation 
of  the  Christian  Church.  There  has  never  been  a  time  when  the 
Methodism  of  which  I  have  most  intimate  knowledge  has  not  been 
ahve  to  the  peculiar  qualities  of  youth.  Young  people's  class  meetings 
and  prayer  meetings  are  as  ancient  as  the  days  of  the  circuit  riders. 
In  this  ideal  of  the  earliest  Methodism,  the  weekly  class  with  its 
examination  of  spiritual  progress  and  its  open  confession  and  testimony 
— ^we  may  as  well  affirm  it,  I  might  almost  say  assert  it — lies  the 
germinal  seed  of  the  whole  far-reaching  young  people's  movement 
among  all  the  Churches  of  our  common  Lord.  From  time  to  time 
there  have  been  those  who  have  seen  from  afar  the  possibilities  of 
organising  these  characteristic  forces  of  Methodism  for  the  special 
spiritual  culture  of  its  youth.  Such  a  seer  was  John  H.  Twombly, 
an  honoured  member  of  the  New  England  Conference  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  who,  in  1864,  attempted  to  bring  about  General 
Conference  legislation  favouring  it,  but  the  time  was  not  ripe.  In 
1876  the  Lyceum,  which  was  suggested  in  1872,  was  authorised  under 
the  leadership  of  the  Rev.  T.  B.  Neely,  now  the  Sunday  School 
Secretary  and  the  President  of  the  Brotherhood  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church. 

But  this  was  not  the  ideal  that  was  to  become  universal.  The  one 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  Christmas  Conference  saw  the  birth  of 
another  movement,  the  Oxford  League,  fair  in  design,  symmetrical, 
appealing  to  the  highest  churchly  ideals,  bearing  the  honoured  name  of 
the  proud  English  University,  the  home  of  the  Holy  Club,  and  put 
forth  by  that  prince  of  leaders  of  our  youth,  a  princely  leader  of  all 
our  people — Bishop  John  H.  Vincent.  Before  this,  under  the  trees 
on  a  camp  ground  in  Ohio,  an  ardent  company  of  young  Christians 
had  pledged  themselves  to  seek  the  highest  life,  and  out  from  their 
consecration  an  alliance  was  formed  that  had  already  been  blessed  of 
God  for  more  than  a  year  when  the  Oxford  League  was  organised, 
the  Young  People's  Methodist  Alliance.  In  1887  various  young 
people's  organisations  in  the  Methodism  of  New  England  were  assem- 
bled, first  in  the  old  Bromfield  Street  Church,  and  later  in  the  Irish 
Church  in  Boston,  and  the  Young  People's  Christian  League  was 
formed  to  conserve,  and  blend,  and  perfect  the  young  life  of  the 
Church.  Later,  a  similar  organisation  was  created  with  its  head- 
quarters in  Detroit,  Michigan — the  Young  People's  Methodist  Union 


ESSAY  OF  REV.    W.  I.   HAVEN.  303 

— and  still  later,  a  Conference  was  organised  in  North  Ohio.  Along 
with  these  movements  the  mighty  tides  of  Christian  Endeavour  were 
rising,  having  their  origin  in  the  heart  of  that  noble  Christian 
worker,  the  Rev.  Francis  E.  Clark.  This  movement,  then  jusb 
organised  into  a  general  society,  was  a  part  of  the  general  awakening. 

A  time  soon  came  when  the  workers  in  Methodism  faced  the  ques- 
tion :  Shall  there  continue  to  grow  in  our  borders  five  different  general 
societies,  or  is  it  possible  to  unite  these  various  beginnings  into  a 
comprehensive  organisation?  There  is  no  time  here  for  the  details. 
Suffice  it  to  repeat  the  now  well-known  story  that  in  Cleveland,  "Ohio, 
in  a  little  frame  chapel,  where  the  beautiful  marble  Memorial 
Epworth  Church  now  stands,  in  May,  1889,  by  representatives  of  the 
five  societies,  the  Epworth  League  was  organised.  It  was  immediately 
recognised  by  the  Bishops,  and  in  1892  by  the  General  Conference  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  It  had  before  this,  however,  taken 
root  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  in  the  Methodist 
Church  of  Canada.  Their  General  Conferences  of  1890  both  made 
provision  for  Young  People's  Leagues,  which  under  God  took  similar 
form  at  once  to  the  Epworth  League.  In  1896  the  Wesley  Guild, 
the  Young  People's  Society  of  Wesleyan  Methodism,  became  an 
integral  part  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  organisation.  In  1898  the 
General  Conference  of  the  Coloured  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
adopted  the  Epworth  League.  During  this  period  tens  and  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  ardent,  enthusiastic  young  souls  had  been  gathering, 
ready  to  listen  to  the  voice  of  the  Church. 

The  ideals,  the  spirit,  and  the  responsibilities  of  this  movement  now 
demand  a  word.  The  ideals  were  comprehensive  from  the  start, 
based  upon  the  methods  of  great  industrial  organisations,  its  work 
was  laid  out  in  departments,  with  a  chosen  head  for  each.  These 
heads  and  the  general  officers  form  the  cabinet,  or  central  unit,  with 
whom  rests  the  initiative.  Her©  the  pastor  has  direct  touch  with  the 
chapter  or  Guild.  The  departments  enlist  all  the  members  in  special 
lines  of  work,  ranging  from  the  highest  service  in  the  meetings  for 
evangehstic  activity  and  worship  to  the  planning  for  pleasure  gather- 
ings and  holiday  recreation.  This  has  much  to  do  with  the  fact  that 
at  least  one-fifth  of  this  vast  host  of  young  people,  or  a  half-million 
in  round  numbers,  are  young  men  and  young  women  who  would 
otherwise  be  entirely  outside  the  pale  of  Methodism — young  people 
who  in  this  way  have  been  attracted  to  our  standards.  It  has  also 
had  much  to  do  with  giving  to  the  coming  generation  of  Methodism  a 
well-rounded  conception  of  the  Christian  life,  as  a  life,  not  of  worship 
alone,  nor  of  work  alone,  but  of  worship  and  work,  of  keenest 
interest  in  reforms,  in  social  and  civic  betterment,  In  intellectual 
culture  and  achievements,  in  wholesome  recreation  and  pleasuie,  but 
of  chiefest  interest  in  those  finer  influences  that  bring  the  sc.il  jnto 
living  touch  with  Jesus  Christ  as  a  personal  Saviour  and  Lord,  and 
thus  carry  His  saving  name  to  all  peoples. 

In  a  word,   this  young  people's  movement  of  modern   Methodism 


304  METHODIST  YOUNG  PEOPLE'S  SOCIETIES. 

attempts  to  reproduce  the  high  ideals  and  achievements  of  the  old 
Foundry  and  of  this  illustrious  Wesley's  Chapel.  It  is  a  Methodist 
movement.  It  was  not  originated  in  antagonism  to  or  in  rivalry 
with  any  other  movement.  It  is  simply  an  evolution  through  forces 
germinant  in  the  heart  of  Methodism  itself.  It  is  Methodist  because 
it  believes  profoundly  that  Methodism  has  a  distinct  mission  under 
the  Providence  of  God.  Called  by  the  Divine  Spirit  to  be  a  great 
democratic,  liberal,  intense,  Puritan,  cultured,  enthusiastic,  joyous 
society,  Methodism  stands  for  something  distinct  in  emphasis,  and  is 
an  essential  note  in  the  harmony  of  the  true  universal  Catholic  Church. 
When  at  rest  with  itself,  assured  and  eager,  Methodism  is  as  invin- 
cible as  an  Irish  regiment.  Woe  be  unto  it,  if  it  becomes  unduly 
self-critical,  given  over  to  adjusting  itself  to  social  environment  and 
apologetic,  then  it  is  pulseless. 

If  it  is  to  continue  to  be  a  power  in  every  land,  its  young  people 
must  hear  the  voice  of  its  trumpets,  must  see  its  banners  frequently, 
must  know  its  consecrated  leaders  intimately,  must  gather  in  exultant 
conventions,  must  catch  a  vision  of  its  world-embracing  missionary 
movements,  must  feel  the  throb  of  its  literature,  must  crowd  the 
doors  of  its  schools  of  learning,  must  be  caught  up  in  the  folds  of  its 
garment.  Is  this  hostile  to  unity?  No  ;  it  is  essential  to  unity. 
Each  instrimaent  in  the  orchestra  must  strike  truly  and  clearly  its 
own  characteristic  note,  each  tree  in  the  forest  must  give  forth  its 
own  individual  colouring,  each  element  in  the  glowing  star  must 
shine  with  its  own  peculiar  fire,  each  race  of  mankind  and  each  nation 
must  be  true  to  its  own  inherent  destiny — if  there  is  to  be  music, 
or  glory,  or  a  perfected  humanity.  We  forget  sometimes  that  the 
Divine  call  to  catholicity  and  unity  is  not  a  call  away  from  indi- 
vidualism, but  to  a  profounder  and  richer  and  more  consecrated  life. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  say  here  that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  a 
Methodist  to  be  a  bigot.  The  elasticity  of  his  opinions,  the  simplicity 
of  his  ordinances,  the  generosity  of  his  spirit  make  a  living  Methodist 
— I  have  here  no  word  for  those  who  bear  our  name  and  have  lost 
our  life — the  embodiment  of  catholicity.  He  loves  the  utterance  of 
Wesley,  one  of  the  mottoes  of  this  movement:  "I  desire  a  league, 
offensive  and  defensive,  with  every  soldier  of  Jesus  Christ." 

If  any  justification  of  the  fact  that  this  young  people's  movement 
is  a  denominational  movement  were  neededj  the  spread  of  our  litera- 
ture, the  crowds  thronging  our  conventions,  the  awakening  tide  of 
interest  in  our  missions,  and  the  numbers  of  our  rank  and  file  would 
be  a  suflBcient  answer.  Does  anyone  for  a  moment  imagine  that 
these  forces  could  have  been  as  efficiently  and  as  helpfully  evoked 
and  organised  by  any  forces  outside  of  our  communion?  The  move- 
ment, however,  stands  for  something  larger  than  denominationalism. 
Already  it  has  sent  forth  overtures  of  federation,  and  the  hour  may 
soon  be  at  hand  when,  in  response  to  its  invitation,  many  banners  of 
many  hosts  shall  mingle  together  under  the  sovereign  banner  of  the 
cross. 


ESSAY  OF  REV.    W.   I.   HAVEN,  305 

But  the  real  point  that  needs,  emphasis  at  this  moment  is  the  fact 
that  this  is  a  movement  for  the  youth.  This  it  is  that  gives  it  value. 
The  Church  is  awakening  to  the  realisation  that  youth  is  a  period 
of  destiny.  The  years  between  fifteen  and  thirty  are  a  world  by 
themselves.  The  dawning  sense  of  personality,  the  intimate  and 
eager  questioning  of  the  soul,  the  sensitiveness  to  social  atmospheres, 
the  outlook  into  life,  gives  to  youth  a  tremor  and  an  exultation  that 
belong  to  no  other  period  of  life.  It  is  a  time  of  dreams,  when 
Joseph  looks  out  into  his  future  and  Isaac  waits  for  his  bride.  Shall 
we  not  see  to  it  that  these  visions  are  coloured  with  heavenly  hues, 
and  not  with  the  glitter  of  false  gold  1  It  is  a  time  of  initiative.  The 
French  Academy  that  has  for  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
influenced  and  shaped  the  briUiant  literature  of  that  people,  took  its 
rise  not  in  the  thought  of  Richelieu,  but  in  the  ardent  aspirations 
of  a  group  of  young  men  meeting  in  the  house  of  one  Courart,  himself 
but  twenty-six  years  of  age,  and  all  his  companions  save  one  younger 
than  himself. 

The  leaders  of  the  American  Republic  at  its  beginning  were  mere 
youths.  When  the  Revolution  broke  out  in  1775,  Washington  was 
forty-three  ;  John  Adams,  then  a  delegate  in  the  Continental  Con- 
gress, forty  ;  his  colleague,  Thomas  Jefferson,  only  thirty-two ; 
Madison,  just  entering  on  public  life  in  Virginia,  but  twenty-four  ; 
Monroe,  a  boy  of  seventeen  ;  Hamilton,  a  college  student  of  eighteen, 
Washington's  aide-de-camp  at  twenty,  and  a  member  of  the  Continental 
Congress  at  twenty-five.  I  cannot  forget  in  the  capital  of  this  great 
Empire  that  Pitt,  to  whose  ideals  very  much  of  the  present  greatness 
of  this  nation  is  due,  entered  Parliament  when  hardly  twenty-two, 
and  was  Prime  Minister  at  twenty-five.  Pitt  and  the  "  boys,"  Canning 
and  Lord  Wellesley,  as  their  contemporaries  style  them,  did  they  not 
mould  the  destinies  of  modern  Europe  ? 

The  facts  are  that  our  own  vast  CEcumenical  Methodism  is  sprung 
under  God  from  a  Young  People's  Society.  Benjamin  Ingham  was  but 
twenty,  Charles  Wesley  a  year  older,  and  Clayton  only  twenty-three, 
James  Henry  nineteen,  and  Gambold  and  Whitefield  still  in  their 
teens  when  members  of  the  Holy  Club  at  Oxford  ;  and  John  Wesley 
was  their  leader  at  twenty-six.  What  was  true  then  is  true  now. 
Youth  is  the  period  of  initiative.  Youth  is  also  a  period  quick  to 
the  approach  of  the  unseen.  Isaiah  saw  the  Angel  in  his  youth. 
Jeremiah  was  called,  and  heard,  and  obeyed  his  call,  in  tFese  early 
years.  As  it  was  then,  so  it  has  been  since.  Who  has  gone  out  to 
the  mission  fields?  Did  not  Judson  start  for  India  when  he  was 
twenty-four?  Was  not  Livingstone  called  at  twenty-one,  and  ordained 
at  twenty-seven?  Does  not  Paton  tell  us  that  at  thirty-three  he 
"had  heard  the  wail  of  the  perishing  in  the  South  Seas  for  ten  years." 
Brainerd,  whose  life  work  was  finished  at  twenty-nine,  gave  himself 
to  the  abiirigines  as  soon  as  his  College  days  were  over  in  a  consecra- 
tion that  consumed  him.  Tliere  are  hours  in  life  when  the  veil  is 
thin  between  the  soul  and  God.  Already  in  this  present  movement 
31 


3o6  METHODIST   YOUNG  PEOPLE'S   SOCIETIES, 

young  hearts  are  hearing  the  voice,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world."  Youth 
is  the  characteristic  moment  of  sensitiveness  to  spiritual  atmospheres. 
Modern  psychological  experiments  are  revealing  scientifically  what  the 
wisest  spiritual  leaders  have  known  for  years,  that  the  apexes  of  the 
lines  of  conversion  are  at  the  years  of  twelve  and  thirteen,  and  sixteen 
and  seventeen,  and  twenty.  One  of  the  most  suggestive  of  these 
modern  studies  tells  us  that  the  critical  year  for  conversion  is  sixteen. 
When  we  gather  all  these  facts  together  and  think  of  youth  alive, 
restless,  eager,  ardent,  ready  for  the  ideal,  what  is  the  duty  of  the 
Church  of  God?  Is  it  not  to  give  itself  with  aroused  intelligence 
and  deepened  enthusiasm  to  the  training  of  these  hearts  that  under 
God  have  been  brought  in  touch  with  its  influence.  I  call  upon 
Methodism,  not  to  spend  its  energies  in  criticising  the  mistakes  of 
these  young  people.  I  say  it  deliberately,  it  will  be  the  fault  of  the 
Church  if  this  movement  becomes  distinct  and  separate  from 
the  life  of  the  Church.  It  will  be  the  fault  of  the  Church  if 
it  lacks  spirituality  and  power.  The  young  people  are  as 
ardent  for  the  altar  fires  of  Methodism  as  are  their  elders.  When 
the  young  people  do  not  attend  the  evening  services,  let  me  ask  are 
all  the  office  bearers  of  the  Church  there  ?  When  the  young  people 
engage  in  frivolous  amusements  and  forget  the  Lord's  Day,  let  me 
ask  after  their  parents  and  their  elders.  When  the  young  people  fail 
to  support  the  revival,  let  me  ask  are  they  less  enthusiastic  than 
those  whose  names  have  been  long  upon  the  Church  records?  The 
youth  of  Methodism  will  respond  to  the  example  of  a  consecrated 
membership.  A  Church  given  over  to  commercialism,  social  pleasures 
and  ambitions,  c^innot  expect  to  rear  a  self-denying  body  of  young 
people.  A  humble,  warm,  tender,  solicitous  Church  will  create  an 
ardent,  loving,  enthusiastic  following  of  young  people.  Let  us  remem- 
ber this  responsibility.  Back  of  the  consecrated  youth  of  the  Holy 
Club  were  the  prayerful  father  and  mother  upon  their  knees.  Back 
of  Oxford  was  Epworth.  So  the  young  people's  movement  in  our 
present  Methodism  needs  the  inspiration  of  a  holy  Church. 

The  Rev.  Danzt  Shbbn  (Primitive  Methodist  Church)  gave  the 
first  invited  address  ou  this  topic,  in  which  he  described  the 
Christian  Endeavour  movement.     He  said : 

I  am  told  that  the  first  Christian  Endeavour  Society  in  this  country 
was  formed  in  Crewe,  from  which  one  may  see  Mow  Cop,  where  the 
first  English  camp  meeting  was  held,  out  of  which  grew  the  Primitive 
Methodist  Church.  It  is  a  notable  circumstance  that  two  Christian 
movements,  commenced  in  America,  should  have  taken  root  in  the 
Mother  Country,  in  the  same  locality,  the  one  at  the  beginning,  the 
other  at  the  close,  of  the  nineteenth  century.  For  five  years  Christian 
Endeavour  has  been  a  recognised  part  of  our  Church  life.  We  have 
now  about  1,500  societies,  and  about  50,000  young  persons  enrolled, 
a  little  over  11,000  of  whom  are  associates. 


ADDRESS   OF    REV.    DANZY   SHEEN.  3°7 

The  Christian  Endeavour  movement  is  another  stream  of  living 
water  from  the  Throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb.  Its  beautiful  motto, 
"  For  Christ  and  the  Church,"  may,  in  coming  times,  be  the  battle- 
cry  of  the  conquering  hosts  of  God.  "  For  Christ,"  who  is  the  Head. 
"  For  the  Church,"  His  body.  Life  does  not  last  long  wlien  head  and 
body  are  severed.  In  Papal  Christendom  you  hear  more  of  the  body 
than  of  Christ  the  Head.  Some  Protestants  of  a  perfervid  kind  think 
little  of  the  Church,  which  is  His  body,  through  which  He  still  walks 
the  earth  and  works  for  man.  This  motto  claims  a  whole  Christ- 
head  an3  body.  The  pledge  requires  an  acknowledgment  of  personal 
accountability  to  Christ,  as  to  Lord  and  Master ;  fellowship  with  His 
people  ;  daily  study  of  His  Word  ;  daily  access  to  His  throne  ;  the 
obligation  to  lead  a  Christian  life. 

The  Society  seeks,  by  committees,  to  set  all  its  members  to  work, 
lest  we  forget  '^  that  we  were  created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good 
works,  which  God  hath  afore  prepared  that  we  should  walk  in  them." 
It  tends  to  foster  thoughtfulness  for  others.  A  few  years  since  I 
paid  my  first  visit  to  Torquay.  On  a  February  Sunday  morning, 
when  the  feelings  of  the  stranger  somewhat  depressed  me,  a  beau- 
tiful bunch  of  violets  was  sent  into  my  temporary  home,  having  a 
label  attached,  bearing,  Isai.  si.  8  written  out  in  full,  my  name,  and 
"  Y.P.S.C.E.  Sunshine  Committee."  I  knew  that  I  was  not  the  only 
stranger  that  received  such  an  expression  that  morning. 

The  advent  of  the  movement  has  sometimes  given  new  life^  to  a 
w^hole  township.  A  few  years  ago  I  visited  a  populous  locality  in 
South  Wales.  The  circuit  had  some  vigorous  churches,  but  the 
parent  church  was  almost  extinct.  The  next  minister  that  arrived 
started  a  Christian  Endeavour  Society  at  this  place.  On  my  last 
visit,  about  a  year  ago,  I  found  a  flourishing  church.  In  addition  to  a 
profitable  Sunday  School  conference  on  the  work  day  afternoon,  we 
had  an  open-air  Christian  Endeavour  rally,  with  a  numerous  attend- 
ance, pervaded  by  a  spirit  of  intense  interest.  This  was  followed  by 
a  procession  to  the  chapel,  the  members  of  it  singing  all  the  way,  the 
street  crowded  from  side  to  side.  After  I  had  preached  what  had 
been  advertised  as  a  Christian  Endeavour  sermon,  I  had  to  conduct  a 
Roll  CaU,  in  which  most  of  the  Free  Churches  in  the  town  were 
represented.  It  was  the  first  thing  of  the  kind  they  had  ever  attended. 
At  the  close,  many  rose  spontaneously  and  expressed  their  thanks  to 
our  minister  and  church  for  introducing  Christian  Endeavour   among 

them.  ,  , 

Will  the  movement  be  permanent?  Those  who  are  the  young  people 
to-day  will  not  alwavs  be  young  in  years.  Junior  societies  should  be 
formed  everywhere.  This  can  only  be  as  the  result  of  evangelism 
amon<^  the  children.  Already  a  great  national  mission  to  the  young 
is  prelected,  to  take  place  early  in  1902.  I  pray  that  a  similar  effc.it 
may  be  made  in  other  Christian  lands.  May  this  (Ecumenical  Con- 
ference adopt  as  its  watchword,  "The  childhood  of  the  world  for 
Christ"!    A   sister   of  the   people   came   to  me   at    the   close    of  » 


3o8  METHODIST   YOUNG  PEOPLE'S   SOCIETIES. 

teachers'  conference  recently,  and  asked  if  I  remembered  preaching  at 
Bolton.  I  replied  in  the  affirmative,  and  observed  that  I  remembered 
that  a  number  of  scholars  of  the  Sunday  School  on  that  occasion  came 
to  Christ,  for  whom  the  teachers  agreed  to  form  a  class.  I  asked, 
"Is  it  still  existing?"  "I  am  one  of  the  scholars,"  she  said;  "the 
class  is  now  carried  on  as  a  Christian  Endeavour."  I  have  had 
similar  replies  from  many  parts. 

May  the  whole  Church  come  to  believe  in  the  salvation  of  children  1 
At  the  close  of  a  delightful  day  of  work  among  the  scholars  in  Derby- 
shire my  host  said  to  me .  "  I  was  converted  when  a  boy,  and  that 
night  six  were  saved.  After  the  meeting  a  good  friend  took  me  for  a 
walk.  We  met  a  local  preacher,  who  said,  '  How  many  have  you  had 
to-night?'  On  being  told  there  were  two  adults  and  four  children, 
he  said,  '  There  are  two  you  may  count,  but  1  make  no  count  of 
children.'  That  cut  me  to  the  heart.  It  was  as  good  as  saying  he 
had  no  faith  in  my  conversion  because  I  was  only  a  boy.  Those  two 
adults  became  backsliders,  but  God  has  kept  me,  and  another  of  those 
four  children  is  now  serving  God  in  India.  I  have  not  seen  the  other 
two  children  for  some  years,  but  I  have  reason  to  think  they  are  still 
serving  Christ." 

Visiting  Epworth,  a  tradesman  told  me  he  had  recently  had  some 
repairs  to  do  in  the  Rectory,  and,  stripping  the  walls  of  all  the  layers 
of  paper,  he  came  to  the  plaster  (which  had  been  put  on  at  the  time  of 
rebuilding  after  the  fire),  on  which  he  saw  the  names  of  the  daughters 
of  Samuel  Wesley,  written  by  themselves  with  some  hard  point — a 
nail,  perhaps.  They  had  been  written  while  the  plaster  was  soft ; 
by  which  he  inferred  that  the  family  had  to  hurry  back  into  the  house 
after  the  fire,  from  which  all  the  children  had  been  saved.  When  the 
name  of  Jesus  is  written  in  the  heart  of  a  child  it  is  usually  permanent, 
like  that  writing  on  the  soft  plaster.  When  we  visit  a  dying  person, 
what  we  require  him  to  do  is  very  simple — ^to  believe  that  God  loves 
him,  has  always  been  waiting  to  save  him.  We  urge  him  to  commit 
himself  to  those  dear  hands  that  once,  for  his  salvation,  were  nailed 
to  the  bitter  cross.  He  has  to  become  a  little  child  to  do  that,  but 
a  little  child  can  do  it  without  becoming  anything  other  than  he  is. 
The  climax  of  Tennyson's  description  of  his  conflict  for  rest  is : 

"  Then  was  I  as  a  child  that  cries, 
But,  crying,  knew  his  father  near." 

Let  parents,  pastors,  teachers  impart  to  children  the  thoughts  of 
Jesus.     They  are  germs  of  Christian  life. 

"Oh,  let  me  speak  the  thoughts  of  Christ, 
And  then  my  words  like  seeds  shall  grow 
In  hearts  when  I  am  gone  ; 
In  nobler  form,  and  widening  sphere. 
To   beautify  and   bless   shall   they  appear ; 
Harvests  out  of  them  shall  come, 
To  help  the  millions  yet  to  be." 


ADDRESS   OF    REV.    J.    B.    COLBERT.  3^9 

The  Rev  J.  B.  Colbert.  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion 
Church),  gave  the  eecond  invited  address  on  "Methodist  Young 
People's  Societies,"  as  follows  : 

The  Methodist  Young  People's  Societies,  as  such,  may  be  said  to 
be  of  recent  origin  in  the  body  politic  of  the  Church  ;  less  than 
fifteen  years  ago  they  had  no  tangible  existence  in  an  organic  form 
in  the  Methodist  Church.  Their  creation  was  the  outgrowth  of  a  stern 
necessity  for  some  kind  of  an  organisation  to  be  operated  m  connection 
with  the  Churches  for  the  spiritual  training  and  development  of  the 
young  people  for  Christian  usefulness.  The  birth  of  these  socie  les 
was  the  strongest  indication  of  the  awakening  of  the  Church  to  a  fuller 
realisation  of  its  immense  responsibility.  ,.  ^  r^i.      i. 

There  are  several  Young  People's  Societies  in  the  Methodist  Church 
existing  under  different  names,  although  with  a  similar  object,  which 
is  to  organise  and  marshal  the  young  people  for  systematic  and  aggres- 
sive Christian  service.  The  most  prominent  among  them  are  the 
Epworth  League  and  Christian  Endeavour  Society.  With  their  varied 
methods  for  concerted  action  in  benevolence  and  Christian  philanthropy 
they  have  contributed  much  to  the  growth  and  symmetrical  develop- 
ment of  young  Christian  character.  Through  the  medium  of  these 
Societies  the  youth  of  the  Methodist  Church  have  been  given  oppor- 
tunities for  larger  usefuhiess  and  a  broader  comprehension  of  duty 
and  responsibility.  They  have  been  made  to  realise  nobler  ideals  of 
an  intellectual  and  social  life  ;  their  aspirations  have  been  made  purer 
and  brighter  ;  their  ambitions  have  been  tempered  with  hoUer  senti- 
ments, and  loftier  conceptions.  In  other  words,  the  aspiring  youth 
of  the  Methodist  Church  have  been  lifted  to  a  higher  plane  of  spiritual 
experience  and  personal  consecration. 

The  birth  of  the  Young  People's  Societies  within  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century  may  be  said  to  be  the  most  extraordinary  event  which  the 
Church  has  experienced  for  the  hundred  years  previous.  It  remained 
for  the  fifteenth  day  of  May,  1889,  to  give  birth  to  a  movement  which 
has  been  the  marvel  of  the  nineteenth  century  in  Church  circles,  for 
it  was  on  that  date  the  great  Epworth  League  was  given  shape  in  a 
uniform  organisation,  and  thus  became  a  part  of  the  organic  life  of  the 
great  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  America,  which  at  once  pro- 
vided for  greater  activities  in  the  social  and  spiritual  life  of  her  young 
people.  Since  that  date  this  movement  has  become  so  intrenched  in 
the  heart  and  life  of  the  Church,  and  has  been  pushed  with  such 
vehemence  and  persistence,  that,  like  the  stone  cut  out  of  the  moun- 
tain, the  societies  have  increased  in  numbers  and  importance  from 
the  few  that  were  in  existence  then  to  the  enormous  number  of  more 
than  20,000  chapters,  vfith  more  than  a  million  adherents.  Thousands 
of  young  people  have  been  aroused  from  a  state  of  lethargy  and  mani- 
fest indifference  to  that  of  more  genuine  piety  and  joyous  activity  in 
the  Church  of  God. 

The  next  branch  of  the  Methodist  Church  which  has  operated  the 


310  METHODIST  YOUNG  PEOPLE'S   SOCIETIES. 

Epworth  League  effectively  is  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
8outh.  Identical  in  aim  and  purpose  with  her  sister,  differing  from 
her  only  in  management  and  organic  administration,  the  growth  of 
her  societies  has  been  encouraging  and  most  hopeful,  and  the  work 
done  by  way  of  quickening  and  revivifying  the  latent  elements  in  the 
Cliurch  has  been  most  gratifying.  They  have  over  5,000  chartered 
leagues,  with  a  membership  aggregating  nearly  400,000. 

The  Coloured  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  is,  perhaps,  the  youngest 
daughter  of  American  Methodism,  and  ranks  among  the  most  progres- 
sive. They  have  500  chapters  with  25,000  members,  and  report  a 
large  and  constantly-increasing  number  of  societies  which  contribute 
to  a  more  efficient  service  and  consistent  Christian  living  among  their 
young  people. 

In  perfect  harmony  with  the  fundamental  principles  enunciated  by 
the  founder  of  Methodism,  the  Epworth  League,  like  that  of  the 
Church  of  which  it  forms  an  important  part,  is  not  a  plant  indigenous 
to  any  particular  soil  or  country,  but  is  one  that  takes  root,  germi- 
nates, grows,  and  produces  abundant  fruit  wherever  planted.  There 
are  chapters  in  twenty  or  more  foreign  countries,  and  everywhere  they 
give  signs   of  great  promise   and   hopefulness. 

There  are  a  considerable  number  of  Methodist  Churches  fostering 
and  operating  Christian  Endeavour  Societies  instead  of  Epworth 
Leagues,  having  adopted  them  as  the  official  Young  People's  Society. 
More  notable  among  them  are  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
and  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church.  These  Churches 
have  found  the  Christian  Endeavour  Society  to  be  adaptable  and 
sufficiently  elastic  to  admit  of  the  largest  Christian  culture.  They 
stand  for  the  broadest  international,  inter-racial,  and  interdenomina- 
tional fellowship.  Both  these  Churches  report  large  and  increasing 
acquisitions  to  their  numbers.  At  the  General  Conference  of  the 
African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church  in  1896  this  Society  was 
officially  endorsed  and  adopted  as  the  official  Young  People's  Society, 
and  was  christened  as  the  Varrick  Christian  Endeavour  Society  of  the 
African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church.  At  that  meeting  a  Presi- 
dent was  elected  whose  duty  it  is  to  exercise  the  general  oversight  of 
these  societies,  to  assist  and  encourage  their  organisation  in  all  the 
churches  of  that  Denomination,  Since  that  time  nearly  one  thousand 
societies  have  been  organised,  with  possibly  50,000  members.  A 
similar  action  was  taken  by  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
which  organisation  was  called  Allen  Christian  Endeavour,  in  honour 
of  their  great  founder,  Richard  Allen.  This  Church,  too,  is  doing  a 
creditable  work  along  the  line  of  training  and  organising  the  young 
people  for  more  potent  and  effective  service. 

Most  of  these  Churches  have  periodicals,  through  which  the  senti- 
ments and  thoughts  of  the  youth  are  expressed,  and  which  are  strong 
agencies  for  the  dissemination  of  denominational  loyalty,  and  the 
cultivation  of  devotional  culture  among  the  youth  of  Methodism, 
Principal  among  these  are  the  "Epworth  Herald"   of  the  Methodist 


ADDRESS   OF    REV.    J.    B.    COLBERT.  3IT 

Episcopal  Church,  which  is  largely  read  and  patronised  throughout 
the  entire  Denomination;  the  "Epworth  Era,"  of  tht  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South,  which  has  a  large  and  increasing  circulation, 
and  is  read  with  much  interest  and  profit  by  the  whole  Church.  A 
paper  of  the  same  name  is  published  by  the  Epworth  League  of  the 
Methodist  Church  of  Canada.  The  "  Varrick  Christian  Endeavourer" 
is  the  official  organ  of  the  Varrick  Christian  Endeavour  Societies  of 
the  African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church,  and  enjoys  a  deservedly 
large  circulation.  These  periodicals  constitute  the  medium  of  com- 
munication for  the  purest  thoughts,  and  the  most  healthy  sentiments, 
and  for  tone  and  character  they  are  the  equals  of  other  denomfnational 
publications  which  are  very  much  their  senior.  They  form  an  im- 
portant link  in  the  chain  which  foreshadows  such  a  tremendous  respon- 
sibility for  the  Church  of  the  twentieth  century.  The  wholesome 
thoughts  and  elevating  truths  which  they  carry  to  the  home  from  time 
to  time  serve  as  an  elixir  for  the  millions  of  young  hearts  that  axe 
panting  for  the  life-giving  stream  of  a  world-wide  Methodism. 

It  may  be  asked  what  has  been  the  most  tangible  and  substantial 
benefit  derived  from  the  existence  of  these  various  Young  People's 
Societies  in  the  Methodist  Church?  I  answer,  first,  they  have  done 
much  to  unify  and  harmonise  many  of  the  groundless  and  superficial 
differences  which  have  hitherto  existed  between  Denominations  of 
the  same  faith  and  order.  Secondly,  they  have  caused  the  older 
members  of  the  Church  to  realise  more  fully  the  fact  that  the  best 
and  surest  way  to  save  the  young  people  and  keep  them  saved  is  to 
give  them  something  to  do.  Thank  God,  the  Church  is  aroused  now 
as  never  before  in  all  her  history  to  the  awful  fact  that  if  she  cannot 
find  employment  for  her  young  people,  the  devil  can  and  will.  The 
effective  operation  of  these  societies  means  the  whole  Church  at  work. 
The  age  in  which  we  live  calls  for  a  living,  moving,  active  Christianity, 
a  Christianity  that  must  manifest  itself  in  fact  rather  than  in  fancy, 
in  truth  rather  than  in  sentiment ;  a  vital  godliness  which  contributes 
to  the  religious,  moral,  and  social  development  of  the  individual.  All 
this  is  conserved  in  a  wise  and  judicious  application  of  the  funda- 
mental principles  underlying  these  Young  People's  Societies.  The  time 
for  experimenting  with  them  in  the  Methodist  Church  has  passed.  The 
great  good  which  has  been  accomplished  within  the  last  twenty  years 
leaves  no  room  for  any  doubt  as  to  the  adaptability  of  their  methods, 
and  as  to  their  general  utility  being  commensurate  with  the  stupendous 
responsibility  of  the  wonderful  age  in  which  we  are  how  living. 

The  Rev.  R.  H.  Gilbert,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
opened  the  general  discussion,  as  follows  : 

I  have  been  President  of  our  Epworth  League  for  six  years,  with  con- 
siderable opportunities  of  observing  closely  the  working  of  that  organi- 
sation within  our  Conference  boundaries.  Dr.  Haven  has  said  that 
youth  is  the  initiative  period.  Attaching  to  that  there  was  this  signi- 
ficance, that  youth  is  the  time  of  strong  intent.     Let  me  give  you  a 


312  METHODIST   YOUNG  PEOPLE'S   SOCIETIES. 

little  rlassical  roferencc  to  interpret  my  thought  nf  that  Rfatemrnt.. 
CPBsar  had  among  his  friends  the  young  Brutus.  Brutus  had  very  great 
influence  over  Cresar,  as  you  will  find  illustrated  in  his  reconciling  his 
friend  Cassius  to  him,  and  notwithstanding  Caesar's  indisposition 
towards  the  King  of  Africa,  he  yet  secured  for  him  the  recovery  of 
very  much  of  his  kingdom.  Said  Csesar:  "I  do  not  know  what  this 
young  man  intends,  but  whatever  it  is  he  intends  it  strongly."  It  is 
that  strong  intent  to  achieve  something  that  makes  young  people 
justly  the  objective  of  the  profound  concern  of  the  Church.'  But  if 
that  intent  is  to  crystallise  into  approved  action  it  must  be  intelligent, 
and  it  is  too  much  to  expect  intelligent  action,  that  will  comport  with 
the  judgment  of  enlarged  experience,  in  comparatively  young  people. 
Therefore,  I  plead  this  afternoon  for  a  larger  recognition  of  our 
young  people  on  the  part  of  those  to  whom  Dr.  Haven  referred  by  the 
term  ofiicial  members.  If  the  trustees,  class  leaders,  etc.,  of  our 
churches  would  more  frequently  attend  the  meetings  of  our  Young 
People's  Societies,  call  them  Epworth  Leagues,  Christian  Endeavour 
Societies,  or  whatever  you  like,  not  to  criticise  or  find  fault — God  knows 
what  need  there  is  for  criticism,  but  criticism  is  an  art  of  easy  cultiva- 
tion and  is  destructive — but  for  help  and  encouragement,  saying,  "It 
gladden  our  hearts  to  hear  the  testimony  you  bear  to  the  saving  power 
of  Jesus  Christ ;  sometimes  we  have  thought  that  the  old  Church 
would  go  to  sticks,  but  catching  glimpses  of  your  enthusiasm,  under- 
standing your  loyalty  to  the  standards  for  which  we  have  lived,  we 
thank  God  and  take  courage,"  no  greater  service  could  be  rendered 
the  Methodism  of  to-morrow.  No  greater  service,  too,  is  more  impera- 
tively needed  by  the  young  people  of  to-day,  than  just  that  kind  of 
consecrated  intelligent  encouragement  on  the  part  of  the  recognised 
leaders  of  the  local  churches.  Can  we  but  have  that  in  its  due  pro- 
portion it  will  not  be  necessary  for  any  representative  of  Methodism 
in  the  coming  to-morrow  to  say,  as  did  the  Rev.  C.  H.  Sheldon,  not 
long  ago,  at  Boston,  in  the  Young  People's  Society  of  Christian  En- 
deavour, "  Christian  Endeavour  Societies  will  die,  and  ought  to  die, 
if  the  members  do  nothing  but  talk  about  experiences  that  they  have 
never  had."  We  need  to  hold  our  young  people  to  a  recognition  of 
religion  as  a  power  in  our  lives,  and  not  let  them  become  the  prey  of 
every  wind  of  doctrine  that  perchance  may  blow. 

The  Rev;  F.  Brown,  F.R.G.S.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  who 
was  introduced  by  the  Chairman  as  a  fellow-worker  from  far-away 
China,  said : 

I  havo  great  pleasure  this  afternoon  in  saying  a  few  words  on  this 
topic,  because  I  have  seen  during  the  past  few  months,  evidences  of 
the  good  that  can  be  accomplished  by  the  formation  of  Young  People's 
Societies  of  Christian  Endeavour  in  far-oflp  China.  I  have  had  the 
pleasure  of  organising  Epworth  Leagues  in  North  China,  and  during 
last  year,  during  the  times  of  trouble  we  had  there,  when  from  our 
members  probably  more  Methodists  were  sent  to  martyrdom  than  have 
ever  gone  before,  I  am  here  to  testify  this  afternoon  that  our  young 
people  led  the  way.  The  young  people  who  had  been  enrolled  in  our 
Christian  Endeavour  Societies  and  Epworth  Leagues  out  in  North  China 
were  the  men  who  stood  by  us  in  our  time  of  difficulty  and  danger. 

I  would  like  to  give  one  or  two  instances  of  heroic  daring  that  we 
saw  on  the  part  of  our  young  people,  members  of  our  Young  People's 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  3^3 

Society  in  Pekin.  In  the  city  of  Pekin,  before  the  outrages  last  year, 
we  had  a  church  that  would  seat  some  1,700  people— a  Methodist 
church— probably  the  largest  church  in  the  whole  of  the  Chinese  t,m- 
pire.  There  was  a  very  large  Christian  Endeavour  Society  in  connec- 
tion with  it,  and  at  the  outbreak  the  members  were  running  hither 
and  thither,  but  they  were  the  ones  who  stood  by  the  missionaries. 
I  am  sure,  when  you  read  your  daily  papers,  you  must  have  seen  that 
we  have  great  reason  to  be  proud  of  our  native  Christians  in  North 

China,  m-u     e 

Let  me  tell  you  of  one  young  man.  I  found  myself,  on  the  4th  ot 
June  last  year,  just  outside  the  city  wall  of  Pekin,  trying,  with  seven 
missionaries,  to  make  my  escape  to  the  coast.  Our  escape  had  been 
practically  cut  off.  The  railway  had  that  morning  been  destroyed, 
the  railway  stations  were  in  flames,  and  we  were  told  that  there  was 
no  method  of  escape.  In  a  short  time  I  sent  a  telegram  down  the 
line,  as  I  supposed  a  foreign  friend  of  mine  would  be  there,  asking 
if  there  would  be  any  possible  chance  of  escape.  No  reply  came,  but  in 
half-an-hour  we  saw  an  engine  approaching,  and  on  the  engine  I 
noticed  a  Chinaman,  and  this  Chinaman  had  in  his  hand  a  paper. 
When  he  drew  nearer  I  recognised  him  as  a  young  man  in  connection 
with  the  Epworth  League,  and  called  out,  "  Li,  what  is  that  paper  you 
hold  in  your  hand?"  He  said,  "It  is  your  telegram."  "Has  Mr. 
Barber  seen  it  ? "  I  asked.  "  No  ;  Mr.  Barber  has  escaped  to  the 
coast."  "  What  are  you  going  to  do  for  us  1"  "I  am  going,"  he  said, 
"  to  try  to  save  you,  sir  ;  I  can  promise  you  nothing.  I  might  run 
you  ainong  the  Boxers.  I  may  have  to  bring  you  back.  I  will  run 
you  over  the  burning  bridges,  but  I  am  going  to  try  to  save  you." 
What  made  that  young  man  humane  1  It  was  the  religion  he  had  been 
taught  in  the  Epworth  League. 

A  young  man  in  the  city  of  Pekin,  during  the  siege,  when  one  of 
our  British  soldiers  was  shot  down,  was  busy  with  a  pick  and  shovel. 
His  hands  were  blistered,  and  a  friend  said,  "Your  hands  must  be 
very  painful  1 "  He  said,  "  No  ;  my  hands  are  not  painful  at  all.  It 
hurts  my  heart  to  think  that  my  people  are  killing  in  this  manner 
men  who  have  come  to  our  help  and  assistance."  What  made  him 
humane  ?  The  Christianity  which  he  had  been  taught  in  the  Sunday 
School  and  the  Christian  Endeavour  class.  I  am  here  this  afternoon 
to  testify  that  young  people's  meetings  away  in  far-off  China  are  a  very 
great  blessing  to  the  heathen  world. 

The  Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
made  the  following  remarks : 

Methodism  has  always  tried  to  take  care  of  its  young  people.  The 
Epworth  League,  when  it  was  formed,  was  a  crystallisation  of  the 
feeling  that  was  in  the  Church  previously  in  regard  to  the  care  for 
the  Church  of  the  future.  The  Epworth  League  provides  for  two 
things — and  when  I  say  Epworth  League  I  do  not  exclude  other 
Societies  that  are  organised  in  Methodist  Churches— these  Societies, 
one  and  all,  stand  for  two  things.  They  stand  first  for  piety,  and 
secondly  for  intelligence.  Those  are  the  two  essential  things  in  the 
young  life  of  the  Church. 

Our  young  people  in  these  Epworth  Leagues  are  instructed  in  the 
great  doctrines  of  the  Church  with  which  they  are  identified ;  but 
general  intelligence  is  being  diffused  among  our  young  people,  so 
that  in  the  future  we  shall  have  a  more  intelligent  Church  than  we  have 


314  METHODIST   YOUNG  PEOPLE'S   SOCIETIES. 

had  heretofore.  The  "  Epworth  Herald  "  has  a  circulation  of  not  less 
than  115,000,  the  largest  circulation  of  any  weekly  Methodist  news- 
paper, I  suppose,  in  the  world,  and  that  has  been  made  possible  through 
the  organisation  of  the  Epworth  League.  In  addition  to  this,  we  have 
in  these  Leagues  arrangements  for  establishing  libraries.  It  is  one 
department  of  the  work  of  the  League  to  see  that  the  young  people 
are  furnished  with  books  that  will  be  helpful  to  them  in  their 
spiritual  life,  and  make  them  intelligent  in  reference  to  the  Church 
with  which  they  are  identified. 

But  more  particularly  the  Epworth  League  came  providentially,  I 
think,  to  prepare  the  Church  for  the  great  work  that  is  before  it  in  the 
evangelisation  of  the  world.  It  came  to  the  Church  at  a  time  when 
there  was  an  open  door  for  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  throughout 
the  whole  world.  Forty  years  ago  it  was  a  common  thing  on  Missionary 
Day  among  us  for  the  preachers  to  pray,  "  Lord,  open  the  doors."  It 
is  not  necessary  to  pray  that  prayer  any  more.  Practically  the  doors 
of  the  nations  are  all  wide  open  now.  Two  things  are  needed  now  for 
the  speedy  evangelisation  of  the  world.  The  first  is  missionaries, 
and  the  second  is  money  to  send  the  missionaries  out.  The  Epworth 
Leagues  and  the  Young  People's  Societies  of  our  Churches  will  furnish 
us  with  the  missionaries,  and  they  will  furnish  us  also  with  the  money. 
We  are  training  a  great  army  of  young  people  who  will  devote  them- 
selves to  this  great  missionary  idea  as  the  Church  has  not  done  here- 
tofore, and  who  will  go,  according  to  their  ability,  for  the  purpose  of 
spreading  the  Gospel  throughout  the  world. 

Tho  Rev.  P.  H,  Swift,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  spoke 
as  follows : 

I  desire  to  speak  to  the  question  before  us  as  a  pastor.  It  has  been 
hinted  that  there  is  an  element  of  peril  in  the  Epworth  League  move- 
ment, and  those  of  you  who  have  read  the  papers  carefully  will  have 
noted  the  fact  that  there  have  been  wholesale  hostile  criticisms  on  the 
Young  People's  Societies,  and  upon  the  Epworth  League  in  particular. 
I  am  glad  to  admit  the  fact  that  there  is  an  element  of  peril  in  the 
Epworth  League  movement.  I  would  regret  it  if  it  were  not  so,  for 
as  I  study  nature  I  note  the  fact  that  wherever  there  is  power  there 
is  peril.  There  is  power  and  peril  in  steam  ;  there  is  power  and  peril 
in  electricity  ;  there  is  power  and  peril  in  dynamite.  There  may  be 
peril  in  the  Epworth  League  movement,  but  there  is  power  also.  There 
are  those  who  fear  that  possibly  the  Epworth  League  may  come  to 
be  the  Young  People's  Church,  and  that,  consequently,  when  the 
young  people  have  discharged  their  duties  to  the  Epworth  League  they 
will  regard  it  that  they  have  discharged  their  duties  to  the  Church. 
There  is  power  in  the  Epworth  League,  and  I  fear  not  the  peril  if  the 
power  shall  be  wisely  directed. 

Now  a  practical  word  or  two.  It  rests  with  the  pastor*  whether  the 
power  shall  work  out  the  desired  ends,  or  whether  the  peril  will  pre- 
vail. The  mountain  stream  that  comes  babbling  from  the  hills  has 
power  in  it.  You  cannot  stand  by  the  side  of  that  stream  and  say, 
"  0  stream,  thou  shalt  not  flow."  What  you  can  do  is  to  build  by 
the  side  of  that  singing  brook  a  mill,  and  then  say  to  the  babbling 
stream,  "  Fall  upon  my  watermill  and  furnish  me  power  wherewith 
I  may  xJi'oduce  that  which  shall  be  sent  out  to  bless  the  world."  If 
the  pastor  fails  to  direct  the  power  of  the  young  people,  then  possibly 
the  peril  may  result  in  that  which  has  been  feared,  and  the  evil  that 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  3^5 

has  been  prophesied.  The  pastor  who  will  not  stand  by  the  young 
people  must  not  be  surprised  if  they  do  not  stand  by  him.  There  are 
some  things  that  must  be  done.  If  the  pastor  is  to  direct  this  stream 
of  power  that  we  find  in  Methodism  to-day,  he  must  stand  by  the  young 
people.  He  should  attend  the  religious  services  always,  and  bear  his 
part  as  the  other  young  people  are  expected  to  do.  He  should  attend 
the  business  meetings  of  the  League,  or  whatever  Society  may  be  in 
existence  in  his  church.  There  he  will  have  the  opportunity  wisely,  dis- 
creetly, to  say  a  word  at  the  very  moment  that  may  avert  the  peril, 
and  secure  the  end  that  is  greatly  desired.  He  should  attend  the 
cabinet  meetings  and  can  accomplish  the  same  result  there. 

Having  identified  himself  with  the  movement,  so  that  he  can  speak 
a  word  of  caution,  and  direct  the  forces  as  best  he  may,  he  should, 
in  the  second  place,  direct  the  force  at  his  command.  There  will  be 
multitudes  of  opportunities.  The  revival,  we  will  say,  is  in  progress. 
I  know  from  experience  that  the  young  people  will  respond  to  the 
plans  of  the  pastor,  and  stand  by  him  in  the  work.  Then  there  are 
multitudes  of  strangers  that  must  be  sought  out,  won  to  the  Church, 
and  held  to  it.  The  young  people  will  respond  to  the  pastor  in  that 
work,  and  help  him  to  carry  out  the  plans  that  he  may  have  matured. 
There  are,  may  be,  church  debts  to  be  paid.  I  know  that  the  young 
people,  if  the  pastor  first  of  all  stands  by  them,  will  stand  by  him  to 
carry  out  all  the  plans  that  he  may  put  before  them.  They  will  thus 
come  to  be  the  right  hand  of  power  to  the  pastor,  and  the  right  hand, 
therefore,  of  power  to  the  Church. 

The  Rev.  W.  J.  Crothers,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada), 
continuing  the  discussion,  said  : 

A  more  important  topic  has  not  been  brought  before  this  Conference. 
If,  as  I  believe,  an  inspiration  shall  go  forth  to  the  world  from  thia 
Conference  with  reference  to  Young  People's  work,  we  shall  not  have 
met  together  in  vain.  We  have  all  been  stirred  by  the  work  done  by 
the  Christian  Endeavour  Societies  during  the  past  years,  and  sometimes 
we  have  been  told  that  a  new  thing  has  occurred  ;  but  it  is  well  for  us 
to  remember  that  Methodism  has  had  no  small  part  in  connection  with 
this  work  of  Christian  Endeavour.  The  Young  People's  work  is  not 
by  any  means  a  new  work  with  Methodism.  All  along  the  past,  a  deep 
interest  has  been  taken  in  connection  with  the  work  of  young  people, 
and  when  sometimes  people  have  criticised  our  efforts  in  establishing 
a  denominational  society,  it  seems  to  me  that  we  have  good  warrant 
in  the  fact  that  the  responsibility  of  looking  after  our  young  people 
has  been  laid  upon  us,  and  we  cannot  trust  this  work  to  anyone  else. 

Here  we  have  the  work-  placed  before  us  as  a  Church.  Here  is  a 
mighty  host  of  young  people  to  be  trained  for  God,  and  for  our  work, 
I  see  by  the  papers  that  the  question  has  been  raised  whether  Sunday 
Schools  are  a  success  or  not.  However  that  question  may  be  settled, 
it  seems  to  me  that  if  we  train  our  young  people  in  the  Young  People's 
Societies  in  connection  with  Sunday  School  work,  we  shall  be  doing  no 
small  good  to  the  Church.  The  question  is  also  sometimes  raised 
whether  the  class  is  a  success,  and  whether  lay  preaching  is  a 
success  or  not.  It  seems  to  me  that  in  connection  with  our  Young 
People's  Societies  we  have  a  grand  training  ground.  We  can  prepare 
young  men  to  go  out  as  lay  preachers  ;  we  can  prepare  them  to 
act  as  tru'^tces  ;  we  can  prepare  lliein,  direct  them,  in  reference 
to  the  various  offices  of  our  Church,  so   that  when  the  time  comes. 


2l6  METHODIST   YOUNG  PEOPLE'S   SOCIETIES. 

when  the  opportunity  presents  itself,  they  will  be  prepared  to  take  upon 
themselves  this  work.  Indeed,  I  look  upon  our  Young  People's 
Societies  as  a  grand  training  school. 

We  cannot  afford  to  let  things  go  on  haphazard  ;  but  it  is  our 
business  as  a  Church  that  the  young  people  be  trained  in  our  doctrines, 
that  they  know  what  they  believe  ;  that  they  be  trained  in  our  disci- 
pline, and  that  they  remember  that  we  have  a  discipline  ;  that  they 
be  trained  in  our  history,  that  they  know  something  about  our  history. 
I  believe  that  a  great  many  people  are  very  ignorant  of  the  history 
of  Methodism.  Where  have  we  anything  like  it  t  It  reads  like  a 
fiction.  When  I  take  up  the  hagiology  of  Methodism  I  think  of  the 
saints,  the  men  and  women  who  have  lived  in  days  gone  by ;  it  is  an 
inspiration  to  read  that  history.  When  I  think  of  the  men  who  have 
gone  out  as  missionaries  to  lay  down  their  lives  for  God's  cause  and 
the  building  up  of  His  Kingdom,  there  is  nothing  like  it  in  the  whole 
range  of  hterature  to  inspire  young  men  and  women  in  the  cause  of 
God.  We  have  a  grand  opportunity  there  to  stir  our  young  people  in 
reference  to  this  matter. 

Then  with  reference  to  the  work,  what  we  want  is  to  do  more.  We 
need  not  spend  time  about  criticism  ;  the  great  thing  is  to  be  at  it, 
and  always  at  it,  if  we  expect  Methodism  to  progress.  I  believe 
Methodism  has  not  yet  seen  its  best  days.  I  should  be  very  sorry  to 
think  we  had  reached  the  highest  point,  and  that  we  should  be  going 
down.  God  has  grander  things  yet  in  store  for  us  as  a  people,  and 
we  depend  upon  these  young  men  and  young  women  to  take  up  this 
work,  and  carry  it  on  more  grandly,  more  successfully,  than  their 
fathers  and  mothers  have  done.  When  I  see  how  missionary  facts 
have  been  disseminated,  how  missionary  literature  has  been  scattered, 
how  young  men  have  denied  themselves  two  cents  or  a  penny  a  week, 
and  that  sort  of  thing,  and  then  when  prayer  meetings  have  been  held, 
how  they  have  prayed  for  the  men  out  in  the  foreign  field,  how  they 
have  offered  themselves  to  go  out  to  that  work,  it  seems  to  me  that  just 
there  we  have  solved  one  of  the  most  important  questions  in  reference 
to  our  mission  work.  I  believe,  too,  that  the  Young  People's  Society- 
is  the  pastor's  right  arm.  If  he  rests  upon  it,  and  uses  it,  he  will 
find  that  it  will  relieve  him  of  a  great  amount  of  pastoral  work.  I 
hope  that  a  great  wave  of  inspiration  may  go  from  this  Conference 
in  connection  with  this  Young  People's  work. 

The  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 

Church),  said  . 

This  is,  perhaps,  not  only  a  young  people's  movement ;  it  is  the 
youngest  movement  of  great  importance  in  the  Methodist  Church, 
and  it  is  full  of  interest  to  us  all.  I  should  be  very  glad  if,  instead  of 
hearing  speeches,  which,  however  able  and  eloquent,  are  mainly 
speeches  such  as  might  have  been  delivered,  say,  at  a  public  meeting 
on  behalf  of  any  one  of  these  things,  it  were  possible  for  us  to  have 
a  little  real  conference  about  this  matter.  Undoubtedly,  to  a  certain 
extent,  this  movement  is  still  on  its  trial,  but  it  is  standing  its  trial 
exceedingly  well  in  those  parts  of  the  world  with  which  some  of  us 
are  best  acquainted.  Nevertheless,  we  have  some  anxieties  about  it, 
and  especially  upon  three  points.  We  are  anxious,  some  of  us,  as  to 
the  general  effect  produced  upon  our  young  people,  especially  in  the 
religious  character,  by  the  section  of  recreation.  Then  Bome  of  us 
are  very  anxious  abonl,  tlu'  eft'ect  whicli  the  young  people's  meeting  is 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  31? 

likely  t'->  have  upon  the  Sabbath  evening  public  service.  Thirdly,  wo 
are  very  anxious,  inclee<l,  to  understand  the  effect  that  it  is  likely 
to  have  upon  the  true  membership  of  the  Church. 

If  it  were  possible  that  several  of  our  brethren  who  have  experience 
of  this  matter  could,  in  speeches  lasting  a  minute  or  so,  give  us  some 
light  upon  this  matter,  I  believe  we  should  be  furnished  with  informa- 
tion which  would  be  very  valuable  to  us  in  forming  our  judgment  upon 
this  matter.  For  the  Wesleyan  Church,  I  hope  Mr.  Kelly,  to  whom  this 
movement  owes  so  very  much,  will  speak  to  us,  and  certainly  he  will 
be  able  with  more  authority  than  I  can  to  testify  what,  I  believe,  is  the 
fact  that  upon  no  one  of  these  points  is  there  at  present  any  need 
for  great  anxiety,  so  far  as  the  Wesley  Guild  is  concerned.  But  this 
is  a  much  wider  movement  than  the  Wesley  Guild,  and  I  ask  for 
information. 

The  Rev.  C.  H.  Kelly  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  responded 
to  the  invitation  of  the  President,  and  spoke  as  follows  : 

I  should  like  to  say  on  behalf  of  the  Wesley  Guild,  in  regard  to  the 
Young  People's  movement,  that  it  is  perhaps  the  youngest.  So  far 
as  the  three  points  are  concerned  to  which  Dr.  Stephenson  has  directed 
attention,  we  have,  I  believe,  as  a  body,  no  fear  wliatever. 

The  Wesley  Guild  does  attend  to  the  recreative  part  of  the 
Church,  if  it  may  be  so  called.  Some  people  have  objected  to  this. 
Some  people  have  objected  to  athletics  ;  others  to  some  of  the  games 
in  which  young  people  are  apt  to  indulge  ;  but  I  have  the  opinion 
that  there  is  a  Gospel  of  the  body  as  well  as  a  Gospel  of  the  soul. 
I  believe  a  well-developed  body  is  likely  to  produce  all  the  better 
Christian,  if  the  man  be  a  Christian.  I  am  quite  sure  if  young  folks 
are  to  have  recreation  they  had  better  take  it  in  the  company  of  good 
young  people,  and  under  the  guidance  of  the  Church,  than  without  it. 
I  have  never  met,  in  the  course  of  my  long  ministry,  and  a  ministry 
very  largely  among  young  people,  superior  piety  on  the  part  of  those 
who  never  took  good  physical  exercise  ;  but  I  have  sometimes  thought 
that  men  would  have  had  better  theology  if  they  had  had  better  bodies, 
and  it  is  quite  possible  to  secure  good  grace  of  soul  when  there  is 
attention  to  innocent  recreations,  to  which  young  people  are  apt  to  go. 
If  lads  are  to  play  football  and  cricket — and  I  see  no  sin  in  it — they  had 
better  do  that  in  the  company  and  under  the  guidance  of  their  Sunday 
School  teachers,  and  people  of  the  Wesley  Guild,  than  people  they  will 
meet  in  the  public-house.  If  they  have  to  change  their  clothes,  they  had 
better  do  it  in  the  vestries  of  our  schools  than  in  the  bar  parlours. 

As  to  the  membership,  we  certainly  escape  the  danger  that  seems  to 
be  anticipated  in  some  places.  The  Wesley  Guild  is  not  a  Church  for 
young  people  ;  it  is  part  of  our  own  Church — as  surely  a  part  of  our 
own  Church  as  any  other  department  in  it— and  the  devotional  part 
of  the  Wesley  Guild  is  the  most  popular  part  connected  with  the  Guild. 
The  recreation  department  has  never  driven  out  the  devotional  element. 
I  cannot  see  that  you  will  do  any  better  for  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 
with  reference  to  our  young  people  than  to  work  such  Guilds,  and  work 
them  effectively.  We  find  it  draws  young  people  into  the  Church  ;  it 
provides  work  for  the  young  people.  One  of  the  greatest  mischiefs 
in  connection  with  the  Churches  of  this  country  has  been  in  almost 
all  its  departments,  that  you  have  allowed  nearly  all  the  work  to  be 
done  by  people,  who,  in  many  instances,  would  be  all  the  better  if 


31 8  METHODIST    YOUNG   PEOPLE*S    SOCIETIES. 

they  took  a  little  rest.  The  fact  is,  the  work  of  the  Church  can  be 
done  very  well  by  young  people,  especially  if  they  be  well  officered. 
One  way  by  which  you  will  get  the  young  people  is  to  get  them  in- 
terested in  the  work  of  the  Church,  and  if  they  find  they  have  some- 
thing to  do,  they  will  not  run  away  from  it. 

The  Wesley  Guild  has  secured  Church  membership,  and  is  securing 
an  enormous  band  of  workers,  young  people  working  for  young  people, 
and  giving  their  energies  for  the  general  work  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  I  have,  so  far  as  the  future  is  concerned,  the  briglitest 
hopes,  for  I  see  through  the  influence  of  these  Guilds  a  great  number  of 
people  coming  into  our  Church  who  would  never  otherwise  have  come 
in.  It  is  said  of  Henry  Clay  that  when  he  stood  upon  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  gazing  into  the  distance,  somebody  said :  "  What  are  you 
listening  to,  Mr.  Clay  ? "  and  he  said,  "  I  am  listening  to  the  on-coming 
tramp  of  myriads  and  myriads  of  American  people."  They  are  coming, 
and  they  have  come  now.  We  hear  in  connection  with  this  work  the 
on-coming  tramp  of  myriads  and  myriads  of  young  people  into  the  work 
of  the  Church  and  into  those  parts  of  the  Church  to  which  we  belong. 

A  ,Delegate  :  I  want  to  ask  Mr.  Kelly  what  is  the  attitude  of  the 
Wesley  Guild  regarding  card-playing,  theatre-going,  and  dancing  1 

The  Rev.  C.  H.  Kelly  :  Those  forms  of  recreation  never  come  into 
consideration.  They  are  not  the  recreations  we  regard  to  be  the  best 
for  young  people.  Methodism  does  not  recognise  as  proper  recreations 
card-playing,  dancing,  or  theatre-going. 

The  Rev.  J.  A.  B.  Wilson,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episicopal  Church), 
said : 

I  have  come  forward  to  tell  an  experience.  It  is  no  longer  an 
experiment,  but  an  experience.  I  am  pastor  of  a  Church  with  240 
pledged  young  people.^  They  are  pledged  Leaguers.  We  have  about 
twelve  who  are  associated  members.  We  have  recognised  the  fact 
that  young  people  are  a  part  of  the  Church,  and  it  was  admissible  to 
organise  them,  as  any  other  part  of  the  Church,  for  active  work.  Our 
young  people  go  out  every  Sabbath  with  the  Gospel  waggon.  They 
meet  the  expenses  of  it,  and  they  hold  as  many  meetings  as  time  will 
allow ;  and  following  the  waggon  comes  the  great  host  of  the  young 
people's  meeting,  the  devotional  meeting  which  meets  at  six  o'clock. 
It  is  a  rare  thing  to  find  fewer  than  300  in  these  meetings,  and  then 
at  the  close  of  the  meeting  I  give  them  something  to  do 
upstairs,  and  they  come  upstairs  to  the  service  in  the 
auditorium.  They  form  an  antiphonal  choir,  with  the  regular 
choir,  In  singing  songs  before  the  service  commences,  in  which 
the  congregation  unite  in  the  choruses.  Then  we  have  an  adjourned 
meeting  of  the  League  after  the  sermon.  It  is  the  usual  after-meeting, 
but  we  call  it  the  adjourned  meeting  of  the  League,  and  I  can  scarcely 
think  of  a  Sunday  night  when  from  one  to  five  people  Have  not  been 
converted  under  that  influence.  The  fact  is,  all  the  evangelising  effort 
of  the  Church  is  focussed  upon  the  League. 

We  do  not  confine  the  League  to  young  people  only,  but  all  who  take 
part  in  that  line  of  work,  and  are  specially  interested  in  it,  give  their 
work  and  service  to  the  League,  and  the  League  is  put  in  the  front,  and 
It  leads  off  in  this  matter.  I  confess  to  you  I  have  not  found  some  of 
the  difficulties  that  my  brethren  have  told  you  of  here  to-day.  By 
gmng  them  something  to  do,  and  keeping  them  at  it  all  the  time, 
the  Leaguers  find  their  place  in  the  Church,  and  carry  their  full  share 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  ^19 

of  the  ])uiden  and  responsibility.  As  to  the  standards  which  are  main- 
tained among  them,  some  time  ago  it  was  reported  that  one  of  the 
members  of  the  League  was  seen  in  a  restaurant  taking  a  glass  of  wine 
with  his  dinner.  He  had  to  clear  himself  before  he  could  have 
any  standing  in  the  League.  The  charge  against  another  was  that  it 
was  said  he  smoked  a  cigar,  and  he  had  to  clear  himself  of  that  charge 
before  he  could  remain  a  member  of  the  League.  Our  young  people 
insist  upon  it  that  the  members  shall  be  free  from  the  twin  curses  of 
drink  and  tobacco.  I  rejoice  to  tell  you  that  there  has  not  been  a 
quarter  tha<-  my  League  has  not  brought  at  least  fifty  probationers  as 
the  result  of  the  revival  services  carried  on. 

Bishop  A.  Walters,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion 
Church),  was  the  next  speaker.     He  said : 

I  would  not  have  you  think  for  a  moment  that  we  do  not  realise 
that  to  have  a  first-class  picture  we  must  have  a  happy  blending  of  the 
colours.  We  do  not  want  too  much  colour  in  this  picture,  and  yet  there 
are  some  things  that  we  do  want  to  speak  of.  I  just  want  to  speak 
of  the  work  of  the  young  people  in  the  African  Methodist  Episcopal 
Zion  Church.  You  have  heard  from  our  President,  Dr.  Colbert,  some- 
what of  our  young  people.  We  have  been  criticised  in  our  country  be- 
cause we  have  adopted  the  Christian  Endeavour  movement  as  our 
Young  People's  Society,  instead  of  the  Epworth  League.  There  are 
some  reasons  for  that,  and  I  want  to  state  the  reasons  briefly,  and 
then  tell  what  our  young  people  have  done  for  our  Church.  The  reason 
that  we  adopted  the  United  Society  of  Christian  Endeavour  as  the 
Young  People's  Society  was,  because  it  brings  us  into  larger  fellowship 
than  if  we  had  adopted  the  Epworth  League.  We  are  loyal  Methodists, 
loyal  to  the  core,  and  expect  to  ever  be  so,  but  our  position  in  our 
country  is  a  unique  position.  We  must  touch  the  forces  of  the  realm, 
we  must  make  friends  everywhere,  and  in  the  United  Society  of  Chris- 
tian Endeavour  we  have  all  the  Churches  in  the  States.  Thus  the 
foreign  Churches  have  been  enabled  to  come  in  touch  with  the  Chris- 
tianity of  America,  and  these  not  only  help  us  along  spiritual  lines, 
but  help  us  along  racial  lines.  The  Christian  Endeavour  Society  stands 
distinctly  as  an  inter-racial  Society ;  it  cannot  be  otherwise.  The 
moment  it  draws  the  colour  line,  at  that  moment  the  members  in 
Africa,  the  members  in  India,  the  members  in  all  parts  of  the  world, 
where  there  are  dark-skinned  people,  would  be  shut  out.  Their  con- 
stitution will  never  allow  the  Christian  Endeavour  Society  to  draw 
the  colour  line,  and  that  is  why  we  have  adopted  it  as  the  Young 
People's  Society. 

The  movement  has  brought  about  a  reformation  in  our  Church  by 
bringing  in  the  young  people.  I  need  not  stop  to  tell  you  about  the 
old-time  singing  among  us,  and  how  we  used  to  drag  things  out  in 
class  meeting,  but  when  we  brought  these  young  men  and  young  women 
into  the  Church  they  wrought  a  reformation  along  those  lines  that  has 
helped  us  wonderfully.  Then  there  are  young  men  and  young  women 
coming  out  from  our  schools,  some  of  the  best  schools  in  the  land  into 
wliich  white  and  coloured  are  admitted,  and  they  return  from  those 
schools,  and  they  say,  "  We  do  not  want  to  go  to  these  services  any 
more  ;  the  services  are  not  intelligent  enough  for  us,  the  singing  is  not 
high-class  enough."  But  the  Christian  Endeavour  Society  is  also  solving 
those  problems  for  us.  That  is  why  we  have  adopted  the  Christian 
Endeavour  movement  as  our  Young  People's  Society. 


320  METHODIST    YOUNG    PEOPLE'S    SOCIETIES. 

Mr.  N.  W.  RowELL  (Methodist  Church  of  Canadn)  spoke  as  follows  : 

I  wish  to  express  my  appreciation  of  the  very  able  paper  of  our  friend 
Dr.  Haven,  and  I  hope,  if  we  obtain  no  other  benefit  from  its  discussion, 
that  we  may  very  seriously  consider  the  presentment  he  has  made  in 
favour  of  our  young  people's  organisations.  It  is  neither  the  time  nor 
the  place  to  discuss  the  relative  merits  of  Christian  Endeavour  Societies 
and  Epworth  Leagues.  In  the  Methodist  Church  of  Canada  we  dis- 
cussed it,  and  we  settled  in  favour  of  the  Epworth  League.  We  could 
not  see  why  by  being  loyal  and  true  to  our  Home  Church  we  should  be 
any  less  loyal  to  our  neighbours,  the  sister  Denominations.  We  have 
had  in  our  Church  a  young  people's  organisation  for  about  ten  years, 
and  the  circumstances  in  which  I  have  been  placed,  the  oflScial  relation 
which  I  have  borne  to  it,  although  a  layman,  puts  me  in  possession 
of  information  such  as  Dr.  Stephenson  has  asked  for. 

Dr.  Goucher  suggested  that  the  Epworth  League  is  still  an  experi- 
ment. If  Dr.  Goucher  meant  that  it  had  not  accomplished  yet  what 
we  hoped  it  would  accomplish,  or  what  we  hope  it  may  accomplish  in 
the  future,  I  believe  his  statement  is  correct.  If  he  meant  that  it  is 
still  an  experiment,  and  that  it  is  also  a  question  whether  the  organisa- 
tion is  good  or  evil  in  what  it  has  already  accomplished,  I  think  that 
can  admit  of  but  one  answer.  If  it  has  taught  the  Church  nothing  else 
than  that  it  has  within  its  own  membership  a  body  of  young  people,  in- 
telligent, enthusiastic,  desiring  to  work  for  God,  upon  whom  it  can  lay 
its  hand  at  any  time,  then  I  say  the  organisation  has  been  a  blessing, 
even  although  it  were  to  cease  to  be  at  the  present  time. 

It  occurs  to  us  in  Canada,  however,  as  it  may  perhaps  occur  to  you 
here,  that  the  organisation  needs  steadying.  In  the  enthusiasm  which 
characterises  every  new  and  great  movement  there  are  swept  into  its 
ranks  a  great  number  of  young  people  on  the  crest  of  the  wave.  The 
danger  is  that  when  we  get  into  the  trenches,  as  we  are  now 
getting  into  the  trenches,  and  there  comes  more  of  the  daily  routine 
of  regular  Church  life  and  Church  duty,  that  some  of  these  young 
people,  losing  the  earlier  enthusiasm,  may  drop  out  of  the  League, 
and  we  may  not  have  the  benefit  of  their  work. 

One  method  we  have  adopted  to  prevent  this  is  the  emphasis  we  are 
placing  upon  our  reading  course.  In  the  tendency  to  the  dissipation 
of  intellect  and  intellectual  energy  from  the  reading  of  the  light  litera- 
ture of  the  day,  we  thought  that  if  we  could  get  our  young  people  into 
the  habit  of  reading  good  books,  books  that  will  inform  them  on  the 
basis  of  their  own  faith  and  on  the  basal  facts  of  Methodist  history  ; 
books  that  will  enlighten  them  on  the  historic  facts  of  other  Churches  ; 
books  that  will  give  them,  perhaps,  some  small  knowledge  of  the  world 
aroimd  them  ;  in  studying  these  books  we  should  be  putting  them  in 
the  position  of  steadying  their  faith  and  having  clearer  and  more 
definite  convictions  than  they  could  possibly  have  if  we  simply  left  them 
to  the  enthusiasm  of  our  general  organisations.  In  our-  League,  such 
has  been  the  result  of  these  efforts,  that  last  year  about  10,000  volumes 
that  is,  2,500  sets  of  four  books  each,  were  purchased  and  read  by  the 
young  people  in  our  Leagues,  and  discussed  in  their  meetings.  We 
had  one  year  Stalker's  "  Life  of  Christ "  ;  another  year  we  had  a  book 
on  Wesleyan  Methodism  ;  this  year  we  have  Bishop  Warren's  book 
dealing  with  the  universe  in  which  we  live.  We  have  had  books 
which  touch  not  only  che  religious  life,  but  the  wider  life  of  the  young 
men  or  the  young  women,  as  the  case  may  be,  in  their  duties  of  citizen- 
ship.    We  hope  by  these  means  in  some  way  to  steady  the  young 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  321 

people  in  our  ranks  for  the  contest  of  life  which  they  must  enter,  not 
only  the  contest  of  sin  in  their  hearts,  but  the  contest  of  sin  in  the 
world. 

Another  problem  which,  joerhaps,  you  find  in  the  Eastern  Section, 
and  which,  I  think,  this  young  people's  movement  is  helping  us  in 
some  sense  to  solve,  is  this.  Have  you  not  found  that  in  your  Metho- 
dist Churches  the  young  men  and  young  women  of  the  best  families 
are  not  in  all  cases  actively  engaged  in  the  religious  work  of  the 
Church  ?  When  we  hold  our  special  services,  and  a  man  who  has 
been  a  sinner  for  years,  who  has  been  a  drunkard  or  profligate,  is  con- 
verted, we  hail  it  as  a  marvellous  work  of  grace — and  so  it  is — and  we 
proclaim  it  abroad.  But  possibly  one-tenth  of  the  energy  we  put 
forth  to  secure  the  salvation  of  that  man's  soul,  had  it  been  put  forth 
among  the  young  people  of  the  families  of  our  own  Church,  would  have 
resulted  in  their  being  in  the  Church  instead  of  out  of  it.  While  it  is 
very  true  that  one  soul,  in  one  sense,  is  as  valuable  as  another,  in 
another  sense  it  is  not  true,  because  the  son  or  the  daughter  of  a  good 
family  in  the  Church,  growing  up,  and  taking  a  responsible  position 
in  life,  will  usually  exercise  in  the  world  a  much  greater  influence  than 
the  poor  profligate  whom  you  have  brought  into  the  Church.  By  directing 
our  attention  to  this  fact  it  will  enable  us  more  and  more  to  see  the 
great  importance  of  enlisting  the  sympathy  and  co-operation  of  the 
young  people  in  all  our  families  in  the  Church 

The  Rev.  W.  D.  Parr,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Churoh),  was 
the  nett  speaker.     He  said : 

We  are  greatly  indebted  to  Dr.  Haven  for  his  unique  paper.  We 
feel  that  the  dictum  of  Wesley  is  broad  enough  for  us  all.  We  "  desire 
a  league  both  offensive  and  defensive"  that  will  bring  us  into  har- 
monj-  with  every  kind  of  young  people's  organisation  throughout 
universal  Methodism.  We  rejoice  in  the  growth  of  the  young 
people's  movement  everywhere,  and  we  feel  confident  of  the  faith 
and  loyalty  of  the  young  people.  We  must  trust  our  young  people 
more,  and  give  them  a  few  more  responsibilities.  To  be  sure,  the 
Church  of  to-morrow  is  in  them.  They  are  loyal  to  our  doctrines 
and  to  our  polity,  and  we  believe  we  can  trust  them.  They  are 
growing  in  essential  strength  ;  they  are  coming  into  the  warp  and 
woof  of  our  Church  life.  They  are  praying  young  people,  they  are 
Btudious,  and  prayer  and  study  make  a  mighty  Christian.  They  are 
going  along  that  road  ;  they  are  being  developed  most  magnificently. 
The  peace  conflicts  of  the  future  are  to  be  fought  not  upon  battle- 
fields. Some  of  us  believe  in  war,  when  it  must  be ;  but  in  the 
future  the  conflicts  are  to  be  in  the  region  of  debate,  where  men 
pit  thought  against  thought ;  and  we  are  training  a  class  of  young 
people  on  whom  we  can  depend.     They  will  be  ready  for  the^  battles. 

L<'t  us  thank  God  we  have  young  people,  and  let  us  take  care  of 
them.  Let  us  encourage  them  in  every  respect.  Let  us  open  doors  oi 
opportunity  for  them,  and  let  not  one  of  them  ever  feel  that  the 
older  life  of  the  Church,  and  the  official  life  of  the  Church,  is  wanting 
in  enthusiasm,  intelligence,  and  patient  support,  for  they  will  posi- 
tively be  able  to  do  the  great  work  of  the  Church  of  to-morrow. 
I  have  come  to  revise  my  definition  of  youth.  It  is  not  so  much  a 
young  man,  not  so  mucli  a  question  of  age,  not  a  question  of  whether 
he  has  grey  hair  or  any  hair  at  all ;  it  is  the  spirit  that  is  in  him. 

22 


32  2  METHODIST   YOUNG   PEOPLE'S    SOCIETIES. 

Thank  God  our  Methodism  is  full  of  men  and  women  who  may  be 
old  in  years  but  young  at  heart.  We  need  not  have  any  fear  of  the 
great  host  that  is  coming  ;  they  will  be  on  hand  to  help  in  the  mighty 
conflict  of  to-morrow ;  they  will  be  with  us  a  hundred  thousand 
strong  when  they  are  needed. 

The  Rev.  R.  A.  Carter,  M.A.  (Coloured  Meth^odist  Episcopal 
Church),  made  the  following  remarks  : 

I  feel  very  much  indebted  to  Dr.  Colbert,  of  the  African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Zion  Church,  for  the  very  able  paper  which  he  has  read 
to  UH.  I  consider  the  young  people's  movement  to  be  the  greatest 
movement  inaugurated  by  the  Protestant  Churches  in  the  last  century. 
I  CO  consider  it  because  the  Churches  first  fell  in  line  with  the  policy 
of  great  national  Governments.  The  British  Empire,  the  United 
Star-es  of  America,  and  all  the  great  empires  and  countries  of  this 
world  have  training  schools  for  their  soldiers  and  sailors.  They 
believe  in  preparing  for  war  in  the  time  of  peace,  and  the  Protestant 
Churches  are  now,  in  their  Young  People's  Societies,  preparing  the 
future  warriors  in  the  time  of  peace  for  the  great  battles  which  will 
confront  the  Christian  Church  during  this  century.  There  need  be 
no  fear  about  the  young  people  becoming  disloyal  or  anything  of  that 
sort. 

In  our  League  work  we  aim  to  teach  them  the  doctrines  of  Metho- 
dism. We  aim  to  teach  them  the  glorious  history  of  more  than  a 
hundred  years  of  marching  and  a  hundred  years  of  song,  which  is 
behind  Methodism.  We  aim  to  make  them  proud  that  they  are 
Methodists.  Two  girls  went  to  a  Catholic  hospital  to  see  a  sick  person. 
One  of  the  sisters  came  into  the  hospital  while  they  were  waiting, 
and  said  to  one  of  them,  "  My  dear,  what  is  your  name  1 "  The 
httle  girl  said,  "Mary,  if  you  please."  The  sister  said,  "Thank  you 
very  much,  and  now,  my  dear,  excuse  me,  to  what  Church  do  you 
belong?"  The  little  girl  said,  "I  am  a  Catholic,"  and  the 
sister  replied,  "  Thank  God  for  that ! "  Then  she  turned  to  the 
other  little  girl,  and  she  said,  "  My  dear,  what  is  your  name  ? " 
and  the  little  girl  said,  "My  name  is  Sarah,  and  I  am  a  Methodist, 
and  thank  God  for  that." 

I  heard  my  friend  tell  the  other  night  in  eloquent  language  of  the 
English  Poet  Laureate's  poem,  "Pax  Britannica,"  in  which  he  pic- 
tured all  the  nations  as  counselling  how  and  when  to  strike  the  great 
British  Empire  while  she  was  busy  enriching  herself.  The  poet 
pictures  the  British  lion  as  rising  up  and  shaking  his  mane,  and  asking 
in  thundering  tones  where  the  lion's  whelps  are.  Over  at  the  Tower 
yesterday,  as  I  saw  the  young  soldiers  drilling  there  in  the  Tower 
Yard,  I  said  to  myself,  "  The  lion's  whelps  are  being  prepared  here 
to  take  care  of  the  empire  in  the  future."  In  like  manner  the  Young 
People's  Societies  of  Methodism  are  preparing  our  young  people  to 
take  care  of  the  Methodist  Church  in  the  future,  if  we  will  give 
them  our  moral  and  our  hearty  support.  It  is  a  training  school  for 
them.  It  makes  them  more  loyal.  It  makes  them  love  the  Church 
more,  and  it  gives  them  something  to  do.  Nature  abhors  a  vacuum, 
and  the  devil  does  too.  If  we  hope  to  perpetuate  oiu:  Church,  we 
must  no  longer  expect  to  recruit  its  ranks  from  the  bar-rooms  alone. 
If  we  expect  to  perpetuate  our  Church  we  must  not  any  longer 
expect  to  go  out  into  the  alleys  and  by-ways  to  get  converts,  but  we 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  32^ 

must  bring  them  from  the  Sunday  School,  and  from  the  Young  People's 
Societies   into   our  Church. 

The  Rev.  J.  W.  Newman,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Churoh, 
South),  said : 

I  believe  that  there  has  been  no  speaker  on  this  great  subject 
from  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  "We  represent,  I  sup- 
pose, the  second  largest  organisation  of  young  people's  meetings  and 
societies  in  Methodism  in  the  world.  We  entered  into  this  work 
very  early,  and  I  have  had  the  very  great  privilege  and  pleasure  of 
being  connected  with  the  work  from  the  very  start.  We  entered 
into  it  in  self-defence.  We  felt  we  were  compelled  to  organise  our 
young  people,  in  order  to  preserve  them  to  Methodism.  I  thank 
Dr.  Stephenson  for  suggesting  the  idea  of  a  conference,  and  I  have 
risen  to  speak  to  his  proposition. 

As  to  the  piety  of  our  young  people,  the  Epwortli  League  has  surely 
fostered  that.  Our  very  best  young  people  are  in  the  Epworth  League, 
and  they  are  hearty  and  loyal  co-operators  with  all  the  leaders  of  the 
Church,  and  especially  with  the  pastor.  As  to  the  attendance  at 
church,  the  Epworth  League  members  are  our  very  best  attendants. 
They  are  regular  and  they  are  faithful.  As  to  the  effect  upon  old 
people  we  had  a  good  many  people  who  had  fears  as  to_  the  outgrowtli 
of  this  movement  among  young  people,  as  to  what  it  would  come 
to,  and  they  cried  out,  "  Young  America !  "  and  all  that.  But  we 
have  largely  won  them  to  our  side  on  this  great  question.  Eeally, 
in  the  Epworth  League  in  America,  especially  in  our  Church,  we 
have  no  age  limit — at  least,  going  up.  We  do  have  a  little^  limit 
going  down.  Nobody  gets  too  old  to  be  an  Epworth  Leaguer  in  our 
Church.  We  have  some  most  active  and  wideawake  and  fresh-hearted 
and  spirited  old  people  in  connection  with  this  work.  In  Nashville, 
our  headquarters,  we  have  a  Leaguer  there,  ninety-three  years  old, 
regularly  attending  and  taking  an  active  interest  in  this  work.  I 
feel  that  this  great  work  is  a  means  of  conserving  the  youth  of  heart 
of  the  grey-haired  people  in  the  Church  of  God.  I  determined  years  ago 
that  I  would  never  grow  old.  I  may  get  grey  and  wrinkled,  and 
stooped,  and  bent,  and  broken,  but  I  intend  to  keep  my  heart  sweet, 
fresh,  warm,  full  of  love,  and  young,  because  I  keep  close  to  the 
young  people  in  our  Church. 

As  to  the  practical  working  of  the  movement  and  the  outcome  of 
it,  we  have  had  great  results.  We  have  among  the  young  women  some 
of  the  very  finest  charity  workers  that  we  have  ever  had.  The  same 
is  true  of  the  teachers  of  the  Mission  Sunday  Schools  of  the  Church 
in  the  cities  where  that  work  can  be  carried  on.  Then  we  have  had  a 
great  outgrowth  and  development  in  our  missionary  collections,  which 
is  largely  attributable  to  the  co-operation  of  our  young  people  with 
the  pastors  in  this  work.  Several  of  oiu:  Annual  Conferences  in 
the  last  few  years  are  coming  to  pay  in  full  every  dollar  of  the  mis- 
sionary assessment,  and  that  is  the  outgrowth  largely  of  the  co-opera- 
tion of  the  young  people  and  the  pastors  in  this  great  work. 

Mr.  J.  E.  Balmeb  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches)  closed  the 
discussion  with  the  following  remarks : 

I  wish  to  speak  of  a  class  of  young  people  who  are  not  in  Guilds, 
pr  likely  to  be.    There  are  young  men  and  young  women  who  w^ill 


324  BUSINESS  PROCEEDINGS. 

never  enter  a  Guild,  and  who  will  not  be  associated  with  a  Guild.  I 
want  you  to  keep  them — young  people  who  consider  themselves  a  hit 
"swell"  in  their  way,  who  come  of  good  families,  and  have  wealth, 
to  whom  Methodism  is  not  quite  high  enough  socially;  young  people 
who  say,  "  Father,  I  should  like  to  be  married  in  the  church,"  as  if 
it  were  not  right  or  proper  to  be  married  in  a  Methodist  chapel.  I  am 
proud  to  be  the  son  of  a  Methodist  minister,  and  Methodism  is  quite 
high  enough  for  me,  and  ever  will  be.  Never  let  your  sons  speak  dis- 
paragingly of  a  minister  of  the  Methodist  Church.  I  have  known 
families  that  have  left  Methodism  simply  because  of  indiscreet  criti- 
cisms at  the  dinner  table.  The  minister  has  done  his  best,  but  from 
the  critical  standpoint  has  failed,  and  we  have  lost  dozens  of  young 
men  in  that  way.  I  want  these  youths  to  be  kept.  Give  them  posi- 
tion. Do  not  wait  till  they  begin  to  be  wrinkled,  because  sometimes 
young  men  are  capable  of  taking  places  even  in  the  State  before  they 
are  old.  and  they  fill  them  and  keep  them.  Do  not  wait  until  our 
young  men  and  women  lose  their  imagination  before  putting  them  into 
office.  Give  them  a  high  position  if  you  can.  Trust  them.  If  anyone 
trusted  me  I  would  do  my  utmost  for  him,  but  if  he  had  a  doubt  about 
me  I  should  very  likely  leave  him.  Trust  your  young  people.  Wel- 
come them.  Do  not  put  them  aside.  The  great  moving  spirits  of  the 
race,  in  poetry,  in  art,  and  in  science,  have  been  comparatively  young 
as  a  rule.  I  speak  for  the  young  people  to-day,  and  I  want  you  to 
solicit  and  secure  the  men  and  women  who  are  clever,  and  in  good 
social  positions,  because,  although  they  can  only  make  one  cross  for 
the  ballot-box,  like  the  poorest  man,  yet  how  much  more  influence 
has  the  clever  man  as  compared  with  the  ignorant  man.  If  we  can 
get  our  Churches  full  of  the  young  men  and  women  of  whom  I  have 
been  speaking  they  will  succeed. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  said 
that  with  regard  to  the  training  of  candidates  for  the  ministry  in 
the  foreign  field,  the  Business  Committee  recommended  the  adop>- 
tion  of  the  following  resolution,  to  which  the  Conference  agreed : 
"That  in  the  judgment  of  this  (Ecumenical  Conference  provision 
should  be  made  in  the  educational  institutions  of  the  Chiirches  for 
the  special  training  of  candidates  for  the  ministry,  and  other  workersi 
m  the  foreign  mission  field,  and  that  the  substance  of  this  resolu- 
tion be  embodied  in  the  Address  of  the  Conference  to  our  people 
throughout  the  world." 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clatton  further  said  that  with  regard  to  the 
suggestion  of  a  monument  on  the  grave  of  Mrs.  Susannah  Wesley, 
the  Business  Committee  reported  that  there  was  a  monument  to 
the  memory  of  Mrs.  Susannah  Wesley  in  front  of  Wesley's  Chapel, 
that  the  gravestone  O'n  Mrs.  Wesley's  grave  in  Bunhill  Fields  waa 
the  original  stone,  and  that  the  necessary  steps  for  its  reparation 
and  preservation  would  be  taken  under  the  direction  of  the  Rev. 
Charles  H.  Kelly.  The  Rev.  N.  Curnock  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church)  said  that  he  sympathised  with  the  desire  of  the  Committee 
that  the  present  gravestone  should  be  preserved  intact  and  unin- 


ADDRESSES  FROM  THE  FREE  CHURCHES.  325 

jured,  but  he  thought,  for  the  sake  of  the  Methodist  people  coming 
from  all  parts  of  the  world,  there  should  be  at  the  grave  ?omething 
more  distinctive,  mthout  interfering  Avith  the  present  ^tone  at  all. 
The  Rev.  Wesley  Guard  (Irish  Methodist  Church)  endorsed  what 
Mr.  Curnook  had  said.  The  Rev.  Charles  H.  Kelly  said  when 
it  was  proposed,  two  years  ago,  to  erect  a  much  more  noticeable 
monument  over  John  Wesley's  grave,  the  strongest  protests  that 
were  received  were  from  men  in  high  position,  not  in  the  Wesleyan 
Church,  but  in  the  Church  of  England,  who  begged  that  the 
simplicity  of  the  monument  might  be  allowed  to  remain.  The 
report  of  the  Gommitteo  wa,s  eventually  agreed  to. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  also  said  that  the  following  resolu- 
tion had  been  before  the  Business  Committee,  and  was  recom- 
mended by  them,  to  which  the  Conference  agreed  : 

"  In  view  of  the  value  and  importance  of  the  missionary  work 
being  done  by  the  Methodist  Churches  in  foreign  lands,  the 
Statistical  Committee  should  be  instructed  to  prepare  a  tabulated 
statement  of  our  work  and  workers  for  publication  in  the  Official 
Report  of  the  (Ecumenical  Conference." 

The  Doxology  was  then  sung,  and  the  Benediction  was  pro- 
nounced  by  the  President. 


THIRD     SESSION. 


TOPIC : 
ADDRESSES    FROM    THE    FREE    CHURCHES. 


In  the  evening  an  adjourned  meeting  of  the  Conference  was  held 
at  the  St.  James's  Hall  for  the  purpose  of  receiving  deputations 
from  other  Churches.  The  hall  was  crowded  with  an  enthusiastic 
audience.  The  Rev.  J.  Luke  (Bible  Christian  Church)  was  in  the 
chair. 

The  Rev.  W.  T.  Davi.^on,  M.A.,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  offered  prayer. 

The  Rev.  J.  Luke  (Chairman)  in  opening  the  proceedings,  said : 
We  are  here  this  evening  for  the  interesting  and  important  matter 
of  receiving  Addresses  from  the  National  Council  of  the  Evangelical 
Free  Churches  of  England  and  Wales,  the  United  Free  Church  of 
Scotland,   the  Moravian   Church,   the  Huguenot  Congregation  of 


326  ADDRESSES    FROM    THE    FREE   CHURCHES. 

Canterbviry,  and  the  Salvation  Army.       There  are  also  certain 
gentlemen  on  the  platform  who  will  speak. 

The  Address  from  the  National  Council  of  the  Evangelical  Free 
Churches  of  England  and  Wales  was  presented  by  the  Rev.  J. 
Monro  Gibson,  M.A.,  D.D.  (Honorary  Secretary).     He  said: 

Before  presenting  this  Address,  I  may  say  that  we  have  among  us 
valued  members  from  the  Methodist  Churches,  including  our  Acting- 
President,  the  Rev.  Charles  H.  Kelly  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church) ; 
our  President-Elect,  the  Rev.  W.  J.  Townsend,  D.D.  (Methodist  New 
Connexion)  ;  Mr.  R.  W.  Perks,  M.P.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church), 
who  is  one  of  our  Treasurers  ;  and  our  Organising  Secretary,  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Law  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches).  As  the  Address  I  am 
about  to  read  is  to  Methodists,  it  has  been  felt  by  our  brethren  of 
that  Communion  that  they  must  leave  to  others  the  utterance  of  the 
common  sentiment,  and  therefore  some  of  those  whom  we  should  be 
only  too  delighted  to  hear  this  evening  are  silent,  who  under  other 
circumstances  might  have  taken  a  prominent  part.  Our  deputation 
is  a  large  one.  I  may  mention  those  who  are  present  on  the  platform 
in  addition  to  those  who  will  have  time  to  take  part  in  the  proceedings, 
include  Alderman  Evan  Spicer,  J.P.,  Mr.  J.  Bamford  Slack,  B.A., 
Mr.  R.  White,  Mr.  Percy  W.  Bunting,  M.A.,  the  Rev.  Thos.  Mitchell, 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Allen,  D.D.,  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Jowett,  M.A.,  the 
Rev.  A.  Ramsey,  M.A.,  B.D.,  Mr.  J.  Compton  Rickett,  M.P.,  Mr. 
E.  C.  Rawlings,  Mr.  Moses  Atkinson,  and  the  Rev.  F.  W.  Bourne. 
These  are  members  of  our  Committee  whom  we  have  observed  already 
on  the  platform.  The  Address  we  have  the  honour  and  pleasure 
to  present  is  in  these  terms  :  — 

The  National  Council  of  the  Evangelical  Free  Churches  of 
England  and  Wales  present  their  Christian  salutations  to  their 
Methodist  brethren  assembled  in  CEcumenical  Conference,  and 
embrace  the  opportunity  of  giving  thanks  and  praise  to  God  for 
the  great  grace  He  has  bestowed  on  their  fathers  and  on  them, 
and  for  the  mighty  work  He  has  enabled  them  to  do  for  the 
glory  of  His  name,  for  the  extension  of  His  Kingdom,  and  for  the 
good  of  the  world. 

We  recognise  how  signally  God  has  owned  and  honoured  the 
great  spiritual  movement  of  the  eighteenth  century  associated  witli 
the  revered  names  of  the  Wesleys,  by  so  guiding  and  blessing  it 
that  out  of  it  has  grown  a  great  Church,  of  catholic  spirit  and  of 
almost  world-wide  extent,  which  has  given  abupdant  evidence 
throughout  its  brief  and  most  eventful  history  that  it  has  been 
called  and  commissioned  of  God  to  minister  to  all  ranks  and  classes 
of  men,  while  it  has  been  peculiarly  honoured  in  preaching  the 
Gospel  to  the  poor,  and  in  winning  to  Christ  many  of  whom 
other  agencies  had  failed  to  reach. 

We  rejoice  in  the  illustration  so  given  to  the  world  of  a  Church 
in  all  its  parts  built  on  the  sure  foundation,  loyal  to  the  one 
King  and  Head,  and  faithful  to  the  principles  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment ;  and  we  see  in  the  consecrated  men  who  have  adorned  the 
Methodist  ministry  the  marks  of  the  true  apostolical  succession, 


ADDRESS    PRESENTED    BY    THE    REV.    J.    MONRO   GIBSON,         327 

and  in  the  souls  won  for  Christ  the  Divine  seal  upon  the  validity 
of  its  orders. 

We  acknowledge  the  indebtedness  of  all  the  Churches  to  the 
Methodist  movement,  for  the  lif?  which  has  been  stirred  where 
formerly  there  was  slumber  or  death,  and  for  the  impulse  which 
has  been  given  to  all  varieties  of  Christian  work.  We  are  under 
obligation  also  for  many  streams  of  healthful  and  healing  influence 
in  social  and  national  life — for  all  you  have  done  for  Righteousness, 
Temperance,  sound  Education,  and  for  the  promotion  of  every  good 
work. 

We  observe  with  great  satisfaction  the  evidences  in  both  hemi- 
spheres of  your  marvellous  growth,  not  only  in  numbers  but  in 
resources,  a  signal  illustration  of  which  we  recognise  in  the 
courage  which  inaugurated  and  the  energy  and  liberality  which 
carried  through  to  success  so  many  Twentieth  Century  Funds. 
We  congratulate  you  also  on  the  high  place  many  of  your  repre- 
sentatives are  taking  in  the  ranks  of  scholarship  and  authorship  ; 
and  it  is  with  special  thankfulness  we  note  the  evidence  that  you 
still  maintain  the  old  spirit  of  the  fathers  of  your  Church  in  the 
determination  that  to  the  poor,  especially,  the  Gospel  should  be 
preached.  With  that  freedom  and  readiness  of  adaptation  to 
varying  circumstances  which  have  been  a  special  note  of  Methodism, 
you  have  taken  the  lead  in  the  adoption  of  new  methods  of  com- 
mending the  Gospel  to  the  masses  of  the  people,  by  the  establish- 
ment of  special  missions  in  great  centres  of  population,  which 
are  giving  a  fresh  impulse  to  the  work  of  evangelisation  everywhere. 

Representing  as  we  do  a  great  Federation  of  Evangelical  Chris- 
tians, we  recognise  with  thankfulness  the  true  catholicity  of  the 
Methodist  Church — its  readiness  to  acknowledge  as  brethren 
all  who  are  truly  loyal  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  co-operate 
with  them  in  every  endeavour  to  promote  the  cause  of  righteous- 
ness and  truth,  as  proof  of  which  we  may  refer  to  the  great  service 
rendered  to  this  Federation  by  men  of  light  and  leading  from  vari- 
ous branches  of  the  Methodist  family.  We  note  with  satisfaction 
the  reunion  of  Methodists  in  Canada  and  in  Australia,  and  it  is  our 
hope  and  prayer  that  there  will  soon  be  a  similar  reunion  in  the 
Motherland  and  in  the  United  States  ;  that  the  bonds  which  hap- 
pily unite  you  now  with  all  of  us  may  be  further  strengthened, 
and  our  co-operation  in  the  Gospel  further  developed,  till  the  great 
aim  of  our  Federation  Movement  shall  be  realised,  when  we  shall 
effectually  demonstrate  our  essential  oneness  in  Christ  and  success- 
fully combat  the  forces  of  evil  as  "  one  Army  of  the  Living  God." 

As  we  look  back  across  the  centuries,  we  recognise  that,  among 
the  many  proofs  of  the  presence  of  the  Lord  with  His  people,  and 
the  power  of  His  Spirit  in  His  Church,  there  is  none  more  signal 
than  is  furnished  by  the  history  of  the  Methodist  Church  ;    and 
as  it  is  our  conviction  that  He  who  has  so  greatly  honoured  you 
in  the  past  will  be  with  you  still  in  all  the  fulness  of  His  grace, 
80  it  will  be  our  prayer  that  in  this  twentieth  century  on  which 
we  have  entered  there  may  be  in  store  for  you  a  still  richer  bless- 
ing,  greater  fruitfulness  in  every  good  work,  larger  influence  for 
good  on  the  Church  Universal  and  on  the  world,  and  a  still  more 
bountiful  harvest  of  souls  won  for  Christ  and  His  Kingdom, 
CiiAS.   H.  Kelly,  Acting-President. 
J.  Monro  Gibsox,  Honorary  Secretary. 
Thomas  Law,  Organising  Secretary. 


328  ADDRESSES  FROM  THE  FREE  CHURCHES. 

Mr.  George  Cadbury  (Society  of  Friends)  was  one  of  the  speakers 
selected  by  the  National  Free  Church  Council.     He  said : 

It  is  a  privilege  to  be  invited  to  meet  representatives  of  a  Denomina- 
tion now  influencing,  perhaps  more  largely  than  any  other,  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  world,  and  most  stimulating  to  remember  that  it  has  attained 
this  position  in  the  Church  of  God  not  by  attacking  other  Denomina- 
tions, but  by  seeking  to  bring  men  to  Christ.  Probably,  one  reason 
why  religion  has  made  so  little  headway  with,  I  fear,  a  large  majority 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  has  been  the  intolerant  spirit  of  so  many  of 
the  professed  followers  of  Christ,  the  devotion  of  too  much  time  and 
energy  to  arguing  with  fellow  Christians  on  comparatively  unimportant 
matters  of  detail,  instead  of  uniting  with  them  in  the  effort  to  bring 
sinners  to  their  Saviour.  Few  professing  Christians  have  yet  fully 
grasped  the  meaning  of  the  words  of  John  Wesley,  "  The  world  is  my 
parish,"  but  the  union  of  the  Free  Churches  for  aggressive  spiritual 
work  is  a  step  in  that  direction.  The  National  Free  Church  Council 
has  entered  into  the  spirit  of  these  words,  by  endeavouring  to  draw  out 
the  sympathies  of  every  Church  towards  those  around  them  who  are 
living  godless  lives.  Many  of  our  Churches  devote  almost  their  whole 
attention  to  the 

"  Ninety   and  nine  that  safely  lie 
In  the  shelter  of  the  fold  ;  " 

and  do  but  comparatively  little  to  bring  in  the  multitude  of  the  lost, 
wandering  sheep, 

"Away   on   the   mountains   wild   and  bare, 
Away  from  the  tender  Shepherd's  care." 

When  the  Free  Churches  act  as  a  disciplined  force  with  this  main 
object  in  view,  rather  than  as  an  undisciplined  and  often  quarrelsome 
host,  their  power  for  good  will  be  enormously  increased.  There  can 
be  no  united  or  effective  action  while  bitter  controversy  is,  not  only 
indulged  in  but  encouraged  by  the  leading  men  in  our  Churches. 
I  believe  that  the  division  of  towns  and  districts  into  parishes  has  been 
the  most  important  work  accomplished  by  our  National  Free  Church 
Council.  The  members  of  many  churches  have  been  astonished  to  find, 
when  parish  visitation  has  been  undertaken,  how  much  needs  doing 
close  to  their  own  doors.  Such  service  enlarges  our  horizon,  and  brings 
us  into  contact  with  the  results  of  sin,  and  into  sympathy  with  other 
Churches  doing  a  similar  work.  We  then  find  there  is  work  for  every 
individual  member  of  our  own  and  neighbouring  Churches  to  do  ;  and 
the  sight  of  loving  forbearance  and  even  harmony  among  those  who 
differ  in  non-essentials  tends  to  win  men  to  Christ. 

Those  who  have  entered  heartily  into  Evangelical  work  soon  learn 
that  if  men  are  to  be  won  it  will  be  by  love,  and  the  simple  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ,  and  not  by  controversy.  Man's  test  has  been  a  creed, 
forgetting  the  exhortation  to  "strive  not  about  words  to  no  profit, 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  GEORGE  CADBURY.  329 

but  to  the  subverting  of  the  hearers."  Christ's  test  is  love,  "By  this 
shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  My  disciples,  if  yc  have  love  one  to 
another."  "Let  us  do  good  unto  all  men,  especially  unto  them  who 
are  of  the  household  of  faith."  A  good  father  will  love  his  own  chil- 
dren best.  "  He  that  provideth  not  for  his  own  house  is  worse  than 
an  infidel,"  but  a  good  father  who  has  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  Christ  will  not  only  love  his  own  children  but  other 
people's  children  too.  A  good  Wesleyan  will  love  his  own  Church  the 
best,  and  give  it  loyal  service,  but  if  he  has  entered  into  the  spirit  of 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  of  John  Wesley,  the  founder  of 
his  Church,  he  will  love  all  those  who  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
to  whatever  Denomination  they  may  belong.  This  teaching  will  not 
only  carry  us  beyond  the  limitations  of  creed,  but  our  brotherly  love 
and  sympathy  will  extend  far  beyond  our  own  race  or  nationality. 
A  good  Englishman  or  American  will  love  his  own  country  best,  but  if 
he  believes  that  "  God  has  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men "  ; 
if  he  believes  that  God  is  the  Father  of  all  men,  he  must  admit  that 
all  men  are  brethren,  and  that  by  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament, 
war  is  but  wholesale  fratricide.  The  Jew  who  fell  among  thieves 
received  loving  help  from  a  Samaritan,  a  man  of  another  country,  of 
the  inhabitants  of  which  we  are  told  "  The  Jews  have  no  dealings  with 
the  Samaritans."  In  answer  to  the  question,  "  Who  is  my  neighbour  1 " 
our  Lord  taught  us  by  this  parable  that  men  of  every  nationality  and 
of  every  colour  are  our  neighbours.  When  will  professing  Christians 
learn  that 

"He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best"  1 

Christ's  injunction  to  "Love  your  enemies"  is  absolutely  incom- 
patible with  war.  When  Christians  dare  to  obey  this  command  they 
must  be  prepared  for  ridicule  from  worldly  men,  and  to  suffer  as  did 
the  early  Christians  for  bearing  their  testimony  against  war.  The 
Wesleyan  Church  was  never  so  greatly  blessed  spiritually  as  when  its 
members  were  persecuted  for  conscience'  sake.  "  Blessed  are  ye  when 
men  shall  levile  you."  Take  heed  "when  all  men  shall  speak  well 
of  you,  for  so  did  their  fathers  of  the  false  prophets."  "Ye  cannot 
serve  God  and  mammon." 

Men  have  been  alienated  from  the  Church,  not  only  by  the  lack  of 
love  in  religious  difference  among  those  who  profess  to  be  followers 
of  the  same  Lord,  but  even  more  by  the  evil  passions  fanned  and 
encouraged  by  those  who  profess  Christ's  name  towards  their  fellow- 
men.  Churches,  like  nations,  have  been  greatest  and  strongest  when 
least  oppressed  by  wealth,  the  love  of  which  is  the  main  cause  of  wars 
to-day.  The  true  wealth  of  a  Church,  and  of  a  nation  too,  lies  in  its 
godly  men.  Rome  was  at  her  best  whilst  she  maintained  her  republican 
simplicity.  When  she  became  imperial  and  her  attention  was  devoted 
to  foreign  conquest,  wealth  enormously  increased  in  the  hands  of  a  few, 
but  the  vast  number  of  her  people  were  depraved.  Is  not  this  the 
c-ase  with  Imperial  England  to-day  ?    We  see  enormous  wealth  in  the 


:^^0  ADDRESSES   FROM   THE    FREE    CHURCHES. 

hands  of  a  comparatively  small  number  and  more  than  half  the  popu- 
lation in  her  capital  where  we  are  meeting  tn-night  living  in  poverty, 
or  so  nearly  approaching  it  that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  them  to 
become  good  citizens  physically  or  morally.  The  Churches  must  act 
together  to  grapple  with  this,  hence  the  value  of  Free  Cliurch  Coun- 
cils ;  but  I  entirely  agree  with  the  late  Dr.  Dale  that  such  Councils  of 
the  great  Protestant  Churches  should  devote  their  whole  attention  to 
bringing  men  to  Christ,  the  only  permanent  cure,  and  teaching  them 
the  joy  of  service.  If  the  best  men  and  women  in  our  Churches  took 
their  share  of  work  in  visiting  the  homes  of  the  poor,  and  saw  for 
themselves  the  sin  and  suffering  around  them,  they  would  be  stimu- 
lated to  do  their  part  as  Christian  citizens,  and  would  soon  find  a 
solution  for  the  bad  bousing  and  drunkenness  and  consequent  depravity 
which  abounds.  Not  by  striving  for  uniformity,  but  by  striving  for 
that  love  which  "  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law,"  shall  we  hasten  the 
time  when  our  Lord's  prayer  will  be  fulfilled,  "  That  they  all  may  be 
one."  Not  till  then  will  "  The  kingdoms  of  this  world  become  the 
kingdoms  of  our  Lord,  and  of  His  Christ."  Not  till  then  will  the 
King  of  Love  reign,  and  "They  shall  beat  their  swords  into  plow- 
shares, and  their  spears  into  pruning-hooks,"  and  "  Nation  shall  no 
more  lift  up  sword  against  nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war  any 
more." 

The  Eev.  J.  Clifford,  M.A.,  L  L.B.,  B.Sc,  F.G.S.,  D.D.  (Baptist 
Church)  also  represented  the  National  Free  Church  Council.  He 
said :  — ■ 

It  falls  to  my  lot  to-night  to  support  the  Address  which  has  been 
read  by  the  Honorary  Secretary  of  the  National  Council  of  the 
Evangelical  Free  Churches.  It  was  our  desire  as  an  executive  that 
one  of  the  most  lucid  expositors  of  Holy  Scripture,  a  peerless  preacher, 
renowned  throughout  the  whole  world,  Dr.  Maclaren,  of  Manchester, 
should  occupy  this  place.  He  could  not  come,  and  the  privilege  has 
been  accorded  to  me.  I  do  not  say  I  am  going  to  fill  his  place,  but 
I  may  probably  wobble  about  in  it  for  a  little  while.  Speaking  for 
Dr.  Maclaren  as  well  as  myself,  and  for  the  Baptist  brotherhood  of 
which  he  is  the  President,  I  maj  certainly  convey  to  yow  the  heartiest 
greetings  of  that  brotherhood,  and  assure  you  of  their  interest  in  the 
(Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference,  and  of  their  desire  for  the  prosperity 
and  the  increasing  usefulness  of  Methodism  throughout  the  world. 

Speaking  on  behalf  of  the  National  Council,  and  also  for  myself, 
I  should  like  to  say  that  we  rejoice  in  this  Pan-Methodist  gathering, 
this  (Ecumenical  assembly,  representative  as  it  is  of  some  thirty 
millions  of  believers  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  rejoice  in 
it  because  it  is  along  the  lines  of  our  own  movement  as  a  National 
Free  Church  Council.  It  owes  its  inception  to  the  same  gracious 
spirit,  to  the  Spirit  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.     It  haa 


ADDRESS   OF   REV.   J.    CLIFFORD.  33 1 

for  its  great  ideal  the  acconiplisliment  of  the  same  purpose,  that  of 
bringing  a  lost  world  to  the  foot  of  Christ,  and  of  perfecting  that 
manhood  when  thus  redeemed.  It  is  a  Divine  idea,  and  its  issues 
must  be  salutary,  not  only  to  the  Churches  of  Methodism,  but  to  all 
the  Churches,  Free  and  Established  alike,  Roman  even  and  Pro- 
testant. It  must  be  salutary,  for  the  effects  which  will  flow  forth  from 
this  gathering  will  be  such  as  will  heighten  the  ideals  of  the  Christians 
who  gather  together  here,  and  who  are  here  represented.  It  will  result 
in  a  deepened  consecration  to  the  interests  of  God's  Kingdom,  and  in 
a  more  unashamed  proclamation,  if  possible,  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ,  as  "the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  in  everyone  that  be- 
lieveth." 

This  is  a  day  when  unifying  forces  are  at  work  everywhere.  Robin- 
son Crusoe  is  a  cl  arm  in  literature,  but 'he  is  an  anachronism  in  life  ; 
and  the  Man  Friday  on  the  desert  island  must  necessarily  become 
multitudinous.  This  is  the  time  when  all  the  forces  of  literature,  art, 
science,  and  politics  are  tending  towards  the  unification  of  the  human 
race.  In  other  words,  human  life  is  becoming  CEcumenical,  and  God 
is  revealing  to  us,  not  man  in  his  individuality — that  has  been  accom- 
plished throughout  the  ages — but  He  is  discovering  to  us  man  in  his 
multitudinousness.  The  Son  of  Man  himself  is  hastening  towards  that 
day  when  He  shall  bring  the  whole  world  to  the  recognition  of  His 
Deity,  and  of  His  humanity,  and  rejoicing  in  His  sacrifice,  men  will 
be  in  glad  and  loyal  subjection  to  His  benign  and  sovereign  authority. 
The  violet  does  not  make  the  spring  ;  it  is  simply  the  sign  that  forces 
are  at  work  which  have  started  the  violet  from  its  sleep  and  forced  it 
into  view,  so  that  its  beauty  is  seen  by  the  passer-by,  and  its  fragrance 
is  inhaled.  In  hke  manner  the  CEcumenical  Methodist  Conference  is 
not  a  self-created  institution  ;  it  is  witness  to  the  creative  and  vivify- 
ing activity  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord  of  all.  We  therefore  rejoice  in 
this,  your  third  QDcumenical  gathering,  rejoice  in  it  because  the  same 
impulses  which  have  started  it  into  existence  are  playing  in  this 
old  country  where  conventions  are  yet  strong,  where  traditionalism 
is  still  tyrannical,  and  where  the  enemies  we  have  to  contend  with 
can  hardly  be  understood  by  the  Bishops  and  others  who  haTe  come 
from   the  great  West. 

This,  let  me  say,  is  a  true  CEcumenical  Conference.  There  are 
(Ecumenical  Conferences,  so  called,  which  certainly  do  not  deserve  the 
name.  Many  a  Council  has  been  held  and  has  claimed  universality, 
but  it  has  claimed  it  without  sufficient  evidence.  The  Roman 
CEcumenical  Councils  are  councils  of  cardinals  and  priests.  Their 
ideas  are  exclusive  ;  their  spirit  is  exclusive,  autocratic  and  despotic. 
You  are  inclusive.  I  have  travelled  round  the  world,  and  I  have  met 
with  Methodists  everywhere.  I  have  feasted  at  their  tables  in  Bris- 
bane when  they  were  celebrating  half  a  century  of  existence,  and  at 
the  same  time  celebrating  the  Union  of  all  the  Methodists  in  Queens- 


332  ADDRESSES  FROM  THE  FREE  CHURCHES. 

land.  I  have  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  Metliodists  under  an  Empire, 
and  also  under  a  llepublic.  The  "Spectator"  describetl  you  the  other 
day  as  an  luipcrial  Cluirch.  That  is  too  narrow  for  you.  You  are 
far  more  than  an  Imperial  Ohurch — you  are  a  Catholic  Church,  a  true 
Catholic  Church.  I  rejoice  in  your  great  numbers,  your  thirty  millions 
of  adherents.  But  I  do  not  count  them  your  best  possession.  I  rejoice 
in  the  tremendous  grip  you  have  of  the  world's  wealth — and  I  wish 
we  Baptists  had  some  of  it.  But  I  rejoice  most  in  your  ideas — your 
ideas  are  universal,  and  your  spirit  is  in  accord  with  the  universality 
of  your  ideas. 

As  a  lad  I  was  taught  by  my  grandmother,  who  was  a  good 
Methodist,  that  you  stood  for  the  three  great  universalities — the  univer- 
sality of  the  love  of  G-od,  a  love  for  all  men  everywhere,  white  and 
black,  black  and  white  ;  the  universality  of  the  sacrifice  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  a  provision  not  made  for  a  limited  few,  but  made  for 
the  whole  of  mankind,  so  that  the  whole  world  might  come  to  the 
heart  of  God  ;  and  the  universality  of  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the 
Spirit  given  to  convince  the  world  of  sin  and  righteousness  and  judg- 
ment, and  to  bring  all  men  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  forgiveness  of  sins 
and  the  regenerating  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  These  are  your  great 
ideas,  and  these  ideas  make  your  OEcumenical  Conference  really 
(Ecumenical.  It  has  to  be  remembered  by  us  that  when  John  Wesley 
said  ''  The  world  is  my  parish,"  he  was  not  talking  geography — he  was 
breathing  the  very  spirit  of  his  religion  ;  he  was  uttering  the  great 
heart  of  the  Christianity  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  himself  had  got  to  the 
very  soul  of  the  Gospel,  and  it  was  his  unique  mission  to  proclaim 
that  lost  truth,  and  make  men  know  everywhere  that  God  loved  them 
and  was  ready  to  go  to  Gethsemane  and  to  Calvary  again,  if  necessary, 
in  order  that  they  might  be  saved.  It  is  this  which  lifts  John  Wesley 
to  his  place  in  the  modern  life  of  the  world,  and  it  is  because  of  this 
that  we,  representing  all  the  Free  Churches,  come  and  rejoice  with 
you  to-day. 

Four  great  movements,  four  great  re-births,  if  I  may  so  call  them, 
have  made  the  Christendom  of  to-day.  First,  there  was  the  Renais- 
sance, with  the  illumination  of  the  human  intellect ;  Erasmus's  dis- 
covery of  the  New  Testament,  and  its  presentation  to  the  thought 
and  the  affection  of  the  world.  Then  came  the  re-birth  of  the  human 
conscience  and  of  the  human  will,  and  Martin  Luther  stood  up  as  the 
embodiment,  himself  protesting  against  all  the  iniquities  of  Rome  ; 
strong  and  resolute  in  will ;  prepared  to  go  to  death  for  the  truth 
which  he  believed  he  had  received  from  God.  Next,  and  never  to  be 
forgotten  by  Methodists,  there  was  the  re-birth  of  Christian  teaching 
in  and  by  James  Arminius  ;  there  was  the  recovery  of  the  lost  truths  of 
the  universality  of  redemption,  and  of  the  complete  responsibility  of  the 
individual  man  for  his  salvation,  immediately  he  has  been  brought 
"ace  to  face  with  truth  as  the  truth  is  in  Jesus  Christ.  All  these  three 
great  re-births  found  their  fresh  expression  in  John  Wesley.  He 
experienced  the  intellectual  re-birth,   and  it  is  that  which  gives  the 


ADDRESS   OF   REV.   J.    CLIFFORD.  333 

place  assigned  by  him  to  the  New  Testament  in  his  thought,  in  hia 
teaching,  and  in  his  Church  system.  His  conscience  and  will  found 
their  re-birth  and  living  expression  in  his  doctrine  of  "  holiness," 
while  the  spirit  of  Arminius  reappeared  in  his  great  and  glorious 
doctrine  of  salvation  for  everybody,  on  the  spot,  without  waiting  a 
moment,  simply  opening  the  heart  to  receive  it  out  of  a  love  that 
presses  it  in  through  every  pore  of  our  being.  These  great  doctrines 
found  their  expression  in  and  acquired  a  fresh  impact  from  his  own 
spiritual  experience.  His  heart  was  warmed  with  them,  and  so  ho 
went  forth  setting  fire  to  the  decadent  creeds  of  Europe,  and  intro- 
ducing new  life  to  Churches  that  were  on  the  point  of  extinction. 

We  rejoice  with  you,  we  are  grateful  with  you.  John  Wesley  is  ours 
quite  as  much  as  yours.  God  never  makes  monopolists.  They  came 
from  another  hand  and  represent  entirely  another  sphere.  We  sing 
John  Wesley's  hymns  because  we  repeat  John  Wesley's  experiences. 
We  hold  with  John  Wesley — we  are  all  coming  to  hold  it  now — that 
unity  by  the  way  of  opinion  is  simply  a  magnificent  mirage,  and  we 
are  ready  to  endorse  that  utterance  which  John  Wesley  has  recorded 
for  us,  and  which  to  me  is  one  of  the  clearest  enunciations  of  the  bases 
of  Christian  Union  I  have  yet  met  with.  In  1743  Wesley  said :  "  I 
make  no  opinion  the  term  of  my  union  with  any  man  ;  I  think  and  let 
think  " — I  wish  we  had  got  to  that  now,  but  we  have  not  yet — "  What 
I  want  is  holiness  of  life.  This  is  the  true  teaching,  and  those  who 
follow  it  are  my  brother  and  sister  and  mother."  We  are  all  coming 
to  share  that  conviction,  and  we  are  asking  all  those  who  come  seeking 
Church  fellowship  one  great  question,  not  whether  they  have  attended 
to  ordinances  of  this  sort  and  that,  so  much  as,  "  Are  you  savingly 
converted  to  God?  Do  you  desire  to  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come? 
Is  your  heart  already  aflame  with  love  to  the  Father  through  the  reve- 
lation given  in  His  Son  Jesus  Christ  ?  "  If  those  spiritual  experiences 
are  there,  we  fling  back  the  door  and  say :  "  Come  in,  thou  blessed  of 
the  Lord  ;  wherefore  standest  thou  without?" 

We  do  not  simply  share  with  you  gratitude  for  what  Methodism  is, 
and  for  what  Methodism  has  done,  but  we  also  share  with  you  in  the 
responsibility  for  the  work  that  yet  has  to  be  done.  It  is  well  for  us 
to  recall  the  nineteenth  century,  but  we  have  to  make  the  twentieth. 
That  is  our  business.  God  has  delegated  it  to  us,  and  on  us  Christian 
disciples  rests  the  responsibility  of  making  this  new  era.  Therefore 
we  come  to  you  to-night  rejoicing  in  the  fact  that  you  are  of  our  race, 
that  we  are  all  prepared  to  march  step  by  step,  shoulder  to  shoulder, 
in  "  fighting  to  a  finish  "  the  evils  which  are  round  about  us.  We  have 
to  fight  an  encroaching  and  an  arrogant  sacerdotalism.  John  Robinson, 
the  Pilgrim  Father — ^whom  I  found  alive  when  I  was  in  the  United 
States  in  1897,  who  is  alive  yet,  and  who  will  live  as  long  as  America 
liyes — John  Robinson  said :  "  Religion  is  the  best  possession  of  any 
people,  and  the  corruption  of  religion  is  the  worst."  If  anybody  asks 
us  what  is  o;ir  war  against  sacerdotalism  based  upon,  we  assert  at  once, 
it  is  not  upon  mere  millinery — ^I  do  not  care  what  clothing  a  man  wears 


334  ADDRESSES   FROM    THE    FREE    CHURCHES. 

if  he  will  only  let  me  wear  what  I  like — not  even  upon  the  offering 
of  incense  nor  upon  the  use  of  an  elaborate  ritual.  No !  Our  war 
with  sacerdotalism  is  on  this  account,  that  it  poisons  religion  at  its 
heart,  that  it  takes  away  the  very  soul  of  the  Christianity  of  Jesus 
Christ,  that  it  corrupts  that  which  is  God's  best  gift,  and  makes  it 
no  longer  presentable  to  the  human  intellect  in  its  full  strength,  or 
to  the  human  heart  in  its  infinitely  magnetic  charms.  Therefore  we 
must  fight  it.  In  Christ's  name  we  are  bound  to  go  against  it  in  all 
our  strength,  for  the  sake  of  our  brethren,  and  for  the  sake  of  the 
Saviour  who  has  redeemed  us.  What  distresses  me  even  more  than 
sacerdotalism  is  the  awful  tyranny  of  sensualism  in  this  our  modern 
life.  Wherever  we  look  we  see  the  sway  of  a  materialistic  interpretation 
of  life  and  religion.  We  cannot  look  right  or  left,  north,  south,  east, 
or  west,  without  coming  face  to  face  with  these  sad,  these  painful  facts. 
Drink  riots  among  and  ruins  its  thousands  upon  thousands  ;  lust  is 
rotting  our  young  manhood  ;  gambling  is  a  mania  that  is  desolating 
many  homes  and  spoiling  many  a  life.  The  war  spirit — we  know  it, 
we  feel  it,  it  seems  to  be  in  the  air — threatens  to  destroy  all  chances 
of  our  ever  becoming  the  possessors  of  the  benediction  for  the  peace- 
makers. These  and  other  evil  forces  are  round  about  us.  How  can 
they  be  mastered  ?  In  what  way  can  we  conquer  them  ?  Only  as  there 
is  an  intense  and  glowing  spirituality  in  the  Churches  of  Jesus  Christ. 
We  must  have  touch  with  God  if  we  are  to  deal  with  this  conflict  between 
the  lower  and  the  higher  in  man.  The  saddest  plight  of  all  is  when 
the  Church  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  loses  its  loftiest  ideals  and  falls 
short  of  His  self-suppressions,  of  His  glorious  magnanimities,  of  His 
great  forgiveness.  These  are  the  things  to  make  men's  hearts  ache 
and  to  drive  into  us  a  feeling  of  despair. 

Yesterday  I  was  at  a  wedding,  and  afterwards  we  had  to  undergo  the 
— shall  I  call  it  the  painful  or  pleasant? — process  of  being  photo- 
graphed. The  bride  was  put  in  her  place,  the  bridegroom  in  his,  and 
the  rest  of  us  were  arranged  with  beautiful  harmony  and  propriety. 
The  dresses  were  properly  placed,  and  the  photographer  looked  on, 
and  seemed  to  be  pleased.  At  length,  having  watched  and  watched  to 
see  whether  it  was  possible  to  discover  any  defect,  he  looked  upon  us 
and  said :  "  Why,  you  are  all  frozen  !  "  Did  you  never  feel  like  that 
when  looking  into  a  Christian  Church  ?  Have  you  not  heard  sermons — ■ 
I  am  told  there  are  such,  I  do  not  hear  many  myself,  although  I  hear 
all  I  can  get  the  chance  of  hearing,  five  on  a  Sunday,  as  Mr.  Jowett  here 
can  bear  testimony — but  I  am  told  that  there  are  sermbns  which  are 
correct,  and  as  cold  as  they  are  correct,  and  that  the  musical  service 
is  absolutely  faultless,  but  without  any  heart,  and  that  the  whole  ser- 
vice lacks  what  Methodists  call  "fire."  Brethren,  we  want  that  fire 
back  again,  the  fire  of  Pentecost,  the  fire  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  fire 
that  symbolises  the  coming  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  sons  of  men.  It  is 
when  God  Himself  comes  to  us  as  a  consuming  fire,  burning  up  all 
our  obsolete  creeds,  getting  rid  of  all  our  dead  traditions,  of  our 
crippling  selfishness,  and  introducing  us  to  the  fulness  of  His  life,  that 


ADDRESS    TRESENTED    BY   THE   REV.    W.    ROSS   TAYLOR.         335 

we  go  forth  intent  upon  saving  a  lost  world.  Oh,  that  God  would 
come  down  upon  the  Churches  as  in  the  old  times,  and  make  our  hearts 
to  flame  forth  in  love  for  our  fellows,  even  as  His  own  heart  does ! 

When  Nelson  was  about  to  fight  one  of  his  latest  battles  he  fomid 
that  two  of  his  commanders  were  fractious,  striving  one  against  the 
other,  and  he  sent  for  them.  He  rebuked  them,  and  at  length  he 
said :  "  Now,  see,  yonder  is  the  enemy,  shake  hands,  swoop  down  upon 
him  and  destroy  him."  Brethren,  that  is  what  our  Captain  says  to  us  : 
Shake  hands,  bring  heart  to  heart,  shoulder  to  shoulder,  and  go  forth 
determined  to  destroy  these  enemies  of  the  Lord.  Let  us  cease  from 
our  strife,  and  let  us  rise  to  these  higher  planes  of  conflict — not  conflict 
between  muscle  and  muscle,  but  conflict  between  brain  and  brain, 
between  heart  and  heart,  between  conscience  and  conscience — as  to 
the  supremacy  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  over  the  entire  life  of  man. 

It  is  to  this  conflict  that  our  Leader  invites  us.  The  battle  of  the 
muscle  belongs  to  one  of  the  lowest  phases  of  our  human  evolution — 
and  it  has  to  pass  away !  Jesus  Himself  tells  us  so.  The  old  prophet 
foresaw  the  day  when  the  sword  should  be  beaten  into  a  plowshare 
and  the  spear  into  a  pruning  hook,  that  is  to  say,  when  the  forces  of 
men  instead  of  being  directed  for  the  purpose  of  destruction,  should 
be  used  entirely  to  the  enriching  of  life,  the  ennobling  of  character, 
and  the  salvation  of  mankind.  Towards  that  day  we  have  to  lead  the 
world  under  Jesus  Christ,  our  great  Captain.  He  invites  us.  The 
government  of  the  world  is  to  be  in  the  hands  of  the  saints.  We  have 
yet  to  rule  cities  and  politics  in  the  spirit  of  love.  The  pagan  idea  of  a 
"  total  bag  " — as  we  read  the  other  day — Oh  !  the  horrors  of  it !  as  though 
men  were  grouse  or  pheasants  or  partridges — that  pagan  idea  has  to 
be  destroyed !  Oh,  Master  Eedeemer,  who  didst  die  for  the  sons  of 
men.  Prince  of  all  the  kings  of  the  earth.  Prince  of  Peace,  forgive  us 
and  help  us  ;  equip  us  for  this  great  warfare,  and  sustain  us,  so  that  we 
may  come  to  Thine  own  self-suppressions,  and  in  the  spirit  of  Tliy 
cross,  live,  suffer,  teach,  pray,  and  work  for  the  salvation  of  the  whole 
world. 

The  Rev.  J.  Luke  (Chairman)  said  :  We  have  all  rejoiced  in  the 
Union  which  has  recently  taken  place  among  the  Chm-ches  in  Scot- 
land. We  have  an  Address  from  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scot- 
land, which  has  been  handed  in  and  will  be  taken  as  read,  but  I 
am  sm-e  that  you  will  extend  the  most  cordial  greetings  to  the 
Rev.  W.  Ross  Taylor,  D.D.,  of  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland. 

The  followng  is  the  text  of  the  Address  of  the  United  Free 
Church  of  Scotland,  presented  by  the  Rev.  W.  Ross  Taylor,  D.D  : 

At  Edinburgh,  the  fourteenth  day  of  August,  in  the  year  One 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  one,  which  day  the  Commission  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland  being  met 
and  duly  constituted, 

The  Commission  adopted  an  Address  to  the  Methodist  QEcume- 


336  ADDRESSES   FROM  THE  FREE   CHURCHES. 

nical  Conference  to  be  held  on  the  4th  September  next,  and  they 
appoint  the  Rev.  Thomas  Kennedy,  D.D.,  Moderator  of  the 
General  Assembly,  to  be  their  Representative  at  that  Conference, 
and  to  present  the  Address  as  follows : 

To  the  CEcumenical  Conference  of  all  branches  of  the  Methodist 
Church,  which  meets  in  London  on  4th  September  next. 
Dear  and  Honoured  Brethren, 

The  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  through  the  Commission  of 
its  General  Assembly,  which  is  met  in  Edinburgh  on  this  14th  day 
of  August,  sends  cordial  greetings  to  your  Conference.  The  Con- 
ference of  your  great  Church,  which  took  root  in  England  in  the 
eighteenth  century  and  has  spread  its  branches  into  all  quarters  of 
the  world,  cannot  but  be  interesting  to  us  for  the  Church's  sake. 
This  interest,  however,  is  much  deepened  by  the  objects  for  which 
your  Conference  meets — devotion,  Christian  fellowship,  and  deli- 
beration on  matters  vital  to  the  highest  welfare  not  only  of  your 
own  Church,  but  of  all  sister  Churches.  Therefore  do  our  hearts 
go  out  to  you  in  Christian  affection,  and  in  earnest  desire  that  your 
meeting  in  London  may  be  so  owned  of  God  as  to  bring  abundant 
blessing  to  you,  and,  thifough  you,  to  other  Churches  and  people 
beyond. 

The  Church  which  we  represent  was  formed  by  the  Union  of 
the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  and  the  United  Presbyterian  Cliurch 
on  the  31st  of  October  last  year.  The  circumstances  in  which  these 
two  Churches  took  rise  respectively  were  different  from  those  in 
which  Methodism  originated.  The  people  who  formed  them 
brought  out  with  them  the  creed  and  the  polity  of  the  Church 
from  which  they  separated.  They  developed  on  the  basis  of  that 
creed,  and  on  the  lines  of  Presbyterian  polity.  Methodism  was  in 
its  inception  a  purely  evangelistic  movement.  Its  founder  and  his 
coadjutors  were  responding  to  a  Heaven-sent  call,  and  were  moved 
by  a  Divine  impulse  to  seek  and  save  the  lost.  The  polity  under 
which  it  has  advanced,  and  the  distinctive  features  which  mark 
it,  were  a  growth  arising,  under  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit,  out  of 
the  necessities  created  by  the  progress  of  the  movement.  ]3ut  the 
differences  in  polity  between  your  Church  and  the  Presbyterian 
Churches  were  little  more  than  surface  differences.  In  the  one 
case  and  the  other,  with  the  Erskines,  and  Gillespie,  and  Chalmers, 
and  their  coadjutors  on  the  one  hand,  with  Wesley  and  his  coad- 
jutors on  the  other,  it  was  a  question  of  fidelity  in  holding  and 
presenting  the  "glorious  Gospel  of  the  Blessed  God"  which 
was  committed  to  their  trust.  In  each  case,  whatever  the 
surface  appearances  of  the  Movement,  the  power  that  impelled 
the  leaders  was  the  power  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  work  they  did 
was  to  minister  that  Gospel  in  its  freeness  and  fulness  for  the 
conversion  and  sanctification  of  sinners.  The  differences  are 
mainly  due  to  environment,  and  the  need  of  adaptation  to  it.  The 
unity  lies  in  the  manifestation  of  Christ  and  His  plenteous  redemp- 
tion. 

In  the  earlier  history  of  our  Churches  the  tendency  was  to 
exclusiveness.  Each  Evangelical  Church  was  disposed  to  believe 
that  the  full  and  most  effective  exhibition  of  the  Gospel  could  be 
made  only  on  the  lines  of  its  distinctive  characteristics  and  polity. 
Hence  came  an  attitude  of  antagonism  between  Churches,  and  a 
desire  to  proselytise.    It  is  now  understood  that  while  the  faith 


SPEECH    liY    THE    REV.    W,   ROSS   TAYLOR.  337 

of  each  Church  finds  its  most  effective  scope  within  its  own  lines, 
the  proper  attitude  of  Evangelical  Churches  to  each  other  is  that 
of  friendly  and  loving  recognition.  They  are  not  to  stand  face 
to  face  as  rivals  and  antagonists,  but  shoulder  to  shoulder,  that 
they  may  present  a  united  front  to  the  unbelieving  and  ungodly 
powers  by  which  they  are  surrounded.  Most  heartily  do  we  en- 
dorse the  statement  in  the  Address  from  the  Wesleyan  Confer- 
ence to  our  Union  Assembly  in  October  last:  "Botli  in  the  Old 
World  and  in  the  New  the  Presbyterian  and  the  Methodist 
Churches  have  had  committed  to  them  in  the  Providence  of  God 
a  great  and  solemn  responsibility  for  the  safeguarding  of  that 
Evangelical  faith  by  Avhich  and  for  which  as  Churches  we  live. 
For  its  sake,  and  for  the  sake  of  the  world  that  needs  it,  shall 
not  the  children  of  John  Knox  and  the  children  of  John  Wesley 
join  in  a  solemn  league  and  covenant  to  defend  if  against  all  its 
enemies,  to  proclaim  it  to  all  mankind  ? " 

We  rejoice  in  the  fidelity  and  zeal  with  which  the  Methodist 
Churches  have  held  forth  the  Gospel,  and  at  the  extent  to  which, 
by  the  grace  of  God,  they  have  been  honoured  to  diffuse  through- 
out the  world,  and  specially  in  the  Mission  Field,  the  blessings 
that  are  received  through  faith  in  the  Saviour.  The  Lord  hath 
done  great  things  for  you,  whereof  we  are  glad.  These  great 
things  lav  you  under  obligations  to  aim  at  yet  greater  things,  and 
to  go  foiTvard  in  faith,  with  energy  and  courage,  fulfilling  the 
mission  which  the  Lord  has  assigned  to  you. 

Dear  brethren,  it  is  our  fervent  prayer  that  you  may  enjoy  the 
manifest  presence  of  the  Saviour  in  your  meetings  of  Conference. 
May  your  hearts  be  possessed  with  His  love !  May  He  richly 
endow  you  with  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and  understanding,  the 
spirit  of  'jounsel  and  might,  the  spirit  of  knowledge  and  of  the 
fear  of  the  Lord  and  make  you  of  quick  understanding  in  the 
fear  of  the  Lord  !  May  your  discussions  and  resolutions  be  for  the 
glory  of  His  Name,  and  for  the  welfare  of  the  Church  of  which 
He  has  made  you  stewards  I 

Signed,   in  name  and   by  authority  of  the  Commission  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  by 
Thomas  Kennedy,    D.D.,   Moderator. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Kennedy  being  unable  to  attend  the  Conference, 
the  Rev.  Walter  Ross  Taylor,  D.D.,  Glasgow,  has  been  appointed 
to  take  his  place. 

R.    R.   Simpson, 
Deputy  Clerk,  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland. 

The  Rev.  W.  Ross  Taylor,  D.D.,  then  gave  an  inspiring  speech 
He  said : 

I  can  assure  you  I  count  it  a  very  high  privilege  indeed  to  convey 
those  words  of  respectful  and  brotherly  greeting  to  this  great  Con- 
ference. I  have  been  asked  since  I  came  into  this  hall  to  speak,  not 
only  for  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  but  also  for  a  very  much 
larger  constituency,  the  Presbyterian  Alliance,  and  to  convey  the  warm 
greetings  of  that  great  body.  I  counted  it  somewhat  important  to  be  a 
representative  of  some  1,700  ministers  and  some  500,000  communicants, 

23 


33^  ADDRESSES   FROM   THE   FREE   CHURCHES. 

but  I  now  find  that  I  have  to  represent  somewhere  between  25,000 
and  30,000  congregations,  and  about  five  millions  of  communicants, 
and  I  suppose  that  will  mean  about  twenty  millions  of  adherents.  So 
that  the  charge  entrusted  to  me  is  one  under  which  a  man  might  very 
easily  break  down,  if  it  were  not  that  I  am  assisted  by  the  genial 
aspect  of  this  great  assembly. 

May  I  say,  especially  on  behalf  of  my  Church,  that  these  greetings 
are  conveyed  with  the  most  sincere  regard  and  admiration,  not  only 
because  of  our  common  love  for  a  pure  and  free  evangel,  and  because 
the  Churches  are  at  one  in  their  Evangelistic  aims,  but  because  on 
various  accounts  the  two  Churches  have  had  points  of  contact.  His- 
torically we  may  not  forget  that  when  the  trumpet  tones  of  Wesley 
and  "Whitefield  stirred  England,  good  Bbenezer  Erskine  and  a  few 
like-minded  men  stood  up  for  the  truth  of  Christ  in  a  day  when  pagan 
moderatism  was  well-nigh  blasting  for  ever  the  religious  life  of  Scot- 
land. Then  I  do  not  forget  that  in  the  time  of  our  struggle,  previous 
to  the  Disruption  of  1843,  we  had  the  sympathy  expressed  by  the 
Wesleyan  Methodists  in  England.  The  London  Wesleyan  ministers 
approached  Parliament  with  a  petition  that  the  claim  of  the  Church  of 
Scotland  might  be  granted,  when  we  claimed  for  the  Crown  rights 
of  Christ  and  the  liberties  of  the  Christian  people.  Then  after  the 
Disruption  took  place,  the  Wesleyan  Conference  passed  a  vote  of 
sympathy  and  appreciation  for  the  stand  that  was  made  by  Thomas 
Chalmers  and  those  who  went  forth  with  him.  Moreover,  the  first 
speaker  who  congratulated  us  in  that  great  assembly  of  7,000  people 
in  the  Waverley  Market  Hall  of  Edinburgh  was  Mr,  Macdonald,  the 
Representative  of  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church, 

We  thus  feel  bound  to  you  by  special  ties,  and  I  can  assure  you  that 
we  offer  now  these  greetings  with,  shall  I  say,  Highland  warmth,  as 
well  as  theological  fervour.  Indeed,  we  also  are  animated  by  the 
profound  sense  of  gratitude  so  eloquently  expressed  already  by  Dr. 
Clifford,  whom  we  have  heard  with  such  signal  delight.  We  feel 
deep  gratitude  towards  your  great  body.  We  know  what  you  have  done 
in  England,  and  we  are  impressed  with  the  magnificent  effort  you 
are  engaged  in,  to  raise  for  extended  work  the  Twentieth  Century 
Funds.  May  the  heart  of  everyone  who  has  thrown  his  energy  into 
them  be  to  the  full  satisfied !  I  only  wish  we  could  attempt  some- 
thing of  that  same  kind  in  Scotland,  but  we  are  a  poor  country,  and 
although  the  revenue  of  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland  is  about 
a  million  per  annum,  we  cannot  expect  to  raise  anything  like  the  huge 
sum  of  a  second  million,  as  the  Wesleyans  are  proposing  to  do.  In 
America  I  have  seen  what  a  power  the  Methodist  Church  is,  and  how 
it  has  gripped  that  coimtry  for  Christ.  I  have  been  in  many  Methodist 
congregations  there,  and  worshipped  with  the  greatest  possible  delight. 
Indeed,  I  hardly  knew  that  I  was  not  in  a  Presbyterian  Church.  I 
remember  one  little  incident  wliich  showed  me  what  a  hold  you  have 
upon  America.     As  I  was  wandering  through  the  streets  of  New  York 


SPEECH    BY    THE   REV.    W,   ROSS   TAYLOR.  339 

I  came  upon  one  large  store,  and  looking  up  to  see  what  might  He 
sold  inside,  I  saw,  in  glitterins;  letters  al)0ve  the  door,  the  simple 
statement,  "A  Methodist  Concern."  Now,  I  thought  the  proprietor  of 
that  store  was  a  remarkably  shrewd  individual ;  he  knew  how  to  appeal 
to  a  wide  constituency  ! 

Then  we  know  what  you  have  done  and  are  doing  in  working  for 
Christ.  May  I  recall  an  incident  which  I  have  had  in  memory  for 
thirty  years?  I  knew  a  most  admirable  class  leader  in  Glasgow,  who 
has  now  gone  to  his  rest.  He  was  a  man  of  stalwart  appearance,  as 
well  as  of  strong  intellect.  Two  or  three  young  fellows  came  into  his 
class,  more  for  the  purpose  of  amusement  than  edification,  and  his 
patience  was  sorely  tried  by  them.  One  night  they  provoked  the  good 
man  not  a  little.  They  concluded  a  number  of  questions  by  asking, 
"Do  you  still  believe  in  the  power  of  working  miracles?"  Where- 
upon he  rose,  took  each  of  the  two  fellows  by  the  collar,  and  leading 
them  to  the  door,  said,  "We  have  still,  at  least,  the  power  of  casting 
out  devils."  In  a  far  higher  sense  I  believe  that  the  Methodist  Church 
has  been,  under  God,  instrumental  in  casting  out  many  of  those  evils 
and  devils  which  have  been  so  feelingly  referred  to  by  Dr.  Clifford— 
and  more  power  to  your  arms  in  the  days  to  come ! 

I  cannot  but  feel  this  evening  as  if  I  were  again  standing  upon  the 
platform  of  our  General  Assembly  in  October  of  last  year,  because  all 
the  sentiments   expressed   have   been  in  favour  of  such  a  Union   as 
was  then,  I  am  thankful  to  say,  happily  consummated.     Let  me  just 
tell   you  what  led  us   on  to   this.     It  was   because,   under  God,  two 
great  thoughts   increasingly  got  possession  of  the   mind  of  Scotland. 
The  one  was  the  unity  of  the  Church,  and  the  other  the  universality  of 
its  mission.     Those  two  are  closely  related,  and,  perhaps,  it  was  our 
realising  the  latter  that  led  to  our  emphasising  the  former.    As  years 
went  on  our  outlook  gradually  widened,  and  we  were  lifted  Op  above 
mere  local  and  provincial  interests.     Just  as  we  came  to  realise  that  our 
country  is  not  the  world,  so  we  came  to  realise  that  our  Scottish  eccle- 
siastical contendings  were  not  the  supreme  facts  in  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  ;  that  a  great  deal  of  time  and  temper  and  talent  had  been 
spent  in  disputing  among  ourselves  upon  subordinate  matters  ;    and 
that  the  sooner  we  ceased  from  internal  division  and  jealousy,   and 
united  our  forces  as  one  phalanx  of  the  living  God  against  ignorance 
and  vice  at  home  and  superstition  and  darkness  abroad,  the  sooner  we 
would  fulfil  our  great  commission  as  the  Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
That  has  been  specially  driven  in  upon  our  minds  in  Scotland,  and  I  be- 
lieve there  will  be  still  further  changes  wrought  as  the  consequence  of  it. 
I  believe  the  time  is  not  very  far  distant  when  we  shall  have  one  Pres- 
byterian Church  covering  Scotland  and  sending  its  surplus  energies  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth.     In  an  especial  way  I  ascribe  the  union  to  a 
clearer  recognition  of  the  teaching  of  the  New  Testament  with  regard 
to  the  Church  as  the  one  body  of  Christ.     In  its  recoil  from  the  false 
claim   of  the   Eoman   Pontiff  to   be  the  visible  Head  of   the  Church 
Protestant  thought  tended  to  a  position  somewhat  extreme.     It  was 


340 


ADDRESSES  FROM  THE  FREE  CHURCHES. 


practically  taken  for  granted  that  the  visible  unity  of  the  Church  was 
dependent  upon  the  existence  of  a  visible  Head.  Take  away  the  one, 
and  it  seemed  to  many  as  though  the  other  followed.  Hence,  instead 
of  going  back  to  the  apostolic  idea  of  the  Church  as  the  body  of  Christ, 
of  which  He  is  the  ever  living,  ever  ruling,  ever  present,  though  un- 
seen, Head,  there  was  the  distinction  drawn  betwixt  the  Church 
visible  and  the  Church  invisible,  and  the  great  quality,  the  great  feature 
of  oneness  in  Christ  was  relegated  to  the  Church  invisible.  A  very 
little  reflection  might  have  taught  men  that  to  urge  and  pray  for  the 
oneness  of  the  invisible  Church  is  needless,  because  it  is  necessarily 
one.  All  who  are  united  vitally  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  are  neces- 
sarily united  to  one  another,  and,  therefore,  the  teaching  we  have  in 
the  New  Testament  must  have  reference,  not  merely  to  some  invisible 
unity  which  no  eye  can  discern,  however  theologians  may  assert  it, 
but  a'unity  such  that  "  the  world  may  know  that  Thou  hast  sent  Me." 
In  place  of  that  unity,  essentially  belonging  to  the  Church,  men  put  in 
the  forefront  uniformity  in  theological  opinion.  Agreement  in  the 
whole  circle  of  Christian  belief  was  made  a  primary  matter,  and  the 
maintaining  of  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace  was  thrust 
into  a  secondary  position.  I  say  that  with  quaUfication,  after  hearing 
that  noble  sentence  of  John  Wesley,  quoted  by  Dr.  Clifford.  Wesley, 
like  many  another  great  man,  spoke  truths  which  were  before  his  time, 
and  which  we  are  only  now  beginning  to  realise  and  act  upon.  ^ 

So  we  have  come  increasingly  to  realise  that  whatever  distinctions 
we  may  draw  between  the  Church  invisible  and  visible— I  find  there 
is  not  much  in  that  distinction— it  is  the  bounden  duty  of  the  visible 
Church  of  Christ  to  manifest,  as  far  as  lies  in  its  power,  th©  essential 
feature  of  oneness  in  Jesus  Christ.  I  believe  that  our  past  divisions, 
although  divisions  were  oftentimes  necessary  and  justifiable,  have  gone 
far  to  obscure  the  cardinal  truth  of  Christ's  revelation— namely,  that 
we  should  be  all  one  in  love,  and  one  in  the  service  of  the  Master,  and, 
as  such,  present  ourselves  to  the  world,  instead  of  as  so  many  clamour- 
ing, contending  sects,  divided  among  ourselves.  Then  we  began  to 
feel,  and  feel  increasingly,  that  here  was  a  grave  source  of  weakness 
that  must  be  removed.  We  felt  that  we  were  not  so  strong  as  we  might 
be  in  our  influence  on  the  community,  through  our  being  divided. 
Then  there  came  in  the  practical  reason— namely,  that  we  were  sadly 
wasting  men  and  means  by  our  divisions,  that  in  our  little  villages 
there  were  three  churches,  with  from  100  to  150  members  in  each, 
where  it  would  be  infinitely  better  to  have  one  strong,  vigorous,  mag- 
netic congregation,  and  let  the  surplus  means  be  given  to  extend 
Christ's  Kingdom  in  the  dark  places  of  the  earth. 

Through  such  motives  as  these,  under  God's  goodness,  we  were  led 
to  that  Union  which  has  been  so  lovingly  referred  to  this  evening, 
and  I  thank  God  for  a  manifestation  of  the  same  spirit  in  the  great 
Methodist  Church.  I  was  once  asked  in  Sutherlandshire  by  an  M.P. 
from    Birmingham— not   the   member   for    Birmingham — if  I  would 


ADDRESS    PRESENTED    BY   TTIE    REV.    J.    M.    WIT.SON.  ,'^41 

give  him  my  company  for  a  day  in  his  yacht.  I  gladly  acced.  d,  and 
after  we  were  fairly  out  of  sight  of  land  he  said,  "  Now,  Dr.  Taylor, 
there  were  two  reasons  for  my  asking  you  to  come  for  this  trip :  the 
one  the  pleasure  of  your  company,  of  course,  and  the  other  that  you 
would  explain  to  me  all  the  differences  between  the  Presbyterian 
Churches  in  Scotland."  I  began,  and,  of  course,  did  my  best,  but  I 
could  see  that  as  my  exposition  went  on  there  came  a  dull,  vacant  look 
into  the  eye  of  my  friend,  which  led  me  to  plainly  see  that  he  was 
as  much  at  sea  in  regard  to  Presbyterian  matters  as  he  was  literally 
upon  the  ocean  wave.  I  do  not  know  what  your  divisions  are.  Al- 
though I  have  been  bred  a  theologian,  I  do  not  know  that  there  is 
sufficient  to  keep  you  apart ;  but  sure  I  am  that  if  you  follow  the  ex- 
ample of  the  good,  cautious,  canny  Scotch  people,  and  get  your  best 
men  round  a  table  to  consider  hoW  you  are  to  adjust  your  differences, 
and  to  get  all  into  one  in  Christ  Jesus,  you  will  find,  as  we  have  found, 
that  difficulties  disappear.  You  will  find  that  although  there  may  be 
a  certain  latitude  necessary  with  regard  to  local  arrangements  and  all 
that,  there  is  nothing  to  hinder  men  swamping  all  their  sectarian  divi- 
sions and  saying,  "We  will  be  one  Army  of  the  Living  God." 

Let  me  say  further,  that  the  longer  I  live  the  more  I  feel  that  there  is 
nothing  to  hinder  Presbyterians  and  Methodists  from  joining  in  holy 
brotherhood.  I  had  the  privilege  last  night  of  meeting  a  great  number 
of  delegates  to  this  Conference  at  the  house  of  Mr.  R.  W.  Perks,  and  1 
found  they  all  looked  upon  me  as  a  good  Methodist.  Certainly  i 
did  not  see  that  there  was  anything  to  distinguish  the  one  from  the 
other,  and,  when  I  think  of  what  your  work  is,  when  I  think  of  what 
your  earnest  evangelistic  spirit  is,  and  when  I  think  how  God  has 
blessed  you  in  the  past,  I  feel  it  would  be  a  grand  day  for  those  twenty 
million  Presbyterians  if  they  joined  hand  in  hand  to  your  thirty  million 
Methodists,  and,  if  filled  with  that  fire  of  which  Dr.  Clifford  spoke, 
might  we  not  expect  that  the  United  Church  would  appear  "  Fair  as  the 
moon,  and  mighty  as  an  army  with  banners  "  1     May  God  bless  you ! 

The  Address  of  the  Moravian  Cliuroh,  which  was  als.o  taken  as 
read,  was  next  presented  by  the  Rev.  J.  M.  Wilson.  The  following 
is  a  copy : 

To  the  Members  of  the  Methodist  (Ecumenical  Conference  now 
assembled  in  London,   1901, 

Beloved  and  Honoured  Brethren, — 

As  the  representatives  of  the  Church  of  the  Unitas  Frafrum, 
commonly  called  Moravians,  we  gladly  avail  ourselves  of  the  oppor- 
tunity afforded  by  your  assembling  in  London  to  greet  you  with 
very  hearty  words  of  welcome,  both  in  our  own  names  and  in  the 
names  of  the  members  of  our  Church.  We  desire  to  express  the 
hope  that  your  meeting  together  and  your  deliberations  may  tend 
to  the  closer  union  of  hearts  among  all  the  branches  of  the  great 
Methodist  family.  We  believe  that  such  closer  reunion  cannot  but 
react  most  favourably  upon  all  the  members  of  that  larger  family 


34^  ADDRESSES  FROM  THE  FREE  CHURCHES. 

of  true  believers  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  which,  we  now  rejoice 
to  think,  IS  found  settled  in  every  nation  on  the  whole  earth. 

We  further  hope  that  youi-  meeting  together  and  speaking  to 
each  other  face  to  face  may  quicken  and  strengthen  the  desire  of 
both  ministers  and  members  of  your  Churches  to  continue  steadfast 
in  the  Church's  great  and  glorious  work  of  winning  souls  for 
Christ. 

We  rejoice  with  you  in  the  great  success  with  which  your 
devoted  labours  in  the  past  have  been  crowned,  and  we  can  praise 
God  with  you  for  having  raised  up  such  a  mighty  instrument  in  His 
hand  for  the  spread  of  His  Kingdom  as  John  Wesley.  You  owe 
to  him  your  existence  as  a  distinct  Church,  your  organisation,  and 
your  system  ;  but  all  Christendom  has  benefited  by  the  impulse  he 
gave  to  the  spread  of  Evangelical  truth  throughout  the  world. 
We  thank  God  the  spirit  of  Wesley  still  lives  in  your  Churches. 
The  world  is  still  your  parish,  and  your  zeal  to  Christianise  it 
shows  no  signs  of  flagging,  as  is  witnessed  by  the  subscription  of 
nearly  one  million  pounds  to  the  Wesleyan  Twentieth  Century 
Fund.  May  God  prosper  those  who  have  made  these  freewill 
offerings,  and  guide  and  counsel  aright  those  to  whom  will  be 
entrusted  the  use  of  this  and  similar  gifts  for  the  spread  of  Christ's 
Kingdom,  so  that  the  numbers  of  your  Churches  may  increase  as 
the  years  of  the  century  roll  by,  and  their  influence  be  increasingly 
felt  in  hastening  forward  the  day  when  every  knee  shall  bow,  and 
every  tongue  confess  that  Jesus  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  the 
Father !  ^ 

We  are,  dear  brethren. 

Yours  in  the  fellowship  of  the  Spirit  and  in  the 
bonds  of  love, 

The  Members  of  the  Directing  Board  of  the  Moravian  Church, 

J.  H.  Edwakds, 
Robert  Elliott, 
J.  M.  Wilson. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  Wilson,  in  making  the  presentation,  said : 

I  might  supplement  the  words  that  are  expressed  in  that  Address  by 
referring,  very  briefly,  as  I  represent  only  a  very  small  Church,  to  the 
union  that  has  existed  for  many  years  between  our  small  Church  and 
the  large  Methodist  Church.  At  the  very  beginning  of  your  work 
here  in  England  the  founder  of  your  Church  was  brought  into  touch 
with  some  of  our  Moravian  brethren.  We  thank  God  that  He,  in 
His  goodness,  brought  them  together,  because  there  is  little  doubt  the 
result  was  a  great  stimulus  to  the  spread  of  Evangelical  truth  through- 
out the  world. 

We  had  been  already  working  for  a  considerable  time  in  the  Mission 
field.  That  is  one  of  the  parts  of  the  work  that  seems  to  have  been 
allotted  to  our  Church  in  that  age.  We  were  only  a  small  body,  but 
we  seemed  in  that  time  to  have  grasped  hold  of  that  great  and  last 
commandment  that  our  Lord  gave  to  His  disciples,  to  go  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature.  Before  that  time 
there  had  been  but  little  effort  made  by  the  Churches  at  home  to  take 
the  Gospel  into  heathen  lands,  and  before  Wesley  met  the  Moravian 


ADDRESS  FROM    lillL  IIU  rjI^XOl  CONGii j;GAr_0.\'  OF  CA.MERBURV.  34J 

missionaries  on  that  celebrated  voyage  to  America,  W6  liad  been  work- 
ing for  some  years  among  the  negroes  in  the  West  Indies,  among  the 
Esquimaux  in  Greenland  and  Labrador,  and  endeavouring  to  carry  the 
Gospel  into  some  of  the  out-of-the-way  corners  of  the  earth. 

The  example  of  those  men,  who  were  willing  to  bear  and  undergo 
all  things  for  the  sake  of  the  Gospel,  to  carry  it  into  these  distant 
lands,  gave  a  stimulus  to  the  other  Churches  to  spread  the  Gospel 
among  the  people  who  lived  both  far  from  and  near  to  their  homes. 
We  rejoice  to-day  in  the  fact  that  our  missionaries  are  working  side  by 
side  in  India,  in  Africa,  in  the  West  Indian  Islands,  and  in  many  other 
parts  of  the  earth,  with  the  Methodist  brethren  who  have  gone  out 
from  America  or  from  England  to  spread  the  Gospel  in  those  darkened 
parts.  We  honour  them  because  they  are  one  with  us  in  that  great 
work.  The  great  commission  was  given  not  only  to  spread  the  Gospel 
around  your  homes  and  your  churches,  but  to  carry  it  to  the  utmost 
ends  of  the  earth.  This  was  the  work  that  the  Apostle  Paul  did  ;  he 
was  not  content  to  labour  in  Jerusalem  or  in  Judea,  but  he  went  to 
Rome  and  to  Spain,  and  some  people  tell  us  even  into  Britain.  The 
carrying  out  of  that  great  command  of  the  Lord  is  hastening  that  time 
when  all  nations  shall  own  Him  as  Lord  to  the  glory  of  the  Father. 

We  rejoice  in  thinking  that  our  Methodist  friends  are  working 
together  with  us  shoulder  to  shoulder  for  this  object,  and  we  rejoice 
also  in  thinking  that  a  meeting  like  the  present  one  tends  to  the 
union  of  the  hearts  of  all  Christians  to  help  forward  this  great  work. 
We  need  to  be  united ;  we  need  to  give  an  example  of  unity  at  home 
as  well  as  in  the  Mission  field  ;  and  the  more  we  can  sink  our  little 
differences,  and  the  more  we  can  attend  to  the  main  object  of  our 
work  in  spreading  the  Gospel,  lifting  up  Christ  before  a  dying  world, 
the  better  it  will  be  for  the  Churches.  We  rejoice  to  think  that  you 
are  here  assembled  as  the  representatives  of  different  sections  of  the 
great  Methodist  Church,  and  our  prayer  is  that  there  may  be  such  a 
unity  of  hearts  among  you  that,  as  the  other  speakers  have  said,  the 
little  differences  that  still  divide  you  may  soon  disappear,  and  there 
be  one  great  Methodist  Church  throughout  the  whole  world. 

The  following  Address  was  then  received  from  the  Huguenot 
Congregation  of  Canterbury : 

To  the  Most  Right  Rev.  the  President  of  the  Methodist  (Ecu- 
menical Conference,  Wesley's  Chapel,  City  Road,  London. 

The  Evangelical  Church  of  the  Huguenots  unites  with  the  great 
Methodist  Church  in  celebrating  the  great  memories  of  the  past, 
and  in  extending  to  the  Christian  brethren  from  distant  lands  a 
hearty  welcome.  The  historical  ties  which  unite  the  two  Churches 
are  not  broken,  but  impose  upon  us  a  dutv  to  manifest  sentiment 
that  you  know  is  of  long  date,  but  it  is  always  good  and  useful  to 
express  it  publicly.  The  relations  between  the  Huguenot  and  the 
Methodist  Church  have  always  been  most  cordial,  and  this  can 
be  proved  by  your  and  our  records.  When  your  noble  founder, 
the  Rev.  John  Wesley,  of  blessed  memory,  happened  to  be  in 


344  ADDRESSES   FROM   THE   FREE   CHURCHES. 

Canterbury  or  Portarlington  he  was  always  received  witli  open 
arms  in  our  social  cii^les  and  in  our  own  churches.  Wlion  liis 
own  Church  closed  its  doors  against  him  our  Church  opened  our 
pulpits  to  him.  Nay,  have  we  not  handed  over  churches  to  him 
as  well  as  the  sacred  vessels  appertaining  to  the  said  Houses  of 
God  1  We  always  cherish  deep  gratitude  for  the  grand  servants  of 
God  Methodism  has  given  to  all  civilised  and  heathen  nations,  and 
tribes,  and  Churches.  It  is  your  Church  that  has  enriched  at 
divers  times  and  seasons  the  people  of  divers  climes  with  a 
vigorous  element  full  of  moral  and  religious  power. 

Let  us  also  not  forget  the  active  and  fruitful  exchange  of  ideas 
which  has  naturally  established  itself  between  the  different 
Churches,  by  which  a  spiritual  patrimony  has  not  ceased  to  grow 
from  your  beginning  to  this  day. 

We  bless  and  praise  God  for  your  Church's  existence.  May  He 
bless  and  prosper  you  in  every  part  of  this  earth,  for  His  Son's 
sake ! 

Believe  me.  Most  Right  Reverend, 

to  be  your  humble  servant  in  His  work, 

Jean  R.  Barnabas,  Pasteur  Huguenot. 

The  Catacombs,  Canterbury  Cathedral. 

Commissioner  Coombbs,  representing  the  Salvation  Army,  was 
the  next  speaker.     He  said  :  — 

Whatever  you  may  think,  I  feel  that  I  am  but  a  poor  representative 
for  so  great  a  man  as  General  Booth  on  this  historic  occasion.  General 
Booth  is  unable  himself  to  be  present,  but  the  Salvation  Army  greets 
you  and  the  vast  hosts  of  the  servants  of  Christ  whom  you  represent. 
We  admire  you,  and  in  the  great  essentials  we  agree  with  you.  We 
love  you.  Multitudes  of  our  people  are  poor  and  unlearned,  and  have 
but  crude  notions  of  ecclesiastical  history,  but  the  best  and  most 
thoughtful  men  and  women  among  us  recognise  the  great  example  you 
have  set,  and  we  have  the  sense  as  well  as  the  good  grace  to  acknow- 
ledge that  in  very  many  matters  we  are  indebted  to  Methodism. 

I  heard  General  Booth  some  time  ago  speaking  on  the  rise  and  pro- 
gress of  the  Salvation  Army.  At  the  close  of  his  address  a  number 
of  friends  gathered  round  to  wish  him  God-speed,  and  one  minister 
said  to  him,  "  General,  you  have  forgotten  to  mention  the  most  im- 
portant work  that  the  Salvation  Army  has  done,  for  you  have  not  only 
by  the  good  blessing  of  God  sent  to  our  Churches  many  new  members, 
but  you  have  stirred  us  up  to  aggressive  action,  and  I  believe  that  the 
work  you  have  done  outside  yourselves  is  greater  than  the  work  done 
within."  There  is  a  great  measure  of  truth  in  this,  for  "while  we  grate- 
fully acknowledge  all  the  help  we  have  received  from  the  Churches 
round  about  us,  we  sometimes  think  we  have  paid  large  interest  on 
the  principal,  and  we  are  tempted  to  think  sometimes  that  we  may  have 
returned  the  capital  as  well.  We  still  rejoice  in  helping  all  who  are 
pushing  on  the  old  chariot.  Thank  God  we  do  not  support  our  re- 
ligion by  preying  upon  the  preserves  of  other  people.  We  praise  God 
for  you,   and  we  still  praise  Him. 

Methodism  gave  us  General  Booth.     The  fact  that  you  did  so  not 


ADDRESS    OF   COMMISSIONER    COOMBES.  345 

knowing  it  does  not  detract  from  the  importance  of  the  gift.  If  it 
be  urged,  as  some  of  our  Church  of  England  friends  do,  I  believe,  that 
you  got  him  from  them,  well,  I  think  you  have  abundantly  condoned 
that  by  passing  him  on  to  us.  But  you  did  not  give  him  to  us  only. 
You  gave  him  to  the  world,  not  only  to  the  Church-going  multitudes, 
as  evidenced  by  the  mighty  influence  he  has  wielded  in  stirring  up 
to  aggressive  action  all  sections  of  the  Christian  Church  to  do  all  they 
can  for  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men,  but  to  that  vast  host  of  men  and 
women  who  never  darkened  the  doors  of  our  churches,  whose  apostle 
he  is.  Thank  God,  he.  was  given  to  the  world  !  A  story  is  told  tliat, 
in  connection  with  the  Kimberley  siege,  the  authorities  were  in  some 
little  doubt  as  to  how  they  should  manage  the  distribution  of  the  food 
for  the  population,  so  they  arranged  to  gather  the  people  together,  and 
for  each  minister  to  call  out  his  own  people,  and  see  that  their  needs 
were  met  so  far  as  they  could  be.  Clergyman  after  clergyman  arose, 
and  at  last  the  Salvation  Army  oflicer  arose,  and  shouted  at  the  top 
of  his  voice,  "All  you  people  who  belong  to  nobody  follow  me." 
Thank  God,  the  Salvation  Army  exists  for  the  people  who  belong  to 
nobody. 

Again,  the  Salvation  Army  is  indebted  to  you  for  the  example  shown 
by  John  Wesley  in  laying  hold  of  the  great  essential  truths  of  salva- 
tion, and  taking  them  fco  the  common  people.  He  took  the  truth  of 
justification  by  faith,  and  brought  it  down  to  the  common  minds  of 
his  day.  He  took  the  truth  as  to  holiness  of  heart  and  life,  lived  it, 
enforced  it,  preached  it,  and  had  the  joy  of  seeing  multitudes  of  his 
followers  living  in  the  enjoyment  of  it,  and  spreading  the  same  glorious 
truth.  He  took  the  truth  as  to  the  duty  of  his  people  taking  upon 
themselves  the  responsibility  of  spreading  the  Gospel  whenever  and 
wherever  they  had  an  opportunity.  We  have  travelled  along  these 
lines.  We  hold  on  to  these  grand  old  doctrines,  and  among  us  are  a 
great  host  in  whom  these  truths  have  been  verified,  and  who  live  to 
promulgate  the  same  wherever  they  go.  We  have  laid  hold  of  the 
great  truth  that  sin  and  hell  are  united.  We  believe  that  unrepentant 
sinners  dying  without  the  knowledge  of  sins  forgiven  will  be  banished 
from  the  presence  of  God  as  much  as  John  Wesley  believed  it,  and 
that  they  will  be  turned  into  hell  with  all  nations  that  forget  Him. 
We  hold  firmly  that  there  is  a  heaven  for  the  righteous  and  that  tliere 
is  a  hell  for  the  wicked.  A  story  is  told  of  a  minister  not  long  ago 
preaching  or  lecturing  who  said  he  felt  relieved  when  he  was  not 
obliged  to  preach  about  hell.  "If,"  said  he,  "you  want  to  hear  any- 
thing about  that,  go  down  to  the  Salvation  Army,  and  there  you  can 
get  it  wholesale  and  retail."  Thank  God  we  dare  to  preach  the  whole 
truth,  simple  though  our  preaching  may  be !  We  have  laid 
hold  also  of  the  truth  that  there  is  efficacy  in  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
to  wash  away  sin.  We  believe  that  He  died  for  all.  I  believe  that 
Ho  died  for  me.  I  shall  never  forget  the  night  I  first  realised  the 
truth  that  Jesus  Christ  died  for  me,  just  as  if  there  was  not  another 
sinner  in  the  world.  I  can  see  in  my  mind  to-night  the  Salvatit)n 
Army  barracks,  and  the  service  is  vividly  before  me ;  the  oflScer,  the 


346  ADDRESSES   FROM   THE   FREE    CHURCHES. 

text,  "  Escape  for  thy  life,  look  not  behind  thee,-  neither  tarry  thou  in 
all  the  plain  ;  escape  to  the  mountain,  lest  thou  be  consumed."  That 
night 

"  I  saw  my  sins  His  blood  had  spilt, 
And  helped  to  nail  Him  there," 

and  with  the  weight  of  my  guilt  upon  me,  with  the  burden  of  my  sins 
weighing  me  down,  I  cried,  and  the  Lord  heard  me. 

"  A  second  look  He  gave,  which  said. 
'  I  freely  all  forgive.'  " 

Thank  God,  there  is  cleansing  in  the  blood  for  every  sinner !  We 
believe  also  in  the  individual  responsibility  of  every  soul  for  every 
other  soul  ;  that  in  the  pit  from  which  I  have  been  dug  there  are  other 
men  in  like  condition  that  need  the  saving  grace  of  God  ;  and  it  is  the 
duty,  and— blessed  be  God !— the  joy  of  Salvationists  to  go  after  them 
and  save  them.  I  am  also  very  glad  to  say  that  we  have  been  able  to 
get  thousands  of  men  and  women  to  leave  their  homes  to  fight  for 
Jesus  Christ  without  any  guarantee  of  salary.  Not  only  so,  but  it  is 
said  sometimes  that  we  kill  our  people.  It  is  our  proudest  boast  that 
some  of  our  comrades  have  died  for  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  we  have 
in  our  ranks  thousands  of  others  ready  and  willing  to  do  the  same. 

Again,  we  are  indebted  to  Methodism  for  the  high  example  of  what 
can  be  done  with  the  union  of  the  human  with  the  Divine.  John 
Wesley  was  an  organiser.  The  Salvation  Army  believes  in  organisa- 
tion. We  are  not  organised  on  the  Methodist  basis,  although  as  I 
have  read  John  Wesley's  life  and  works  I  have  been  tempted  to  think 
that  we  are  very  near  to  the  Methodism  of  John  Wesley's  days.  Ours 
is  a  military  system.  Methodism  has  given  a  high  example  to  the 
world  of  the  great  part  to  be  played  in  the  organisation  of  the  Church 
by  human  skill  and  enterprise.  If  I  may  say  so,  we  have  gone  a  step 
further.  One  of  the  great  faults  of  the  present  day  is  the  falling  off 
in  respect  to  authority — not  a  lack  of  discipline,  not  a  lack  of  authority, 
but  the  want  of  that  individual  respect  for  authority  which  alone  makes 
it  possible  to  carry  out  discipline  of  any  kind.  I  have,  by  the  blessing 
of  God,  served  the  Salvation  Army  in  the  United  Kingdom  as  well  as 
in  Canada  and  Australasia,  in  subordinate  as  well  as  in  more  important 
commands.  At  the  present  moment  I  have  under  my  direction  up- 
wards of  4,000  officers,  and  it  is  my  firm  conviction  that  it  is  the 
union  of  the  supreme  overwhelming  devotion  and  the  most  exact  and 
well-balanced  discipline  that  can  make  the  Church  of  God  equal  to 
meeting,  combating,  and  triumphing  over  the  forces  of  unbelief  and 
materialism  which  are  round  about  ua 

Wesley  trod  untrodden  paths  ;  so  has  the  Salvation  Army.  The 
Salvation  Army  has  dared  to  say  that  no  man  or  woman  shall  have 
his  or  her  name  on  its  roll  who  has  anything  to  do  with  intoxicating 
drinks.  It  has  gone  further  than  this.  I  am  proud  to  say  to-night 
that  its  14,000  oflicers,  evangelists,  ministers— call  them  what  you  will  ; 
16,000  bandsmen,  organists,  musicians— term  them  what  you  may  ; 
40,000  local  officers  answering  to  local  preachers,  and  leaders,  and 
ekiers,  are  not  only  total  abstainers,  Init,  thank  God,  non-smokers. 


RESPONSE   OF   REV.   J.    LUKE.  347 

Methodists  know  how  they  should  live^  and  in  their  records  of 
the  last  150  j-ears  there  are  glorious  stories  of  how  Methodists  can  die. 
The  Salvation  Army  also  has  its  record.  Mrs.  Booth — St.  Catherine 
some  have  called  her — when  she  came  down  to  the  river,  gave  utter- 
ance to  these  never-to-be-forgotten  words :  "  The  waters  are  rising,  but 
so  am  I ;  I  am  not  going  under,  but  over  "  ;  and  soon  she  went  up  the 
shining  way  to  see  and  praise  her  Lord.  Bob  Wilson,  a  soldier  of  Her 
late  Majesty,  and  a  humble  soldier  of  the  Salvation  Army,  fell  mortally 
wounded  in  the  dreadful  carnage  at  Magersfontein.  Lying  there  on  the 
veldt,  someone  brought  him  some  precious,  cool  water.  Raising  him- 
self with  all  the  strength  he  had,  he  said,  "  Give  it  to  the  other  man ; 
I  have  had  a  drink  of  the  Water  of  Life,"  and  soon  he  went  to  his  God. 

The  comrades  of  the  Salvation  Army,  from  the  General  downwards, 
aro  longing  for  the  mighty  revival  of  pure  and  undefiled  religion  that 
shall  move  this  country — nay,  the  world — as  it  has  never  been  moved 
before.  The  Grand  Old  Book  says,  "  Bring  ye  all  the  tithes  into  the 
storehouse,  that  there  may  be  meat  in  Mine  house,  and  prove  Me  now 
herewith,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  if  I  will  not  open  you  the  windows 
of  heaven  and  pour  you  out  a  blessing,  that  there  shall  not  be  room 
enough  to  receive  it."  The  tithes  have  been  brought  in  for  you  by 
your  magnificent  Twentieth  Century  Fund  schemes  ;  and  has  not  the 
Salvation  Army,  by  its  annual  self-denial  efforts,  which  last  year 
totalled  up  to  £100,000,  brought  in  other  of  the  tithe?  May  we  not 
expect  the  windows  to  open?  May  we  not  expect  the  Conference  to 
bring  it  to  you? 

"  Lo,  the  promise  of  a  shower 
Drops  already  from  above." 

God  bless  Methodism  1  God  bless  the  Salvation  Army !  God  save 
the  world ! 

The  Rev.  J.  Luke,  of  the  Bible  Christian  Church  (Chairman), 
in  responding  to  the  Addresses  and  speeches  of  greeting,  said  :  — 

Gentlemen  of  the  deputation,  or,  if  you  will  permit  me  to  change  the 
phraseology,  Brethren  of  the  deputation, — We  have  been  greatly  grati- 
fied with  your  presence  here  to-night,  and  we  have  listened  with  in- 
tense delight  to  your  addresses,  so  inspiring,  and  so  encouraging.  We 
hail  your  presence  among  us  not  only  as  an  indication  and  proof  of 
that  friendliness  and  brotherliness  which  should  obtain  among  all  the 
sections  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  but  as  an  evidence  of  the  strong 
desire  to  co-operate  in  a  strenuous  and  persistent  endeavour  to  en- 
throne the  Christ  and  to  establish  in  social,  in  commercial,  in  political 
life,  the  paramountcy  of  Him  who  is  Prince  of  Peace  and  King  of 
Righteousness.  We  cannot  dare  to  quarrel,  or  keep  aloof,  or  be  apa- 
thetic, while  the  vast  majority  of  our  fellow  countrymen  are  unreached, 
while  the  condition  of  so  many  is  hard  and  bitter,  while  the  liquor 
traffic  is  as  proud,  arrogant,  and  mischievous  as  ever,  while  the  war 
spirit  burns  so  fiercely,  invading  even  the  temples  of  peace,  and  in- 
flaming the  pens  of  able  editors,  even  of  religious  newspapers.  While 
these  things  obtain  we  cannot  dare  to  be  other  than  united  in  the 


348  ADDRESSES  FROM  THE  FREE  CHURCHES. 

great,  work  of  the  Church  of  Christ.  We  have  heard,  as  you  have 
heard,  the  cry  of  the  sinful  and  the  suffering.  We  have  seen,  as  you 
have  seen,  the  Cross  of  Calvary,  and  have  passed  beneath  its  con- 
straining power.  We  believe,  as  you  believe,  that  the  Gospel  is  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation,  and  that  the  words  of  Christ  are  spirit 
and  are  life.  We  are  brethren,  comrades,  and  fellow-workers,  and 
your  visit  will  greatly  encourage  us.  We  trust  that  you  and  ourselves 
also  will  be  kept  true  and  faithful,  and  that  we  shall  endeavour,  by  the 
giace  of  God,  to  make  earth  more  like  heaven,  and  man  more  like 
God. 

Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  also  gave  a  response  to  the  Addresses  and  speeches  of 
greeting,  aa  follows : 

Mr.  President,  Sisters,  and  Brothers :  You  do  me  a  very  great 
honour,  and  charge  me  with  a  very  great  responsibility.  I  might 
shrinic  from  response  to  so  cordial  and  universal  a  welcome  as  has  been 
spoken  from  this  platform  if  I  did  not  recall  that  you  are  England  and 
we  are  America.  Dr.  Fairbairn,  of  Oxford,  once  said  to  me  :  "  It  is  of 
far  more  value  for  an  Englishman  to  go  to  America  than  for  an 
American  to  come  to  England."  I  said,  "Sir,  you  surprise  me  a  bit." 
He  replied,  "Why  should  I?  Our  language  is  your  language, 
our  history  is  your  history,  and  I  find  specialists  in  your  country 
who  can  teach  many  of  my  countrymen  many  things  about  themselves. 
But  you  are  the  young  folk  who  have  gone  off  from  the  old 
ones,  set  up  for  yourselves,  and  the  new  things  of  this  world 
are  very  likely  to  come  through  you,  and  we  forget  about  them 
unless  we  go  to  inquire  of  you,  and  see  where  you  are  living,  and  what 
you  have  been  doing."  The  coming  of  America  to  Europe  is  very  much 
like  the  coming  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba  to  Solomon.  She  came  with  a 
very  great  train,  and  very  much  gold  and  precious  stones.  But  she  com- 
muned with  him  of  all  the  things  that  were  in  her  heart,  and  when  she 
had  seen  the  houses  he  had  built,  and  the  meat  of  his  table,  and  the 
sitting  of  his  servants,  and  the  attendance  of  his  ministers,  there  was 
no  more  spirit  in  her.  "  Happy  are  thy  men ;  happy  are  these  thy 
servants,  which  stand  continually  before  thee  and  that  hear  thy 
wisdom." 

I  have  been  overwhelmed  with  the  testimony  that  has  oome 
from  Scotland,  from  Moravia,  and  f  rom  these  Bapt  ists,  and  Con- 
gregationalists,  and  others,  telling  us  who  we  are  and  ■rt^hat  we  have 
come  to  be.  I  was  reminded  of  an  incident  that  occurred  in  the  little 
chapel  I  once  dedicated  in  a  remote  part  of  our  country,  where,  m  the 
midst  of  great  poverty  and  persecution,  a  little  temple  had  been  erected 
and  prepared  for  dedication  without  a  cent  of  indebtedness.  When  I 
arose  to  beg  the  debt,  and  found  there  was  none  to  beg,  I  turned  and 
said,  "  How  is  it  that  you  have  got  to  be  where  you  are  and  what  you 
are?'*  Instantly  a  man  who  was  clad  in  a  very  common  kind  of  gar- 
ment arose  and  said : 


RESPONSE   OF   BISHOP  J.   W.   HAMILTON.  349 

■'The  world,  the  devil,  and  Tom  Paine 
To  spoil  our  work  have  tried  in  vain  ; 
The  reason  wliy  they  failed  is  this  : 
The  liord  takes  care  of  the  Methodists." 

We  have  had  our  days  of  poverty  ;  we  have  had  our  days  of  persecution. 
I  aiu  a  little  fearful  that  we  have  not  had  quite  as  much  of  obstacle  as 
you  have  had  over  here  to  develop  us  into  quite  the  men  that  are 
demanded  of  Methodism  the  world  over.  We  have  not  forgotten  that 
we  were  cradled  in  a  University,  and,  despite  the  charges  that  have 
been  made  against  us  as  to  want  of  education,  we  have  planted  our 
Universities,  and  Colleges,  and  Academic  Schools,  until  we  have 
more  institutions  and  more  students  than  any  other  one  of  the  great 
Denominations  among  us.  When,  in  that  greatest  phenomenon  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  there  sprang  full  grown  into  our  presence,  out  of 
the  boundless  wealth  of  the  billionaire,  an  institution  of  one  of  our 
sister  Churches,  a  representative  of  which  has  spoken  with  such  mag- 
nificent eloquence  to  our  gratification  to-night,  the  great  President  of 
that  great  University  not  only  looked  his  own  Denomination  all  over, 
but  all  the  other  Denominations  of  America,  and  then  offered  five  of  the 
great  departments  of  that  wonderful  school  to  the  "  unlettered  Metho- 
dists." I  am  glad  to  say  that  we  had  some  Methodist  timber  with  us 
that  declined  the  extravagant  offers  of  salary,  and  chose  to  remain  to 
tutor  Methodists  in  our  own  institutions.  One  of  those  honoured  men 
is  a  member  of  this  Conference.  I  wish  you  could  hear  him  speak.  I 
begged  of  him  to  say  a  word,  but  he  is  so  modest  you  do  not  know  he  is 
here.  However,  when  we  get  to  that  point  of  the  real  purpose  of  the 
Queen  of  Sheba's  coming  to  Solomon,  proving  with  hard  questions,  we 
can  call  on  him. 

We  are  trying  very  hard  not  to  forget  the  means  and  measures  by 
which  we  have  come  to  be  what  we  are.  We  have  great  wealth.  I 
might  tell  you  of  it  until  I  made  your  heads  dizzy  with  numbers,  but 
you  have  heard  it  in  this  (Ecumenical  Conference  until  I  wonder  that 
you  want  to  hear  anything  more  about  America  at  all.  But  we  have 
our  dangers  ;  and  I  say  to  you  frankly  that  I  appreciate  the  word  of 
my  brother  to-night  who  charged  home  upon  us  our  responsibility.  If 
we  have  come  to  be  the  largest  Protestant  Denomination  of  the  world, 
what  must  be  expected  of  us  on  earth  ?  What  must  be  expected  of  us 
in  heaven?  I  tremble  at  the  thought  of  the  responsibility  we  bear, 
for  in  all  this  world  there  is  nothing  so  small  as  a  big  thing  that  is  litHe. 
We  must  measure  up  to  such  duties  as  have  never  before  been  entrusted 
to  any  Christian  people  since  Jesus  ascended  into  the  heavens. 

How  shall  we  meet  our  duty?  That  is  the  responsibility  which  we 
are  here  to  face.  The  responsibility  of  bringing  the  world  to  Christ 
has  been  very  largely  put  into  our  hands.  So,  my  brothers,  I  appeal  to 
you  to-night,  and  say  we  need  you  ;  every  Baptist,  Congregationalist, 
Presbyterian,  and  Christian  worker,  we  need  you  all!  Our 
Methodism  has  been  going  out  among  you.  Over  in  America  I  think 
one  in  every  twenty  of  our  Congregational  preachers  has  been  once  a 


35°  ADDRESSES  FROM  THE  FREE  CHURCHES. 

Methodist.  It  has  been  going  out  among  the  Baptists,  furnishing  them 
with  wives,  or  fathers,  or  husbands,  until  you  scarcely  know  the  differ^ 
ence  between  a  Baptist  and  a  Methodist  unless  the  fire  and  water  (ret 
together.  I  am  sure  the  purpose  has  been  to  bring  us  into  one  fellow- 
ship that  we  may  bring  this  world  to  God.  We  have  great  men  ;  we 
have  rich  men  ;  but  our  ministry  has  not  been  particularly  to  greatness, 
nor  to  riches.  The  way  we  got  our  rich  men  and  our  great  men  was 
by  picking  them  up  when  they  were  poor  boys  and  little  boys,  holding 
them  to  our  hearts  and  nursing  them  like  god-fathers  and  god-mothers° 
until  in  their  wealth  they  have  not  forgotten  the  hand  that  has  fed 
them,  and  are  at  our  altars  helping  us  to  distribute  our  gifts. 

In  Ireland  two  or  three  years  ago,  when  I  stood  upon  the  platform 
of  the  great  Grosvenor  Hall  to  speak  in  the  presence  of  those  400  or 
500  orphan  children,  there  was  handed  me  a  little  package  from  the 
congregation.  I  could  not  well  make  out  then  and  there  what  it  was. 
I  wanted  to  open  it,  as  I  thought  there  might  be  some  message  in  it. 
I  carefully  put  it  under  my  coat,  tried  to  undo  the  parcel,  and  at 
length,  when  I  opened  it,  I  found  in  it  a  little  bit  of  peat  that  had  been 
taken  out  of  an  Irish  bog.  I  said,  "Who  could  have  sent  me  that? 
Possibly  it  is  a  souvenir  they  want  me  to  take  back  to  America."  Just 
as  I  was  about  to  fold  it  up  I  found  there  was  a  little  message  neatly 
enclosed  in  it.  I  took  it  out,  and  managed  to  get  it  round  to  a  light 
where  I  could  read  it,  and  there  I  read  :  "  On  tliis  night,  when  you  are 
met  to  discuss  the  possibilities  of  some  of  these  poor  little  ones,  I 
thought  I  would  bring  you  a  bit  of  peat  from  a  bog  where  was  reared  a 
poor  boy  who  went  out  from  our  Irish  homes,  and  over  into  your 
country,  to  rear  a  son,  with  whom  he  went  to  settle  in  the  Middle 
West ;  the  son  there  reared  another  boy,  who,  in  the  majesty  of  his 
rearing,  stayed  close  to  the  Church  that  had  found  him  until  he  had 
entered  the  White  House  as  President  of  the  United  States  " — William 
McKinley,  of  Ohio.  Then  my  heart  was  profoundly  touched,  as  it  is 
touched  to-night  when  I  recall  that  humble  man — and  there  has  been 
no  humbler  member  among  us  during  all  these  years  of  his  public  life — 
humble,  I  say,  in  the  Church  of  God — and  yet,  as  a  vicarious  sacrifice, 
he  has  been  chosen  of  high  heaven  to  preach  Christianity  to  the  world 
as  it  never  has  been  preached  before.  I  was  shocked  with  you,  but  in 
my  very  great  sorrow  I  was  comforted  as  I  read  everywhere  your  sym- 
pathy, and  now  I  pour  out  my  heart  for  the  American  people  in  grateful 
remembrance  of  your  prayers  for  the  President  of  the  United  States. 
Heaven,  I  know,  will  sanctify  this  affliction  to  the  good  o'f  all  nations, 
to  protect  them  in  the  future,  and  also  to  influence  them  by  the  power 
of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  as  has  never  been  done  before. 

I  will  leave  off  with  this  single  incident.  I  want  you  to  remember, 
as  I  said  a  moment  ago,  that  we  are  keeping  close  to  the  fathers  ;  we 
are  trying  to  get  back  again  to  their  spirit.  Some  brother  said  to-day 
that  the  Methodists  from  our  side  of  the  water  had  been  insisting  very 
much  upon  the  witness  of  the  Spirit.  Oh,  that  we  had  more  of  it  1 
Oh,  that  we  could  prove  to  the  world  and  publish  by  "  the  signs  in- 


RESPONSE   OF   REV.   C.   11.    PHILLIPS.  35* 

fallible"  the  living  Lordl  We  are  trying  to  get  back  and  keep  in 
closer  sympathy  with  our  founder,  John  Wesley — shall  I  say  that 
he  has  been  pcciless  in  all  our  Methodism,  among  all  our  great 
men  in  all  lands? — get  back  to  him  who  taught  us  that  the  sf^ret  of 
our  power  was  the  Gospel  to  the  poor.  It  must  be  Gospel,  and  it  must 
not  forget  the  poor.  The  morning  of  the  day  that  Charles  Sumner  was 
buried  there  was  a  great  crowd  that  followed  him  to  his  burial.  I  was 
pastor  of  the  church  just  under  the  hill  where  his  body  lay  in  state  for 
the  time  it  was  in  Boston.  I  did  not  go  with  the  throng,  but  the  next 
day,  in  the  quiet,  I  thought  I  would  go  out  and  see  where  they  had 
laid  him  among  the  flowers.  I  had  from  the  newspapers  a  careful  map 
in  my  mind,  so  I  sought  no  one  to  go  with  me.  I  went  out  to  Mount 
Auburn,  and,  wending  my  way  to  the  top  of  the  hill,  I  looked  in  the 
direction  in  which  I  had  hoped  to  find  his  new-made  grave.  I  dis- 
covered something  in  the  distance  which  very  strangely  attracted  my 
attention.  It  seemed  to  be  a  prostrate  form.  I  went  down  over  the 
hill,  for  a  moment  forgetting  my  errand.  As  I  drew  near  I  saw  it  was 
the  form  of  a  man.  He  was  not  utterly  prostrate,  but  was  kneeling 
with  his  head  between  his  hands.  When  I  came  a  little  nearer,  disturbed 
apparently  in  his  grief,  he  lifted  himself  from  the  grave,  and  then  I 
detected  tears  fast  falling  down  the  face  of  a  black  man,  and  I  knew  I 
had  found  the  grave  of  Charles  Sumner.  The  corner  stone  on  which  we 
have  built  our  Church  has  been  the  Gospel  to  the  poor : 

"No  line  divides  the  rich  and  poor 
Who  foUow  Christ  alone  ; 
If  caste  should  close  this  open  door, 
Remove  this  comer  stone." 

The  Rev.  C.  H.  Phillips,  D.D.  (Coloured  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  also  i-esponded.     He  siaid : 

I  am  glad  to  be  here,  not  because  of  what  I  may  say,  but  because  of 
what  I  have  seen  and  heard  ;  because  of  the  stimulus  that  comes  to 
me  as  I  come  in  touch  with  these  faithful  servants  of  Jesus,  and  be- 
cause of  the  stimulation  I  shall  possess  when  this  CEcumenical  Con- 
ference has  closed  its  sessions.  In  its  name  I  desire  to  thank  you, 
brethren  beloved,  for  your  kind  words  of  welcome,  for  your  hearty 
congratulations,  and  for  the  inspiration  which  you  lend  us.  We  are 
honoured  by  your  presence,  and  your  utterances  will  spur  us  on  to 
greater  activity.  We  have  learned  with  pleasure  of  the  esteem  and 
confidence  in  which  Brothers  J.  M.  Wilson,  George  Cadbury,  Ross 
Taylor,  and  Coombes  are  held  by  their  respective  constituents,  and  of 
the  faithful  work  they  are  doing  for  the  Master.  We  devoutly  pray 
that  they  may  have  greater  success  in  all  their  operations  to  advance 
the  Kingdom  of  Christ  among  men.  Dr.  CliflEord's  "Inspiration  and 
Authority  of  the  Bible,"  his  "  Christian  Certainties,"  saying  nothing 
about  his  matchless  eloquence,  have  endeared  him  to  us  all.  Dr. 
Monro  Gibson's  popular  book  entitled  "Strong  City  and  other  Ser- 
mons," as  well  as  all  the  good  things  we  had  heard  of  him,  sharpened 


352  ADDRESSES    FROM    THE    FREE    CHURCHES. 

our  desire  to  see  and  hear  him  speak.  We  are  ready  now  to  add, 
"  The  half  was  not  told  us." 

The  various  bodies  of  Methodism  here  represented  are  taking  no 
backward  step,  but  are  advancing,  using  every  instrumentality  that  la 
calculated  to  extend,  expand,  and  develop  the  cause  of  Christ. 
Napoleon  I,  said,  "Scrape  a  Russian  and  you  will  find  a  Tartar." 
Scrape  any  delegate  to  this  Conference,  we  may  add,  and  you  will  find 
a  Methodist,  regardless  of  the  complexion  of  the  skin,  or  the  texture 
of  the  hair.  In  Methodism  all  races,  and  kindreds,  and  people,  and 
tongues  can  find  common  ground  upon  which  to  stand.  Many  years 
ago  an  old  Texas  orator  was  delivering  an  oration  on  the  Fourth  of 
July.  After  praising  our  country  with  all  the  language  he  could  com- 
mand, he  suddenly  exclaimed,  "Gentlemen,  the  United  States  is  the 
best  country  in  the  world.  It  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  aurora 
boreaHs  ;  on  the  east  by  the  rising  sun  ;  on  the  west  by  the  horizon  ; 
and  on  the  south  by  just  as  far  as  you  want  to  go."  He  meant  to  show 
that  the  United  States  had  directly  or  indirectly  touched  and  influ- 
enced all  nations  for  good,  and  had  often  acted  as  an  arbitrator  between 
nations  in  the  adjustment  of  intricate  international  questions.  So  with 
Methodism.  The  religious  sentiments  and  convictions  of  the  people 
have  not  only  been  strengthened,  but  have  kept  pace  with  the  world's 
increase  in  population,  and  its  growth  in  material  prosperity,  wherever 
Methodism  has  been  planted.  By  its  aggressiveness,  by  its  diffusive 
spirit,  and  remarkable  genius,  by  its  advocacy  of  the  Gospel  pure  and 
simple,  it  has  gained  signal  victories,  and,  at  the  same  time,  by  its 
resistless  example,  has  stimulated  and  influenced  other  Christian 
Denominations  in  the  operation  of  the  interests  committed  to  their 
charge. 

We  would  remind  our  brethren  that  we  are  not  oblivious  of  the 
early  trials  of  the  Congregationalists  of  this  country.  We  do  not  forget 
the  struggles  of  the  Baptists  in  England,  the  conflicts  of  the  Presby- 
terians in  Ireland  and  Scotland,  nor  how  all  the  Free  Churches  "  ob- 
tained a  good  report  through  faith."  Your  triumphs  have  been  our 
triumphs,  your  record  is  on  high.  Once  more,  in  behalf  of  the 
Methodism  of  the  world,  allow  me  to  reciprocate  the  very  affectionate 
greetings  which  you  brought  to  us,  and  express  the  wish  that  all  the 
Christian  Denominations  of  the  world  may  get  closer  together  as  we 
enter  upon  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the  twentieth  century, 
so  that,  as  one  united  army,  we  may  keep  up  a  steady,  effectual  firing 
into  the  ranks  of  sin,  until,  in  the  language  of  an  eminent  American 
divine,  the  "  Mountains  shall  kiss  the  morning  radiant,  and  refulgent, 
and  all  the  waves  of  the  sea  shall  become  the  crystal  *keys  of  a  grand 
organ  upon  which  the  fingers  of  everlasting  joy  shall  play  the  grand 
triumphal  march  of  the  world's  redeemed." 

The  session  terminated  with  the  singing  of  the  Doxology  and 
Benediction  by  the  Rev.  J.  ScoTT  Lidgett,  M.A.  (Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church). 


ESSAY   OF   REV.    W.   J.    WILLIAMS.  353 


EIGHTH  DAY,  Thursday,  September  12,  1901. 


TOPIC : 
THE    SPIRITUAL   VITALITY    OF    METHODISM. 


FIRST     SESSION. 


The  Conference  resumed  its  sessions  at  10  a.m.,  the  Rev.  Chan- 
cellor N.  BuKWASH,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada.)  presiding. 
The  Rev.  W.  J.  Crothers,  D.D,  (Methodist  ChuroL  of  Canada)  read 
a  portion  of  Scripture  and  offered  prayer. 

The  Rev.  Professor  W.  I.  Shaw,  D.d!,  LL.D.  (Secretary),  read 
the  Daily  Record  for  Wednesiday,  which  was  confirmed. 

The  President  said  the  subject  tO'  be  discussed  this  morning,  as 
well  as  this  afternoon,  is  perhaps  the  most  vital  that  can  come 
before  this  Conference — in  the  morning  the  Spiritual  Vitality  of 
the  Church,  and  in  the  afternoon  the  Religious  character  of  the 
home.  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  spirit  of  deepest  earnestness  and 
of  most  prayerful  solicitude  and  consideration  will  be  given  to  the 
topics  before  us  to-day. 

The  Rev.  W.  J.  Williams  (Australasian  Methodist  Church)  gave 
an  essay  on  "  Is  Methodism  Retaining  Its  Spiritual  Vitality?"  He 
said : 

Methodism  has  a  name  to  live.  Is  it  living?  Is  it  living  as  it 
once  lived?  Is  it  living  as  by  every  obligation  of  origin,  tradition,  and 
purpose  it  ought  to  live?  That  is  the  question  before  us,  and  the 
question  that  is  supreme  and  imperial  among  all  the  questions  that  are 
found  on  the  programme  of  this  Conference.  It  is  a  question  that 
must  be  faced  fearlessly  and  faithfully  in  view  of  its  vital  relation  to 
every  interest  of  the  great  Methodist  Church.  That  Church  sprang 
into  being  as  the  product  of  spiritual  vitality,  and  only  by  the  main- 
tenance of  spiritual  vitality  can  its  continued  existence  be  either  sus- 
tained or  justified.  No  development  along  the  line  of  ecclesiasticism, 
or  scholarship,  or  philanthropy,  can  compensate  for  the  decline  of 
spiritual  force.  The  more  widely  that  Methodism  extends  tHe  field 
of  its  operations  and  multiplies  its  agencies,  the  more  urgent  become** 
24 


354  THE    SPIRITUAL   VITALITY   OF   METHODISM. 

the  necessity  to  consider  how  far  it  keeps  true  to  the  lofty  spiritual 
purpose  for  which  God  called  it  into  being. 

As  Methodism  spreads  abroad  in  the  earth,  and  becomea  a  move- 
ment of  world-wide  importance,  there  fall  easily  within  its  reach 
various  forms  of  power.  Intellectual  power,  social  power,  monetary 
power,  political  power — all  such  can  be  acquired  to  an  almost  unlimited 
extent  to-day  by  the  Methodism  that  a  caustic  critic  once  said  was  a 
form  of  religion  fit  only  for  cobblers  and  chimney-sweeps.  How  far 
is  Methodism  keeping  all  such  forms  of  power  subordinate  and  sub- 
servient to  purely  spiritual  ends  ?  How  far  is  it  casting  them  into  its 
heart  of  fire  to  be  transmuted  into  added  spiritual  energy  to  bear  it  the 
more  swiftly  forward  to  the  goal  of  spiritual  conquest?  There  is  one 
spot  in  connection  with  his  engine  that  the  engineer  watches  with  more 
anxiety  than  any  other.  He  looks  to  it  that  the  brasses  are  kept 
bright,  that  the  bearings  are  well  oiled,  and  that  nothing  impede? 
the  movement  of  any  part  of  his  engine.  But  it  is  the  steam-gauge 
that  he  keeps  his  eye  upon  with  the  deepest  concern,  because  that  tells 
him  how  much  power  he  has  available  for  getting  out  of  the  engine 
all  that  it  was  intended  to  do.  The  steam-gauge  of  Methodism  is  to 
be  found  in  the  register  of  the  spiritual  vitality.  If  that  should  show 
anything  like  a  steady  decline,  we  have  cause  to  be  alarmed,  for  it 
means  that  Methodism  is  losing  the  power  of  effective  movement. 

The  discussion  of  this  question  shows  that  we  are  not  afraid  to  face 
the  logical  sequence  of  our  own  doctrines.  As  Methodists,  we  believe 
it  is  possible  to  fall  from  grace.  This  is  true  of  Churches  as  well  as 
of  individuals.  There  have  been  Churches  that  have  fallen  from  grace. 
They  have  departed  from  first  principles.  They  have  lost  the  fire  and 
energy  of  their  earlier  years.  They  go  labouring  on  their  way,  trying 
to  hide  their  shrivelled  frame  under  the  robes  of  a  gaudy  ceremonial- 
ism, while  their  traditions  encumber  them  as'  a  burden  and  a  reproach, 
and  their  ideals  stare  them  in  the  face  as  a  splendid  mockery.  Is 
this  in  any  sense  true  of  Methodism?  Is  it  reproached  by  its  tradi- 
tions ?  Is  it  mocked  by  its  ideals  ?  Is  it  moving  forward  to  illustrate 
the  awful  truth  that  we  sometimes  sing, 

"  Ah,  Lord !  with  trembling  I  confess 
A  gracious  soul  may  fall  from  grace, 
The  salt  may  lose  its  seasoning  power, 
And  never,  never,  find  it  more "  ? 

As  in  the  case  of  the  individual,  so  in  the  case  of  a  Church,  spiritual 
declension  may  be  so  gradual  as  for  a  time  to  be  almogt  imperceptible. 
There  need  be  no  startling  relapse  into  heresy,  no  flagrant  outbreak  of 
moral  laxity,  to  announce  to  the  world  that  the  Church  has  lost  touch 
with  the  Spirit  of  the  Living  God.  It  may  be  evidenced  by  a  gradual 
lowering  of  spiritual  tone  ;  the  fine  gold  slowly  becoming  dim  ;  spiritual 
testimony  losing  the  keenness  of  its  edge  ;  a  subtle  stealing  in  of  the 
spirit  of  compromise  and  expediency  which  robs  the  heart-beat  of  the 
vigour  with  which  aforetime  it  shook  the  nations.  Methodism  ia 
sound  in   doctrine,    is   fearless   in   upholding  the  lofty    standard  of 


ESSAY    OF    REV.    W.    J.    WILLIAMS.  355 

Cliristian  ethics.     Is  it  strong  in  the  quality  of  spiritual  life?     Does  it 
hold  its  own  in  this  respect  with  tiial  which  fduud  expression  in  the 
glorious  triumjihs  of  ])ygone  years?     1  attirni   that,   in  luy  judgment, 
not  only  docs  Methodism  hold  its  own,  but  that  in  all  the  elements 
and  proofs  of  spiritual  vitality  it  is  richer  and  stronger  to-day  than  in 
any  previous   period  of  its  history.     There  are   those  who  will  clsiil- 
lenge  the  soundness  of  such  an  afhrmation,  and  who  will  contend  that 
Methodism  to-day,  so  far  as  spiritual  life  is  concerned,  stands  for  the 
pale  shadow  of  departed  greatness.     Such  a  position,  I  submit,  argues 
nothing  so  much  as  the  cultivation  of  short  views,  and  the  ajiplication 
of  defective  tests.     That  there  are  weak  places  in  Methodism  may  be 
admitted  as  something  that  need  not  surprise  anybody.     Dean  Ram- 
say tells  the  story  of  a  corpulent  Scotchwoman  who,  panting  imder  the 
heavy  burden  of  the  flesh,  was  one  day  asked  concerning  the  state  of 
her  health.     Her  reply  was,  "  Ah,  ye  ken,  there's  ower  muckle  o'  me  to 
be  all  well  at  one  time."    Methodism  to-day  is  so  big,  it  spreads  itself 
out  in  such  vast  dimensions,  it  touches  so  many  interests,  it  embraces 
so  many  nationalities,  it  is  represented  by  so  many  individuals  of  such 
varying  gifts  and  temperaments,  that  it  should  be  indeed  a  thing  most 
marvellous,  if  through  every  nerve  and  tissue  of  the  body  ecclesiastic 
there  were  felt  in  uniform  measure  the  throb  and  thrill  of  an  intense 
spiritual  life. 

Was   there    ever    a    period   when   it    could  be  truthfully    said  of 
Methodism  that  it  was  all  well  at  one  time  ?     Is  there  not  a  tendency 
in  some  quarters  to  idealise  the  past  in  order  to  depreciate  the  pre- 
sent?    If  such  a  thing  were  possible,  must  not  the  ears  of  our  fathers, 
of  whom  we  hear  so  much,  burn  and  tingle  with  wonder  at  some  of  the 
eulogies   lavished   upon   them   and  upon    their  work?     We   ought   to 
speak  respectfully  of  the  fathers,   if  for  no   other  reason  because  we 
ourselves  may  one  day  be  classed  among  the  fathers.     When  we  shall 
have  receded  from  the  stage  of  action,   and  a  kindly  haze  shall  fall 
upon  our  memory,  blotting  out  our  defects  and  magnifying  our  virtues, 
there  may  be  those  of  a  later  day  who  will  stand  haranguing  the 
laggards  rotmd  about  them,  and  pointing  at  us,    in  the  shades,  will 
cry,  "  Look  at  your  fathers !     There  were  giants  in  those  days.     Look 
at  them   and   be    ashamed  of  your  own   contemptible   dwarfishness." 
Our  fathers  were  really  such  good,  grand  men,  and  the  work  they  did 
was  so  excellent  that  to  exaggerate  their  claims  to  admiration,    and 
indulge  in  extravagant  eulogy  is  the  very  superfluity  of  naughtiness. 
But  the  picture  of  early  Methodism,  which  some  would  hold  up  before 
us  to  shame   us,   in  which  every  Methodist  leader  is   a  distinguished 
hero,  and  every  Methodist  preacher  is  a  flaming  revivalist,  and  every 
Methodist  member  went  to  class  once  a  week,  with  his  penny  a  week 
and  a  shilling  a  qtiarter,  walking  strictly  according  to  every  rule  laid 
down  by  John  Wesley,  is  a  work  of  art  that  owes  its  brightest  touches 
to  the  exercise  of  a  lively  imagination. 

It  will  not  be  difficult  for  anyone  inclined  to  do  so  to  collect  signs  of 
weakness  from  the  wide  field  of  Methodism  which,  put  together,  would 
represent   an  unflattering  picture    of    its   present  spiritual  condition. 


35^  THE    SPIRITUAL    VITALITY   OF   METHODISM. 

He  could  point  to  cliurches  that  were  once  fillod  now  abnost  deserted  ; 
to  a  falling-ofE  in  many  places  in  attendance  at  the  class-meeting  ;  to 
the  neglect  of  prayer-meetings  and  the  abandonment  of  family 
worship  ;  to  the  indulgence  by  Methodists  in  certain  forms  of  amuse- 
ment that  cannot  by  any  means  be  squared  with  the  requirements 
of  Methodist  discipline.  But  take  Methodism  as  a  whole,  judge  of  it 
in  its  bearing  ajid  influence  on  the  wide  world  round,  and  will  anyone 
venture  to  affirm  that  the  signs  of  decay  and  weakness  are  at  all  to  be 
reckoned  in  comparison  with  the  signs  of  vigour  and  strength? 
For  one  church  that  may  be  deserted  there  are  thousands  that  are 
being  opened  and  filled.  While  the  class-meeting  is  neglected  by 
some,  there  are  multitudes  of  others  flocking  to  it  for  the  nourishment 
of  their  spiritual  life.  If  in  some  places  the  prayer-meeting  is  prac- 
tically unknown,  there  is,  on  the  whole,  a  daily  widening  circle  of 
those  who  join  in  fervent  intercession  at  the  Throne  of  Grace.  While 
there  are,  unhappily,  instances  of  spiritual  declension,  as  evidenced 
by  conformity  to  the  world,  day  by  day  there  is  a  multiplication  of 
those  who  are  adorning  in  all  things  the  doctrine  of  God  their  Saviour. 

The  statistics  of  universal  Methodism  laid  before  this  Conference 
afford  the  best  answer  to  those  who  allege  that  Methodism  stands  for 
a  declining  spiritual  force.  It  is  not  simply  that  in  the  course  of  the 
years  so  many  thousands  more  have  been  added  to  those  that  bear 
the  Methodist  name.  The  swelling  of  numbers  is  not  always  an  in- 
fallible sign  of  spiritual  success.  But  the  conditions  of  aggressive 
Methodism  are  such  as  to  afford  good  ground  for  the  beUef  that,  apart 
from  spiritual  methods  and  spiritual  aims,  the  success  reported  would 
be  impossible  of  attainment.  It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  long  as  is 
the  line  which  to-day  marks  the  extension  of  Methodism,  there  has  been 
nowhere  a  surrender  of  the  spiritual  ideal.  The  test  of  admission,  into 
the  Methodist  ministry  is  still  the  most  searching  and  severe  of  any 
Church  in  Christendom.  It  is  a  gateway  guarded  by  the  angel  with 
the  flaming  sword,  and  no  man  dare  pass  through  who  does  not 
solemnly  avow  that  that  sword — the  Sword  of  the  Spirit — has  pierced 
him  to  the  depths  of  his  being,  and  that  his  iniquity  has  been  purged 
by  the  touch  of  the  fire  of  God.  The  test  of  admission  into  the 
Church  is  still  one  in  which  the  spiritual  motive  takes  the  foremost 
place.  The  Methodist  Church  is  the  last  Church  in  the  world  that 
people  would  ever  think  of  joining,  or  of  staying  in,  who  are  not 
prompted  by  a  desire  for  spiritual  good.  So  we  may  be  permitted 
humbly  and  gratefully  to  think  of  the  extending  influence  of  Methodism 
as  the  onward  sweep  of  a  mighty  wave  that  is  everywhere  crested  with 
fire.  It  is  the  conquering  advance  of  a  great  host  whose  spear-point3 
are  tipped  with  flame.  The  baptism  of  fire  that  fell  upon  our 
Methodist  fathers  has  not  spent  its  force.  It  burns  in  the  heart,  and 
inflames  the  tongue  of  their  descendants  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  with 
the  result  that  the  prospects  of  Methodism  were  never  so  bright  as 
they  are  to-day. 

The  reality  of  spiritual  vitality  in  our  Church  is  not  to  be  ques- 
tioned, because  it  is  not  manifested  always  in  the  same  forms  as  in  th« 


ESSAY    OF   REV.    W.   J.    WILLIAMS.  357 

dajs  of  our  fathers.  We  face  the  conditions  of  a  new  age,  and  we  are 
adapting  our  methods  to  meet  these  changed  conditions.  The  more 
deeply  charged  we  are  with  spiritual  life  the  more  ardently  shall  we 
press  into  every  opening  which  the  age  presents  for  the  enforcement 
of  the  claims  of  Clirist  as  the  world's  Saviour  and  King.  The  missions 
of  Methodism  to  almost  every  class  in  the  home  lands,  and  to  almost 
every  tribe  and  nation  in  the  foreign  field,  afford  gratifying  proof  of  its 
sustained  and  extending  vitality  in  the  face  of  present-day  needs.  It 
is  a  sign  of  the  rising  tide  of  spiritual  life  in  Methodism  that  it  is  in 
the  van  of  all  the  Churches  in  the  assault  on  the  traffic  in  strong  drink. 
That  traffic  stands  for  the  grip  of  hell  upon  millions  of  men  and  women 
for  whom  Christ  died.  In  order  to  reach  them  with  the  saving  truths 
of  the  Gospel,  this  snare  of  the  devil  must  be  broken.  With  deepen- 
ing emphasis,  like  gathering  thunder,  the  cry  comes  ringing  along  the 
ranks  of  Methodism,  "  The  liquor  traffic  must  go  !  God's  right  in  these 
redeemed  souls  must  not  be  mocked  and  defied  by  a  trade  that  is  in- 
spired by  the  lust  of  unholy  gain ! "  There  is  no  more  contemptible 
cant  than  that  which,  in  the  name  of  a  superior  piety,  rebukes  the 
effort  to  rid  the  world  of  the  greatest  hindrance  to  the  spread  of  Christ's 
Kingdom.  As  if,  forsooth,  it  were  not  a  spiritual  thing,  a  Christlike 
thing,  to  "  undo  the  heavy  burdens  arid  to  let  the  oppressed  go  free." 

As  I  view  Methodism  in  relation  to  spiritual  vitality,  as  compared 
with  any  past  age,  we  have  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of,  but  everything 
to  inspire  us  with  gratitude  and  hope.  I  see  it  in  the  coming  together 
of  representatives  of  all  parts  of  Methodism  in  this  (Ecumenical  Con- 
ference. The  old,  dark,  bitter  days  of  division  and  strife  are  over  ;  we 
are  in  the  brightening  day  of  brotherly  sympathy,  fraternal  counsel, 
deepening  unity,  and  consolidated  effort.  I  see  it  in  the  prominence 
given  to  the  spread  through  all  classes  of  Christian  education  ;  in  the 
growing  care  of  Methodism  for  neglected  children,  and  for  the  poor  and 
the  outcast  in  all  great  centres  of  population  ;  in  the  splendid  en- 
thusiasm that  marks  the  effort  to  train  the  young  life  of  Methodism  for 
the  activities  of  Christian  service.  I  see  it  in  the  widely  extended  use 
that  is  being  made  of  the  gifts  of  consecra/ted  womanhood.  I  see  it  in 
the  growing  generosity  of  the  people  in  supporting  Church  enterprises  ; 
in  the  deepening  passion  that  is  manifested  to  carry  the  Gospel  message 
to  the  utmost  bounds  of  the  habitable  globe.  Wh.en  God  first  raised 
up  Methodism  it  was  as  a  light  shining  in  a  dark  place.  To-day, 
thanks  in  large  measure  to  its  own  influence,  the  world  has  become 
more  fully  illuminated,  so  that  the  brilliance  of  its  testimony  is  not  so 
conspicuous  in  the  eyes  of  men  as  in  those  earlier  years.  But  let  no 
one  so  far  project  the  shadow  of  his  own  unworthy  doubt  or  fear  upon 
the  scene  as  to  compel  the  complaint  that  Methodism  mourns  a 
vanished  glory.  That  complaint  is  a  libel.  We  stand  under  a  brighten- 
ing sky.  We  are  borne  forward  by  the  tide  of  a  deepening  spiritual 
life.  We  shall  rise  upward  to  greet  our  fathers  with  the  grateful 
testimony  that  the  living  lips  of  Methodism  repeat  the  dying  boast  of 
Wesley, 

"The  beat  of  all  is,  God  is  with  us." 


358  THE    SPIRITUAL   VITALITY   OF   METHODISM. 

The  Rev.  Charles  Bayard  Mitchell,  Ph.D.,  D.D.  (Methodist 
Episcopal  Church)  gave  the  first  appointed  address  on  the  topic. 
He  said : 

Methodism,  from  its  beginning,  has  been  but  anothei  name  for 
spiritual  vitality,  and  the  most  indifferent  observer  has  discovered  that 
to  be  its  distinguishing  quality.  Since  the  days  of  John  "Wesley,  if  a 
minister  of  any  Denomination  preached  a  sermon  characterised  by  a 
fervour  and  uncticn  which  captivated  the  heart,  men  have  complimented 
the  sermon  by  calling  it  Methodistic.  If  any  Christian  service  has 
been  ^marked  by  a  strong  religious  spirit  it  has  been  said  to  be  a  regular 
Methodist  meeting.  Even  our  enemies  being  our  judges,  Methodism 
lias  always  stood  for  the  spiritual  life.  In  some  quarters  we  may  be 
considered  disqualified  for  the  performance  of  such  tasks  as  othor 
Churches  have  considered  themselves  especially  fitted  to  accomplish. 
Fifty  years  or  more  ago  Henry  "Ward  Beecher  admonished  our  ministers 
in  Indiana  to  keep  out  of  the  business  of  building  up  a  college,  and 
he  further  urged  them  to  stick  to  the  one  only  work  to  which  they  were 
adapted — namely,  conducting  religious  revivals.  It  is  possible  that 
even  yet  critics  of  Methodism  may  assert  that  our  glory  has  departed 
because  we  are  now  engaged  in  the  training  and  culture  of  the  vast 
multitudes  swept  into  our  fold  through  the  great  revivals  conducted  by 
our  fathers.  If  onlookers  discover  that  much  of  our  time  and  energy 
are  now  employed  in  ways  different  from  those  of  our  fathers,  they 
should  calmly  inquire  the  reason  for  this  marked  change.  If  the 
student  of  Methodism  does  not  clearly  understand  what  spiritual 
vitality  is,  he  may  conclude  that  a  negative  answer  must  be  given  to 
our  inquiry. 

Let  us  pause  here  to  make  sure  of  our  ground.  "What  do  we  mean 
by  "  spiritual  vitality  "  ?  Surely  it  must  mean  a  life  which  emanates 
from  the  Holy  Spirit.  A  Church  or  a  person  baptised  with  the  Holy 
Ghost  will  possess  it.  That  spiritual  vitality  will  manifest  itself  in 
manifold  forms.  All  life  is  eager  to  reveal  Itself.  In  a  thousand  ways 
and  forms  the  forces  of  life  are  shown.  The  spiritual  life  will  not  be 
confined  in  its  manifestation  to  any  one  form.  At  one  time  it  blazes 
in  the  dying  testimony  of  the  martyr.  At  another  it  gives  tender 
grace  in  dealing  with  the  penitent,  and  wise  counsel  in  pointing  him 
to  the  Saviour.  At  one  time  it  enables  the  child  of  God  to  bear  life's 
heavy  burdens,  and  stand  up  like  adamant  before  assailing  temptations. 
At  another  time  it  reveals  itself  in  the  courage  of  a  Paul  to  stand 
before  Felix,  or  of  a  Savonarola  to  stand  up  for  his  cohvictions  before 
the  threats  of  Lorenzo  or  the  curses  of  the  Pope.  At  one  time  it  may 
manifest  itself  as  the  power  that  gave  John  "Wesley  the  courage  to 
preach  the  truth,  although  the  angry  mob  pelted  him  with  stones  and 
spattered  him  with  mud.  At  another  time  it  may  manifest  itself  in 
the  deep  learning  and  critical  skill  of  a  Neander,  enabling  him  to  face 
the  German  infidelity  of  his  day  and  win  a  permanent  triumph  for  the 
truth.  Wlien  our  fathers  in  America  were  engaged  in  those  numerous 
debates,  which  were  absolutely  necessary  in   order  to  maintain   our 


ADDRESS   OF   REV.   C.   B.   MITCHELL.  359 

right  to  live  in  the  new  communities  into  whicli  we  were  then  entering, 
this  spiritual  vitality  gave  power  and  unction  to  their  arguments,  and 
swept  away  the  false  props  of  their  opponents.  No  one  doubts  that 
the  uncounted  revivals  of  religion,  which  have  been  the  strength  and 
glory  of  Methodism  from  the  beginning  until  now,  were  due  to  the 
spirituality  which  characterised  the  preachers  and  the  people.  To  wit- 
ness one  of  these  genuine  revivals  was  to  be  transported  back  to  Pente- 
cost, and  the  sight  and  sound  of  the  new  convert  was  to  strike  every 
cavilling  doubter  dumb. 

This  evangelistic  fervour,  which  all  admit  is  the  sure  evidence  of 
spiritual  power,  is  the  great  common  attribute  which  belongs  alike  to 
all  the  spiritual  children  of  Wesley  ;  and  I  sometimes  believe  that  it 
is  this  great  common  quality  which  has  prevented  schisms  based  on 
differentiating  doctrines.  Our  common  spiritual  vitality  has  held  us 
all  closely  bound  in  the  great  doctrinal  tenets  of  our  common  Metho- 
dism. But  let  us  not  conclude  that,  with  the  changing  times  and  con- 
ditions, it  is  not  possible  for  our  spiritual  life  to  manifest  itself  in  ways 
far  different  from  those  we  have  experienced  in  the  past.  When  we 
see  how  Methodism  is  pouring  out  her  wealth  for  the  erection  of  colleges 
and  universities  for  the  Christian  education  of  her  sons  and  daughters, 
when  we  behold  what  sacrifices  are  often  made  in  order  that  our  youth 
may  be  kept  from  ungodly  influences  during  their  formative  period,  we 
must  conclude  that  no  ordinary  motive  lies  at  the  back  of  such  sacri- 
fice. Nothing  less  than  the  spiritual  power  which  has  always  domi- 
nated the  outgoing  energies  of  the  Church  can  account  for  all  this 
magnificent  showing. 

We  have  entered  a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the  Methodist  move- 
ment. We  hear  the  voice  of  God  calling  us  to  a  wider  ministry  to 
our  fellow-men  than  that  in  which  we  have  been  formerly  engaged. 
Having  rescued  the  fallen  and  won  him  for  Christ,  we  are  now  led  to 
sea  that  our  enlarged  equipment  enables  us  to  do  more  for  him  than  we 
formerly  could.  We  can  heal  his  body  if  he  be  sick.  We  can  instruct 
his  mind  if  it  be  darkened.  We  can  clothe  him  if  he  be  naked.  Our 
enlarged  capabilities  bring  with  them  enlarged  responsibilities,  and 
God's  voice  is  no  less  clearly  heard,  commanding  us  to  use  our  powers 
for  all  that  aids  and  uplifts  our  fellow-men.  We  are  now  building  col- 
leges and  instructing  youth.  We  are  publishing  newspapers  and  books 
to  enlighten  the  ignorant.  We  are  raising  hospitals  and  training 
deaconesses,  so  that  we  are  becoming  the  almoners  of  the  Divine 
bounty  and  blessing  to  the  sick  and  needy.  Who  is  so  bold  as  to  say 
that  all  such  Christ-^ike  work  can  be  carried  on  without  that  same 
vitalising  spirituality  which  has  always  characterised  our  Methodism? 

If  we  look  only  to  the  old  form  in  which  Methodism  revealed  her 
spirituality — namely,  the  expression  of  joyous  personal  experience  in 
the  class-meeting,  and  the  shout  of  the  redeemed  in  the  revival,  it  may 
be  concluded  that  Methodism  is  not  retaining  its  spiritual  vitality. 
But  if  we  take  a  loftier  view-point,  and  get  the  broader  outlook  on  all 
the  vast  agencies  it  is  now  employing  ;  when  we  see  its  mission 
stations  dottinu  the  earth  in  all  islands  and  on  all  continents;  when 


3^0  THE    SPIRITUAL   VITALITY   OF   METHODISM. 

WO  see  it  belting  the  globe  with  its  churches  and  Sunday  Schools,  in 
wjiich  the  songs  of  the  redeemed  are  for  ever  rising  to  God ;  when  we 
ise  its  millions  of  young  people  inspiring  all  the  services  of  the  sanc- 
tuary with  their  glad  presence  and  youthful  fervour ;  when  we  witness 
its  hundreds  of  colleges  and  seminaries,  in  which  the  vast  majority  of 
tho  students  are  consecrated  Christians  fitting  themselves  for  holy  ser- 
vice ;  when  we  behold  its  numerous  hospitals,  in  the  rooms  and  wards 
(if  which  move  our  sweet-faced  sisterhood,  ministering  to  the  sick  and 
(lying,  soothing  their  aching  heads,  while  they  point  them  to  Him  who 
is  mighty  to  save  ;  when  we  move  among  its  altars, where  yet  the  holy 
fire  burns,  and  new-bom  souls  join  in  the  glad  hosannas — 1  make 
bold  to  declare,  when  I  view  our  Zion  from  this  loftier  vantage  ground, 
that  never  since  Charles  Wesley  joined  the  choir  in  heaven,  John 
Wesley  gained  his  crown,  and  Susannah  Wesley  sat  down  near  the 
throne,  has  Methodism  manifested  so  much  spiritual  vitality. 

Bishop  John  C.  Granbbry,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South),  gave  the  second  appointed  address  on  the  topic,  as  follows  : 

I  would  make  some  concessions  in  favour  of  primitive  Methodism, 
and  some  confessions  on  the  part  of  present  Methodism. 

1.  I  concede  that  the  slender  rolls  of  early  Methodism  contained  a 
larger  percentage  of  vital  Christians  than  the  vast  rolls  of  to-day. 
Then  the  name  of  Methodist  brought  reproach,  ridicule,  sociaJ  proscrip- 
tion. Persecution  guards  the  door  of  the  Church  against  unworthy 
applicants,  and  sifts  the  membership  ;  it  winnows  the  wheat,  and  drives 
away  the  chaff.  Now,  Methodism  is  large,  respected,  and  influential. 
The  attraction  of  the  loaves  and  fishes,  of  good  society,  of  gaining 
friends,  position,  and  power  is  often  in  her  favour  rather  than  against 
her.  As  a  result  there  is  among  us  a  large  number — I  do  not  say  of 
hypocrites — but  of  merely  nominal,  or,  at  least,  lukewarm  members. 
It  should  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that  we  might  reduce  our  census 
by  twenty-five  or  even  fifty  per  cent.,  and  yet  retain  a  sum  total  of 
saved  souls,  an  aggregate  power  for  good,  and  a  considerable  proportion 
of  highly  spiritual  men  and  women,  as  the  fruit  of  Methodism,  which 
demands  thanksgiving  to  God,  and  should  greatly  encourage  our  hearts. 

2.  I  concede  more  general  and  fervid  zeal  for  Methodism  in  those 
days  than  now.  Everywhere  the  new  Church  was  spoken  against. 
Churchmen  and  Dissenters,  mobs  and  magistrates,  wits,  philosophers 
and  scholars,  used  their  several  weapons  against  these  fanatics,  this 
wild  fire.  There  were  derision,  scorn,  and  violent  assaults.  With 
what  effect?  Those  men  clung  more  closely  together,  'and  opposition 
made  intenser  their  love  for  Methodism,  notwithstanding  all  her 
peculiarities  of  doctrine,  government,  and  usages.  Stoutly  they  stood 
in  defence,  and  boldly  they  became  aggressive  in  turn.  The  fierceness 
of  that  war  has  ceased.  Peace,  mutual  respect,  confidence,  and  co- 
operation succeeded,  and  still  prevail.  Differences  between  other 
Churches  and  Methodism  are  not  so  great,  and  especially  are  not  so 
much  emphasised,  as  formerly.  I  do  not  contend  that  Methodism  has 
in    no  way    or    degree   been    modified.     But   surely   she   has  largely 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  36 1 

leavened  the  religious  scntimenl  nf  Uie  world,  especially  in  all  Protts- 
tant  Churches  and  lands.  We  are  nearer  together  in  thought,  speech, 
revival  mutliods,  and  general  institutions.  The  heat  of  contest  has 
cooled.  Beflect,  however,  that  zeal  for  Methodism  ia  not  necessarily 
always  and  simply  zeal  for  the  Kingdom  of  God.  It  may  be  that  there 
burns  to-day  in  the  hearts  of  Methodists  as  pure  and  strong  a  zeal  for 
the  triumphs  of  the  glorious  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God,  for  the  reign  of 
truth,  righteousness  and  love  throughout  the  world,  as  existed  in  those 
earlier  times.  I  do  not  question  that  Methodists  still  cherish  a  deep, 
rational,  and  hearty  approval  of  our  theology  and  economy.  But  it  is 
less  partisan.  There  mingles  with  it  a  fuller  appreciation  of  the  excel- 
lent traits  and  work  of  sister  Cliturches.  They  give  us  unstinted  praise, 
and  we  are  not  behind  in  acknowledging  their  worth.  There  is  less 
of  bigotry  and  narrowness.  We  have  not  gone  beyond  the  catholic 
spirit  and  teaching  of  John  Wesley,  but  we  have  gone  beyond  many  of 
his  early  followers. 

3.  I  concede  that  the  early  Methodists  were  far  freer  than  we  from 
what  is  usually  meant  by  worldliness  ;  from  pride  of  wealth,  luxurious 
living,  love  of  the  vain  pomp  and  glory  of  this  world  ;  from  attendance 
at  the  theatre,  ball-room,  and  race-course,  and  from  some  forms  of 
gambling.  Methodists  were,  as  a  rule,  poor,  uneducated,  obscure.  If 
Methodism  found  them  poor,  ignorant,  and  rude,  she  did  not  let  them 
stay  so.  She  taught  them  habits  of  industry,  economy,  and  temperance 
which  were  bound  to  make  them  rich.  Intellect  was  stimulated,  know- 
ledge was  increased,  and  the  desire  for  culture  was  kindled.  They  were 
stirred  to  employ  all  their  faculties  that  they  might  understand  the 
mind  and  will  of  God  in  His  works  and  in  His  Word,  and  minister  to 
their  fellow-men.  edifying  one  another,  training  the  childhood,  and 
rescuing  the  lost.  As  they  waxed  in  numbers,  riches,  and  education, 
they  were  courted  by  the  world.  The  sun  of  prosperity  quickened  the 
seeds  and  fostered  the  growth  of  sensual  and  worldly  lusts.  The  love 
of  the  world  strangles  spiritual  life. 

There  is,  however,  another  side  to  the  question  of  the  comparative 
spiritual  vitality  of  primitive  Methodism  and  Methodism  in  our  day. 
Love  of  money  was  not  lacking  in  the  early  days  ;  and  close-fisted, 
stingy  avarice  is  not  less  worldly  and  unspiritual  than  eager  greed  and 
wasteful  extravagance.  Not  only  so  ;  there  were  not  wanting  in  those 
days  self-will,  struggle  after  prominence  and  power,  a  factious  spirit, 
arbitrary  conduct  of  men  in  authority,  bitter  thoughts,  words,  and 
tempers.  To-day  there  is  more  of  a  conciliatory  spirit,  of  gentleness, 
of  liberality,  of  service  which  aska  no  reward  of  praise  or  place,  and 
relatively  to  the  number  of  members  there  are  fewer  lapses  into  gross 
vice  and  crime. 

The    Rev.  W.  T.  Davison,    M.A.,  D.D.    (Wesleyan    Methodist 
Church),  commenced  tbe  general  discussion  as  follows: 

I  am  sure  we  all  agree  with  the  first  speaker  this  morning,  the  reader 
of  that  admirable  paper,  that  in  the  subject  now  before  us  we  are  ati 


362  THE   SPIRITUAL  VITALITY   OF  METHODISM. 

the  very  heart  of  things.  Wordsworth,  in  one  of  his  poems,  uses 
the  phrase,  by  a  pardonable  mixture  of  metajihors — "The  very  pulse 
of  the  machine."  Some  machinery  has  a  pulse.  We  have  a  greab 
deal  of  machinery  ;  and  here  is  the  very  pulse  of  the  whole.  This  is 
the  subject  which  of  all  others  stirs  me  to  the  very  heart.  It  is  the 
subject  I  care  more  about  than  all  the  rest  put  together.  I  care  about 
Biblical  criticism,  literature,  evangelisation,  and  a  thousand  things, 
and  I  hope  I  care  for  them  all  sufficiently  and  in  due  proportions,  but 
to  my  mind  this  is  the  subject  of  all  others.  When  the  question  that 
comes  before  us  this  morning  is  put  to  a  dozen  members  in  this  Con- 
ference we  may  easily  get  a  dozen  different  answers,  and  they  may 
all  be  right,  different  though  they  are,  and  they  may  all  be  wrong. 
The  reason  why  it  is  so  difficult  to  get  a  complete  answer  is  because  the 
subject  is  so  deep,  and  lies  so  very  close  to  the  fountain  of  life.  Very 
few  persons  have  experience,  knowledge,  and  insight  enough  to  under- 
take to  answer  the  question  at  all  broadly  or  thoroughly.  The  answer 
will  be  determined  partly  by  experience,  partly  by  locality,  partly 
by  personal  temperament,  and  I  hope  we  shall  patiently  hear  what  a 
great  many  different  persons  have  to  say  this  morning  before  we 
make    up    our   minds. 

At  the  same  time  I  am  glad  to  be  thoroughly  in  accord  with  the  three 
speakers  who  have,  thus  far  addressed  us,  as  regards  the  general 
answer  to  be  given  to  this  question.  I  have  no  right  to  speak 
on  behalf  of  British  Wesleyan  Methodism.  Although  I  happen  to 
occupy  the  office  of  President  I  am  not  speaking  this  morning  because 
of  that  fact.  Speaking  simply  as  a  minister,  I  wish  to  say  with 
all  my  heart  I  believe  we  are  as  sound  and  as  full  of  earnest,  vigorous, 
spiritual  life  as  in  any  period  in  the  history  of  Methodism.  As  we 
have  been  reminded,  it  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  amount  of  spiritual 
force  at  work,  because  of  the  vastly  increased  work  that  we  are 
doing  ;  or,  if  I  may  change  the  figure,  there  is  so  much  meal  to  leaven 
that  it  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  leavening  power  that  exists.  We  have 
to  take  a  great  many  different  things  into  account  before  we  can 
say  that  the  leavening  power  is  increasing  or  decreasing,  or  estimate 
the  rate  of  its  growth. 

As  to  the  dangers  which  threaten  us,  something  has  been  said 
of  that  world  outside  us,  the  influences  of  which  we  are  constantly 
feeling.  Something  has  been  said  also  of  that  world  within  the 
Church  which  we  must  reckon  with,  which  our  fathers  had  not  to 
deal  with  for  reasons  that  are  obvious  to  us  all.  We  must  expect, 
in  proportion  as  our  influence  spreads  and  we  leaven  others,  to 
have  a  measure  of  worldliness  within  the  Church.  We  have  to  be 
upon  our  guard  against  that. 

It  would  be  easy  to  enlarge  upon  either  of  those  two  dangers,  but 
I  prefer  to  speak  of  one  or  two  other  dangers  that  lie  -a  little  nearer 
to  us,  and  that  perhaps  may  not  be  commented  upon  by  others. 
Our  own  organisation  is  a  danger  to  us  as  regards  our  spiritual  vitality. 
It  is  very  great ;  it  is  vast ;  it  is  complicated,  and  it  is  becoming  more 
complicated  every  day.  I  put  it  with  all  earnestness  to  those  who  are 
the  leaders  of  vast  communities — ministers  who  have  large  responsi- 
bilities upon  their  hands,  the  direction  of  funds  and  the  like,  leading 
laymen  with  wealth  and  an  important  position  to  occupy  in  the 
world  as  well  as  in  the  Church,  the  leaders  of  all  kinds  who  are  en- 
gaged in  various  sorts  of  organisations — do  let  us  see  to  it  that  all 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  363 

this    multiplied    organisation    does    not   interfere    with    our    spiritual 
vitality. 

I  may  also  say,  even  at  the  risk  of  being  iiiisimderstood,  that  the 
manifold  forms  of  our  activities  have  to  be  guarded  against.  I  do 
not  mean  that  we  are  to  relax  activity,  whether  it  be  in  philantliropic 
movements  or  almsgiving  or  temperance  work,  or  crusades  of  any 
kind.  I  only  say  this  :  the  more  of  that  work  we  have  to  do  the 
more  careful  we  must  be  about  the  inner  core  of  our  spirituality,  and 
we  must  take  care  not  to  identify  religion  Avith  any  of  these  forms  of 
activity.  Tlie  real  force,  the  pulse,  as  I  have  said,  of  the  whole,  lies 
further  in,  deeper  down,  and  it  is  with  that  we  are  concerned  at  this 
moment. 

In  order  to  take  care  of  that  spiritual  vitality  we  know  prayer  and 
meditation  come  first.  I  put  meditation  with  prayer.  I  wonder  if 
wa  meilitate  much.  If  all  this  mighty  mass  that  is  outside  us  is  to  be 
leavened,  if  we  are  to  take  up  all  its  forms  of  activity  and  infuse  into 
them  the  kind  of  spiritual  life  that  is  necessary,  we  must  have  the 
insight  that  comes  from  meditation.  This  does  not  necessarily  mean 
that  a  long  time  should  be  so  occupied,  but  the  whole  of  our  life 
should  be  taken  up  into  the  life  of  God  and  into  the  atmosphere  of 
prayer. 

I  emphasise  again  fellowship.  I  do  not  know  how  it  is  with  the 
great  Churches  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  whether  real,  living 
spiritual  fellowship  obtains  among  them,  as  it  did  in  former  days. 
I  am  not  insisting  simply  upon  the  class  meeting  ;  but  in  some  form  or 
other  we  who  are  engaged  in  this  ecclesiastical  work  should  see  to  it 
that  we  hold  one  another  in  the  Divine  life.  I  think  that  many 
times  we  meet  together  and  do  not  help  one  another  with  regard 
to  these  deepest  matters.  Too  often  we  are  engaged  on  the  fringe,  on 
the  outside,  of  the  various  forms  of  activity  rather  than  with  the 
central   themes. 

There  are  half  a  dozen  other  things  I  would  like  to  have  said,  but 
let  me  say  one  word— let  us  take  a  hearty,  healthy,  and  cheerful  view 
of  things.  The  biologist  always  tells  us,  and  it  is  to  the  biologist 
that  we  must  look  when  we  talk  about  vitality,  that  the  main  thing 
is  for  us  to  keep  well,  not  to  fasten  our  eyes  and  all  our  attention 
upon  the  germs  of  disease.  These  may  be  visible  here  and  there  ; 
there  may  be  spots  about  which  we  are  very  anxious  ;  but  our 
policy,  I  take  it,  the  highest  policy  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  is 
not  to  fasten  our  attention  upon  these  spots  mainly,  but  to  see  to  li) 
that  the  life  within  us,  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  is  at  its 
highest    and   best. 

The  Rev.  Samuel  M.  Dick,  Ph.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
said : 

The  spiritual  vitality  about  which  we  have  heard  so  encouragingly 
this  morning  has  been  the  differentiating  power  between  Methodism 
and  the  world.  It  was  only  natural  in  the  early  age  of  Methodism 
that  a  high  spiritual  hfe,  differentiating  its  membership  from  that  of 
the  world,  should  bring  ridicule  and  scorn.  There  is  a  difference 
between  the  moral  plane  of  our  Church  life,  if  we  live  up  to  the  spirit 
of  our  Church,  and  the  moral  plane  of  the  world.  The  moral  plane 
of  the  Church  is  vastly  above  that  of  the  world.     There  are  two  ways 


364  THE   SPIRITUAL   VITALITY   OF   METHODISM. 

of  bringing  these  moral  planes  of  living  together,  and  the  more  nearly 
they  come  together  the  less  distinct  is  the  differentiation  of  the 
Church  life  from  that  of  the  world  life.  The  two  ways  to  bring  them 
together  are  to  bring  the  moral  plane  of  the  world  up  to  a  higher 
standard  of  life,  or  to  let  the  moral  plane  of  the  Church  down  to  a 
lower  standard  of  living.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  moral  plane  of  the 
Church  life  has  come  down  a  single  particle.  We  have  diffused  our 
spirit  of  life,  or,  if  you  please,  we  have  infused  the  moral  sentiment 
of  our  Church,  into  the  whole  world  roimd  about  us,  until  the  moral 
plane  of  the  world  has  come  up  nearer  to  the  moral  plane  of  the  Church. 
Therefore  the  contrast  between  the  Christian  man's  spirit  and  the 
worldly  life  is  not  so  great  as  it  was  in  the  early  days.  We  hear  it 
across  the  water  very  frequently  that  the  Church  and  the  world 
are  so  much  alike  that  it  is  hard  to  distinguish  one  from  the  other, 
but  when  we  hear  that,  it  may  be  a  criticism  upon  the  Church  or  it 
may  be  a  compliment  to  the  Church.  If  Protestantism  in  its  broadest 
sense  has  been  able  to  infuse  its  life  into  the  world  until  the  moral 
standing  and  moral  life  of  the  world  have  come  to  be  nearer  the  plane 
of  the  Church,  then  such  a  criticism  as  that  the  world  and  the  Church 
are  alike  is  a  compliment  to  the  Church  of  God,  and  not  a  criticism. 

Let  me  give  an  illustration  of  that.  We  have  heard  about  the  piety 
of  our  fathers.  We  have  heard  about  the  temperance  attitude  of 
Methodism.  It  has  always  been  a  great  Temperance  Society  from 
John  Wesley's  time  until  the  present.  But,  in  1812,  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  in  its  General  Conference  assembled — at  that  time 
there  was  no  division  on  the  other  side  of  the  water,  and  it  repre- 
sented both  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  and  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church — had  a  resolution  oft'ered  by  one  of  the  delegates. 
The  resolution  was  to  prohibit  a  Methodist  preacher  from  selling 
intoxicating  drinks  during  the  week,  and  being  in  good  standing  in 
his  Conference  and  occupying  his  pulpit  on  Sunday.  Five  different 
times  that  resolution  came  before  the  General  Conference.  Four  times 
it  was  tabled,  and  on  the  fifth  it  was  lost.  By  the  action  of  our  General 
Conference,  from  1812  until  1816,  on  Monday  morning  the  Methodist 
preacher  might  don  his  apron  and  deal  out  intoxicating  drinks  over 
the  counter,  and  occupy  his  pulpit  on  Simday  morning  in  good  standing 
in  his  Conference.  In  1816  the  same  delegate  offered  a  resolution 
kindred  to  the  resolution  of  1812  ;  but  before  it  could  be  put  through 
that  Conference  malt  liquors  had  to  be  struck  out  of  the  resolution  ; 
it  then  passed  our  General  Conference.  The  resolution  prohibited  a 
Methodist  preacher  from  selling  intoxicating  drinks  over  the  counter 
during  the  week  and  continuing  in  good  standing  in  his  Conference. 

I  appeal  to  my  brethren,  when  we  have  illustrations  of  that  kind, 
and  compare  them  with  the  attitude  of  the  public  mind  towards  our 
ministry  to-day,  to  say  whether  we  have  not  made  tremendous  progress 
in  our  moral  life,  not  only  in  this  instance,  but  in  a  multitude  of 
kindred  instances.  As  late  as  1850,  in  one  of  our  New  England 
States,  an  old  copper  mine  was  used  as  a  prison.  It  was  without 
sanitary  advantages  ;  it  was  without  partitions  ;  and  criminals  of  all 
classes  were  indiscriminately  thrust  into  this  old  prison  to  await  the 
penalty  of  the  law.  To-day  no  prison  could  exist  in  our  civilised  land 
across  the  sea  in  any  such  condition  as  that,  because  the  moral  attitude 
of  the  Church  has  been  infused  into  the  multitudes  of  people,  until 
the  world  has  a  higher  conception  of  morality,  and  lives  more  nearly  as 
Christ  would  have  it  live  than  it  lived  in  the  days  of  old.    I  suggest 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  365 

these  things  as  practical  examples  of  the  mural  life  of  the  early  days 
of  Methodism,  and  of  the  present  day. 

Mr.  Adam  Adams,  J.P.  (Primitive  Methodist  Church),  was  the 
next  speaker.     He  said: 

I  am  sure  that  we  are  all  anxious  that  the  answer  or  answers  given 
to  the  proposition  before  us  this  morning  should  be  large  and  accurate, 
so  as  to  be  fruitful  of  good  in  the  coming  time.  Methodism  has  its 
perils,  and  I  am  sure  that  we  shall  all  be  prepared  to  face  the  perils 
that  lie  ahead  of  us.  Methodism  has  already,  by  the  President  of  the 
Wesleyan  Conference,  been  spoken  of  as  having  danger  in  its  organisa- 
tion. It  is  a  large  constituency.  We  have  heard  the  boast  again  and 
again  during  the  sittings  of  this  Conference  that  it  is  among  the 
largest  Protestant  powers  of  the  world,  and  our  greatness  may  become 
a  source  of  danger.  It  may  insidiously  weaken  our  zeal,  and  produce 
in  us  a  spirit  of  content.  I  have  been  impressed  while  I  have  been 
here  with  the  repeated  congratulations  over  the  majesty  of  the 
Methodist  community.  I  jodn  in  that ;  I  am  glad  I  belong  to  a  large 
and  a  rich  family ;  but  the  boast,  I  think,  should  be  slightly  moderated. 
While  we  thank  God  for  the  position  we  take,  we  must  still  remember 
tliat  we  are  servants  of  the  Most  High. 

Then  with  regard  to  learnin_g,  our  ministers  are  all  academically 
trained.  There  was  a  time,  when  I  commenced  my  career  as  a  Primi- 
tive Methodist — I  had  my  name  on  the  Plan,  when  I  was  but  a  buy, 
fifty-two  years  ago — when  we  had  preachers  who  could  iieither  read 
nor  write.  To-day  that  is  an  impossibility,  and  the  ministry,  as 
distinctive  from  the  work  of  the  laity,  is  now  marked  with  big  training. 
I  am  glad  of  that,  because  I  remember  a  statement  by  a  philosopher 
that  a  httle  knowledge  is  a  dangerous  thing.  I  do  not  care  how  ad- 
vanced we  grow  in  learning ;  but  our  ministry  must  remain  humble 
in  its  character,  because  of  the  class  that  God  has  raised  us  up  to 
teaoh.  We  are  very  thankful  that  our  members  have  grown  nch  ; 
but  wealth  is  not  always  Christ-like  in  its  distribution.  It  sometimes 
becomes  a  tyranny,  and  very  often  causes  monopolies,  and  we  must 
be  upon  our  guard.  Then  we  are  recognised  to-day  as  we  were  not 
in  the  times  of  the  past.  It  is  only  a  few  days  ago  that  a  big  brewer, 
owning  a  colossal  manufactory,  touched  me  on  the  shoulder,  and  said, 
"Adams,  I  must  congratulate  you.  Your  Church  is  much  more  re- 
spectable than  it  used  to  be."  I  said,  "Is  that  so?"  I  could  not 
but  feel  that  perhaps  it  might  mean  that  in  some  degree  we  had  fallen 
from  grace.  I  know  that  our  eccentricities,  perhaps,  are  not  quite  so 
sharp  and  our  angularities  are  not  so  distinctive  as  they  used  to  be, 
and  so  we  are  tolerated  ;  but  let  us  take  care  that  patronage  does  not 
weaken  our  zeal. 

Although  for  the  moment  I  speak  of  these  perils,  there  is  no  occasion 
for  indulgence  in  pessimism.  God  has  raised  up  Methodism  as  a 
great  force  tending  to  regenerate  the  whole  world.  Let  us,  therefore, 
not  forget  that  the  ministry  of  the  Methodist  preacher  is  a  ministry 
to  the  masses.  The  Master  was  gladly  listened  to  by  the  common 
people,  and  He  reminded  us — and  we  have  had  that  reminder  before  us 
this  morning — ^that  the  poor  we  have  always  with  us.  Let  us  take 
care  to  indulge  less  in  philosophy  and  in  scientific  researches.  Let  us 
have  less  of  that  and  more  of  Gospel  preacliing.  Let  "  Eepent  and 
be  converted  ;  Turn  to  the  Lord  and  seek  salvation  "  be  our  battle-cry. 

While  we  are  warning  the  ungodly,  and  seeking  to  reclaim  the  lost, 


S66  THE   SPIRITUAL   VITALITY  OF   METHODISM. 

we  must,  of  course,  care  for  our  CShurohes,  and  help  to  establish  in 
the  faith  of  the  Gospel  those  who  come  under  the  aegis  of  our  teaching. 
We  want  courage.  We  have  been  distinguished  for  our  courage  ;  but 
tliere  is  a  tendency  with  our  largeness,  our  wealth,  and  our  learning 
t  J  diminish  somewhat  in  this  quality.  You  remember  what  the  Lord 
said  to  Joshua.  In  the  first  chapter  of  Joshua  it  is  recorded  that 
God  commanded  him  three  times  to  be  courageous  in  undertaking  the 
work  of  his  master,  who  had  gone  into  the  invisible,  and  the  people 
whom  Joshua  met  said,  "  According  as  we  hearkened  unto  Moses  in  all 
things,  so  will  we  hearken  unto  thee  ....  only  be  strong  and 
of  a  good  courage."  Let  us  not  be  lacking  in  courage.  Consecration, 
too,  is  indispensable.  A  consecrated  ministry  is  essential,  not  only 
to  the  health  of  that  ministry,  but  to  the  health  of  the  congregations 
we  are  called  upon  to  teach.  This  must  be  our  first  business,  and 
all  other  things  must  come  afterwards.  We  must  be  consecrated  to 
God  with  singleness  of  purpose,  and  we  must  let  that  spirit  of  consecra- 
tion permeate  the  people  whom  we  teach. 

The  Rev.  D.  K.  Tindall,  Ph.D.,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  made  the  following  remarks : 

I  do  not  believe  that  the  Methodist  Church  has  lost  its  spirituality. 
It  is  no  question  of  how  widely  civilising  tendencies  are  spread,  and 
how  morality  may  abound.  In  my  judgment  conversion  will  ajways 
be  the  test  of  our  spirituality,  and  will  be  the  credential  of  our  authority 
in  this  world.  The  Church  to  which  I  belong,  within  tlTe  last  twelve 
months,  according  to  the  way  I  have  read  the  statistics,  has  led  to 
Christ  three  hundred  and  fifteen  thousand  souls.  That  does  not  look 
as  if  our  Church  has  lost  its  spirituality.  That  does  not  look  as  if 
spirituality  were  a  dead  letter  among  us.  I  believe  that  Methodism 
is  the  most  spiritual  Church  in  the  world.  I  believe,  with  another, 
that  Methodism  is  the  brightest  constellation  in  the  firmament  of  holi- 
ness, that  it  sparkles  the  richest  gem  in  the  diadem  of  Emmanuel  and 
blooms  the  fairest  flower  in  the  garden  of  God. 

But  let  us  not  fail  to  speak  of  some  things  that  Methodism  is  not. 
I  am  aware  of  the  fact  that  it  is  not  quite  so  popular  in  these  days  to 
speak  of  the  defects  of  Methodism  as  it  is  to  speak  of  her  virtues  and 
of  her  merits.  The  truth  is  not  always  popular.  When  Jesus  Christ 
spoke  in  the  withering  manner  that  He  did  to  the  Pharisees  of  their 
hypocrisy  and  loss  of  spiritual  life,  the  truth  was  not  very  popular. 
When  John  the  Baptist  said  to  Herod  that  it  was  wrong  for  him  to 
live  in  adultery  with  his  brother  Philip's  wife,  the  truth  was  not 
very  popular.  There  are  some  large  churches  in  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  that  do  not  have  very  many  revivals.  The  church 
of  one  of  our  leading  members  in  a  city  across  the  Atlantic,  who,  I 
believe,  was  as  spiritual  a  member  as  any  in  that  Church,  was  a  won- 
derful, beautiful,  costly  edifice,  and  had  an  able  pulpit'and  a  cultured 
pew,  but  he  said  to  me  :  "  We  have  everything  in  our  church  except 
religion.  To  my  knowledge  there  has  not  been  a  single  conversion  for 
five  years."  We  do  not  believe  that  there  are  a  large  number  of  such 
churches,  but  there  are  churches  where  they  do  not  have  many  conver- 
sions. Some  large  city  churches,  I  believe,  would  die  because  of  the 
deaths  and  removals  of  the  members,  if  it  were  not  that  they  are  fed 
by  recruits  and  converts  from  the  small  villages  and  the  rural  districts. 

What  we  want  in  Methodism,  above  everything  else,  is  to  see  that 
the  people  are  being  converted  to  God.     Dr.   Goucher,   in  his  able 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  ^67 

paper  touching  the  status  of  Methodism  in  the  Western  Section,  told 
us  tliat  most  of  our  recruits  are  from  the  Sunday  Schools.  All  praise 
to  the  Sunday  School  ;  but  we  want  to  reach  outside  the  Sunday  School, 
and  get  people  converted  from  the  wilds  of  sin  and  from  wickednei^s. 
While  some  phases  of  the  demonstrative  and  of  fervour  are  not  always 
a  genuine  indication  of  spiritual  life,  it  seems  to  me  that  we  are  retro- 
grading on  the  line  of  "Amens."  Where  is  the  "Amen  Corner"  of 
the  Methodist  Church  now?  We  have  it  in  name,  but  it  is  very  weak 
in  practice.  After  Bishop  Galloway  preached  to  us  at  the  opening 
of  this  Conference  that  magnificent  sermon,  which  ought  to  have 
created  an  earthquake  of  feeling  in  every  heart,  a  member  of  this 
Conference,  who  has  spoken  from  this  platform,  said  to  me  :  "I  wanted 
to  say  '  Amen,'  but  I  was  afraid."  I  said  :  "  You  ought  to  have  done  it." 
I  am  glad  that  our  English  brethren  are  not  afraid  to  say  "  Hear,  hear," 
and  that  our  Western  brethren  are  not  afraid  to  say  "  Amen  "  once  in 
a  while — a  few  of  them  at  least,  on  occasions  like  this,  where  everybody 
is  a  Methodist.  But  I  would  like  to  see  it  roll  up  spontaneously  from 
their  "Amen  Corners"  at  home  and  abroad  and  elsewhere.  Not  long 
ago  I  was  in  one  of  our  large  classic  churches — one  of  the  churches  of 
the  white  lilies,  as  you  might  say — and  one  of  our  Bishops  was 
preaching  a  splendid  sermon  and  clinching  a  grand  point.  I  wanted 
to  emphasise  it,  and  said  "Amen,"  when  for  forty  feet  round  about 
me  every  eye  was  turned  on  me  as  if  I  were  a  crank  or  fanatic.  I  said 
to  myself,  "  Hereafter  you  can  say  your  own  '  Amens '  here."  I  ought 
not  to  have  done  that,  but  to  have  said  "  Amen "  again  and  again. 
A  little  girl  was  telling  an  infidel  once  how  Elijah  went  up  to  heaven 
in  a  chariot  of  fire.  The  sceptic  said :  "  My  little  girl,  do  Tiot  you 
know  that  Elijah  would  have  frozen  to  death  away  up  there  in  the 
cold  air?"  The  little  girl  said:  "He  would  just  have  burnt  his  way 
right  through."  That  is  just  what  I  think  we  ought  to  do  with  these 
"Amens." 

In  closing  let  me  say  that  in  the  Christian  Church  about  every  two 
centuries  there  is  a  great  era  created.  In  the  twelfth  century  we  behold 
the  Waldenses  preaching  a  pure  faith  amid  the  corruptions  of  Rome. 
In  the  fourteenth  century  Wickliflfe  comes  forward  with  the  Bible  in 
the  English  language.  In  the  sixteenth  century  Luther  heads  the 
Revival  or  the  Reformation.  In  the  eighteeoith  century  arose 
Methodism,  which  was  the  greatest  Revival  since  Pentecost.  What 
the  twentieth  century  is  to  realise  to  us  God  alone  knows.  I  hope  it 
will  be  the  grandest  Revival  which  has  struck  this  sin-cursed  world. 

Mi*.  T.  Ruddle,  B.A.  (Bible  Christian  Church),  continuing  the 
discussion,  said: 

I  always  think  that  a  good  test  of  organic  life  is"^  its  power  to 
reproduce  itself.  I  believe  all  scientists  say  that  is  the  real  proof  of 
life — whether  life  can  reproduce  itself.  The  highest  form  of  life  that 
a  man  knows  anything  about  is  the  Christian  life,  and  it  seems  to  me 
the  time  is  coming  when  we  shall  have  to  be  tried,  and  all  Christian 
forms  will  have  to  be  tried,  by  their  power  to  produce  Christian  gentle- 
men, and  the  Church  which  cannot  do  that  cannot  live,  or  will  not  live 
permanently. 

The  test  will  have  to  be  brought :  What  Church  or  form  of  Chris- 
tianity can  be  effectual  in  producing  the  true  Christian  gentleman? 
It  seems  to  me  that  the  first  form  and  condition  of  such  a  man  is  ready, 
joyous  loyalty  to  all  holy,  righteous  law,  and,  therefore,  to  all  Divine 


368  THE   SPIRITUAL  VITALITY   OF  METHODISM. 

law  and  to  all  rightly-constituted  human  law.  That  is  the  first  essential 
to  every  Christian  gentleman.  Hence,  no  anarchist  of  any  sort  can  be 
a  gentleman,  much  less  a  Christian  gentleman.  Then  tliere  must  be 
a  large  allowance  of  catholicity.  We  must  be  ready  to  jump  over  the 
boundaries  that  our  own  prejudices,  and  fads,  and  hereditary  feelings 
put  in  the  way.  We  must  be  able  to  recognise  goodness  different 
from  our  own,  different  in  some  matters  from  ourselves.  The  man 
who  cannot  do  that,  I  am  sure,  is  no  Christian,  and  is  no  gentleman. 
We  must  be  able  to  jump  over  the  bounds,  as  John  Wesley  did,  and 
recognise  as  a  Christian  brother  whosoever  loves  Christ,  and  is  deter- 
mined to  try  to  the  best  of  his  ability  to  follow  Him.  Then  we  must 
not  only  have  catholicity,  but  there  must  be  courteousness  and  gentle- 
ness in  small  things.  The  man  who  has  read  the  whole  of  the  books 
of  the  British  Musemn,  if  there  be  such  a  man,  and  who  remembers 
all  he  has  read  ;  the  man  who  can  preach  like  Chalmers  or  Massillon ; 
the  man  who  professes  the  highest  Christianity  and  entire  sanctificar 
tion,  but  who  is  selfish  and  unfeeling  in  small  matters — ^I  doubt  his 
Christianity,  and  I  know  lie  is  no  gentleman. 

We  must  cultivate  the  Spirit  that  was  in  the  Master.  We  profess 
to  be  His  disciples.  We  must  not  only  be  kindly  when  we  meet  with 
suffering,  as  the  Master  was  before  Mary  and  Martha  ;  not  only  before 
the  fallen,  as  the  Master  was  before  the  woman  recorded  in  St.  Luke  ; 
but  we  must  be  kindly  where  it  pinches  most,  when  we  meet  coarse- 
ness and  vulgarity ;  like  the  Master  did  when  He  met  €lie  woman  at 
the  Well  at  Sychar,  who,  after  a  life  of  infamy,  was  asked  by  a  kindly 
Man  wearied  by  the  heat  of  the  day  for  a  drink  of  water,  but  turned 
away  and  said,  How  is  it  that  Thou,  being  a  Jew,  askest  drink  of 
me,  which  am  a  woman  of  Samaria?"  and  the  Master  replied,  "If 
thou  knewest  the  gift  of  God,  and  who  it  is  that  saith  to  thee :  '  Give 
Me  to  drink,'  thou  wouldest  have  asked  of  Him,  and  He  would  have 
given  thee  Living  Water."  We  want  to  produce  men  of  that  type. 
I  believe  Methodism  is  producing  that  kind  of  man  more  than  it  ever 
did ;  and  I  am  sure  if  it  succeeds  in  that,  it  succeeds  in  the 
highest  mission  to  which  Methodism  or  Christianity  itself  can  be  called. 

Mr.  W.  Shepherd  Allen,  M.A.  (Australasian  Methodist  Churoh), 
eaid: 

I  stand  here  this  morning  as  an  old  Wesleyan  Methodist  local 
preacher.  I  have  had  a  long  experience  of  Methodism,  and  I  ask 
myself  this  question :  Is  there  as  much  spiritual  vitality,  as  much  Holy 
Ghost  power  in  the  Methodist  Church  now  as  there  was  many  years 
ago?  To  that  question,  after  much  thought,  I  feel  bound  to  say  I 
believe  there  is.  There  are  certain  practical  questions  which  I  think 
we  may  ask  ourselves.  Are  old  Methodist  doctrines  preached  in  the 
different  Methodist  pulpits  with  the  same  fidelity,  and  the  same  vigour, 
as  they  once  were?  I  believe,  as  a  rule,  they  are.  I  candidly  admit 
that  now  and  then  you  meet  with  a  young  Methodist  preacher  who 
Beems  lost  in  the  fog  of  German  Higher  Criticism,  but  he  is  the  exception 
and  not  the  rule.  Then  again  I  ask  myself :  Is  Methodist  discipline 
as  faithfully  carried  out  as  it  used  to  be  ?  Here,  again,  I  acknowledge 
that  now  and  then  you  see  cases  that  call  for  sorrow  at  heart.  I  will 
not  go  into  particulars,  but  I  may  say  myself,  as  an  old  Methodist, 
that  I  have  no  faith  in  card-playing  and  dancing  ministers  ;  I  liave 
no  faith  in  card-playing  and  dancing  Methodists.  Then,  again,  I  ask 
myself  the  question :  Have  we  men  of  the  same  soul-saving  power  as 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  369 

there  were  in  the  old  days  ?  To  this  question,  again,  I  must  answer 
"Yes."  I  know  a  man  at  the  present  day,  an  unlettered  man,  too, 
but  a  man  who  is  so  full  of  the  Spirit  of  God  that  during  the  last 
twelve  months  he  has  led  more  than  a  thousand  souls  to  Christ. 

Again  I  ask  myself  the  question :  Have  we  men  of  the  same  deep 
piety  and  transcendent  holiness  as  Bramwell  in  England  and  Abbott 
in  the  States  of  America?  I  look  before  me^  and  I  see  sitting  in 
this  Conference  a  man  who  may  be  said  to  walk  with  God  ;  and 
when  I  see  such  men  as  he  is  I  cannot  say  that  the  glory  has  departed. 
Then,  again,  I  may  ask  myself,  Have  we  men  of  the  same  power  in 
prayer?  I  read  the  record  of  the  old  Methodist  worthies,  and  their 
lives  seem  to  be  one  long  story  of  answers  to  prayer.  Have  we  the 
same  thing  now  ?  A  few  months  ago,  far  away  in  the  wilds  of 
Australasia,  a  young  man  came  to  me.  He  said :  "  Sir,  the  other  day 
I  was  driving  some  wild  bullocks,  and  I  could  not  get  them  through 
a  certain  gate.  I  tried  for  a  long,  long  time,  and  they  would  not 
go  through  ;  and  then  I  dismounted  and  knelt  down,  and  prayed  that 
God  would  help  me.  I  mounted  again,  and  they  went  straight  through." 
Yes,  thank  God !  Men  may  smile  at  that,  but  I  believe  in  God,  and 
the  old  answers  to  faithful  prayer.  Here  I  stand  to-day,  an  old  man 
with  the  sun  about  to  set,  but  I  thank  God  that  He  has  spared  me  to 
see  the  present  day,  because  I  believe  that  both  in  England,  and 
Australasia,  and  Canada,  and  in  the  States,  there  is  the  same  if  not 
more  Holy  Ghost  power  in  Methodism  than  there  ever  was. 

Mr.  C.  J.  Youngs  (Primitive  Methodist  Cburoh)  spoke  as  follows : 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  question  before  us  has  to  be  looked  at  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  central  word  of  it.  Is  Methodism  retaininfi 
its  spiritual  power  and  vitality?  That  word  suggests  to  me  that 
Methodism  has  had  power,  and  that  power  has  been  manifested  ;  its 
vitality  has  been  shown  in  many  ways  and  in  divers  forms.  We  are  not 
old  enough  to  remember  the  beginning  of  Methodism,  but  I  have  had 
the  pleasure  and  privilege  of  reading  its  history.  So  far  as  I  can 
gather  from  what  I  have  heard  of  the  experience  of  old  Methodists, 
one  form  of  that  vitality  showed  itself  in  street  preaching  and  outdoor 
effort.  It  showed  itself  in  very  deep  Evangelistic  fervour,  when  every 
man  and  every  member  of  the  Methodist  Church  was  anxious  to  do  his 
best  to  bring  into  the  Church  the  outcast  and  the  fallen.  It  showed 
itself  also — and  thank  God  it  still  shows  itself  in  some  parts  of  the 
world,  and  in  this  country — in  fellowship,  which  Dr.  Davison  spoke 
upon  this  morning.  I  am  afraid  that  we  shall  lose  our  spiritual  vitality 
if  we  get  away  from  the  class  meeting.  I  do  not  say  the  class  meeting 
after  the  old  fashion,  but  from  fellowship,  and  from  the  coming  together 
of  the  saints  of  the  Church  to  strengthen  one  another  and  to  talk  of 
the  things  of  God  and  of  religion  generally.  I  am  afraid  also  that  we 
are  losing  our  spiritual  vitality  in  another  direction,  and  that  is  in 
connection  with  family  worship  and  the  gathering  together  of  the 
people  of  the  household.  In  so  many  places  it  is  entirely  neglected — • 
anything  can  be  discussed  at  the  dinner  table  and  in  the  household 
except  religion  and  the  worship  at  the  church.  I  believe  that  we  shall 
gain  spjritiial  vitality,  and  we  shall  retain  spiritual  vitality,  if  we  go 
in  for  simplicity  of  service,  and  infuse  into  all  our  work  a  large  amount 
of  the  enthusiasm  of  the  type  Avliich  was  displayed  in  the  early  days. 
I  think  that  is  what  we  require. 

There  is,  however,  another  point  I  should  like  to  touch  upon,  and 


37©  THE   SPIRITUAL  VITALITY  OF  METHODISM. 

which  I  think  is  a  very  important  one,  especially  from  a  layman's 
point  of  view.  I  believe  as  laymen  we  are  much  to  blame  for  putting 
too  much  work  upon  our  ministers,  of  a  character  that  we  ourselves 
ought  to  do.  I  do  not  believe  a  minister  is  set  apart  for  begging  funds 
for  a  tea  meeting,  or  for  gathering  together  the  items  necessary  for  the 
formation  of  some  social  gathering.  He  is  set  apart  that  he  may  study, 
that  he  may  prepare,  that  he  may  visit,  that  he  may  work  on  the 
entirely  spiritual  side  of  the  work  which  he  is  set  apart  to  do.  I 
cannot  see  that  a  minister  can  have  the  opportunity,  although  he 
may  have  the  life  and  the  desire,  to  infuse  into  the  members  of  the 
Church  that  amount  of  spiritual  vitality  which  he  could  infuse  if  he 
were  freer  and  had  the  chance  to  do  it. 

I  know  we  have  been  affected  on  this  side  of  the  question  very 
largely  by  the  new  theology,  as  it  is  termed,  or  by  new  phases  of 
thought  that  have  co'me  to  us.  I  do  not  fear  any  of  them,  but  I  am 
sorry  to  think,  and  sorry  to  find  in  my  experience,  that  very  many 
of  the  yoimg  people  of  the  Church  seem  to  get  hold  of  a  distorted  idea, 
and  to  have  a  very  dim  vision  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  new  ideas  that 
are  brought  to  us,  and  the  new  thoughts  that  are  given  to  us  in'  this 
day.  We  must  ever  remember  that,  so  far  as  our  physical  frame  is 
concerned,  the  only  way  that  we  can  keep  in  health  is  to  have  a  large 
amount  of  what  is  called  physical  vitality.  I  suppose  no  one  can 
understand  it,  no  one  can  explain  it  to  us  exactly,  while  it  is  there, 
the  unseen  and  real  thing  within  us,  which  keeps  us  not  only  alive, 
but  keeps  us  in  good  condition,  and  keeps  us,  as  we  say,  in  health.  It 
is  just  as  possible  that  we  can  have  this  spiritual  vitality  within  us. 
We  cannot  explain  it,  but  we  know  it  is  real  and  exists  within  us. 
Just  as  physical  vitality  to  demonstrate  itself  must  show  itself  in 
various  forms  of  activity,  and  in  all  the  work  that  we  have  to  do,  so 
'it  seems  to  me  that  while  we  cannot  all  be  artists,  or  all  be  scientists, 
we  can  all  come  into  this  line,  and  if  we  come  to  Him  who  has 
promised  to  give  to  us  His  Holy  Spirit,  who  has  promised  to  give  us 
that  power  that  should  enable  us  to  do  as  He  did.  He  will  give  to  us 
all  that  we  require,  and  we  shall  be  able  to  demonstrate  unmistakably 
that  the  spiritual  vitality  of  the  Church  still  exists. 

Bishop  James  C.  Wilmorb,  D.D.  (Union  Amerioaai  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church),  said : 

I  am  pleased  to  stand  up  for  the  first  time  in  this  great  Conference 
as  the  representative  of  one  branch  of  the  great  Methodist  body.  I 
thought,  perhaps,  that  our  body  was  hardly  known  in  this  Conference, 
and,  consequently,  I  wish  to  tell  you  who  we  are  and  what  I  represent. 
I  represent  the  Union  American  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  which 
was  founded  and  properly  organised  by  an  Act  emanating  from  the  au- 
thorities of  the  State  of  Delaware  in  1805,  and  became,  a  body  politic 
by  law  on  the  first  day  of  June,  1813.  Hence  we  do  not  succeed  any 
Denomination  of  the  African  race  in  America.  It  is  true  that  our 
Church  has  not  augmented  her  numbers  like  some  of  her  sister 
Churches,  but  there  are  reasons  why.  We  are  growing  numerically, 
and  that  spiritual  vitality,  which  is  present  in  the  Methodist  body, 
is  retained  in  the  Union  American  Methodist  K])lscopal  Church.  We 
adopted  the  same  articles  of  religion  as  those  of  John  Wesley.  Our 
principles  of  government  are  a  little  different,  but  our  Church  re- 
nounced   such^things   as    drinking   intoxicating    drinks    and    playing 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  37  I 

games  of  amusement  which  are  against  the  principles  of  religion.  We 
also  renounced  the  principle  of  men  divorcing  their  wives.  Our 
Church  does  not  acknowledge  such  principles  as  that.  I  would  say- 
that  oyr  Church  is  retaining  this  spiritual  vitahty,  and  I  trust  that 
the  principles  of  the  Methodist  religion  will  be  carried  out  in  all  our 
different  Churches  of  Methodism.  I  congratulate  the  reader  of  the 
essay,  and  I  hope  that  we  will  all  endeavour  to  inculcate  the  principles 
ho  has  mentioned,  that  when  we  go  to  our  respective  homes  we  can 
rejoice  that  an  article  of  that  kind  was  read  in  our  midst. 

I  would  further  say  that  I  hope  the  Church  I  represent  will  be 
l)laced  in  the  proper  place  on  the  catalogue  of  this  great  (Ecumenical 
Conference.  We  have  now  150  ministers.  50  local  preachers,  and  a 
membership  of  15,500.  We  have  considerable  property  belonging  to 
the  Connexion,  which  is  almost  entirely  out  of  debt,  and  we  have  en- 
gaged to  raise  100,000  dollars  for  the  Twentieth  Century  Thanksgiving 
Offering  for  the  purpose  of  educating  the  ministers,  in  order  that 
they  may  be  more  efficient  to  carry  the  Word  of  God  and  the  message 
of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  sons  of  men,  and  in  order  that  our  Church  may 
bo  extended.  Since  the  great  conflict  in  America,  our  Church  has 
crossed  the  borders  of  the  Mason  and  Dixie  line,  has  gone  into  the 
States  of  Maryland,  Canada,  Yirginia,  Alabama,  Mississippi  and  North 
Carolina.  I  want  you  to  pray  for  our  success.  We  are  one  in  the 
great  sisterhood  of  Methodism.  We  shall  stay  with  you  and  endea- 
vour to  hold  up  the  principles  of  spiritual  vitality,  repentance  from 
sin,  being  born  of  God,  justification  by  faith,  atonement  by  the  blood 
of  Christ,  and  holiness  and  righteousness  among  the  sons  of  men. 
Although  I  am  nearly  4,000  miles  from  home  I  wish  you  to  know 
that  we  are  in  the  sisterhood  of  Methodism,  ' 

Mr.  John  A.  Duncan,  J.P.  (Iriah  Methodist  Church),  spoke  as 
follows : 

I  wish  to  say  a  word  or  two  on  behalf  of  a  class  in  Methodism 
that  I  am  rather  afraid  is  likely  to  be  overlooked,  so  far  as  this  special 
and  all-important  question  of  spirituality  is  concerned — I  speak  on 
behalf  of  the  official  laity  of  our  Churches.  It  is  terribly  possible  that 
sometimes,  while  we  are  busy  about  other  things,  we  lose  the  great 
charge  which  God  has  given  to  every  one  of  us.  It  is  said,  I  believe, 
that  there  aie  none  so  lonely  in  all  the  world  as  the  captains  of  some 
of  our  great  men-of-war  ;  and  it  is  just  possible  that  some  of  us  laymen, 
who  have  been  placed  by  the  Churches  of  Methodism  in  a  position  of 
more  or  less  prominence,  will  be  sometimes  forgotten.  You  are  going 
after  the  waifs  and  strays  of  society,  whereas  sometimes  we  need  your 
help,  the  help  of  the  ministry,  in  a  sense  that  others  do  not.  When 
a  man,  from  accident  or  otherwise,  obtains  a  prominent  position  in 
a  Church,  there  is  a  tendenLy  sometimes  on  the  part  of  others,  especially 
among  the  younger  members  of  the  congregation,  to  feel  that  he  is  a 
little  bit  away  from  them — that  it  would  be  a  presumption  on  their  part 
to  talk  spiritual  things  to  such  an  one.  I  appeal  to  the  ministers  of 
our  Cliurches  that  the  laity  who  are  in  considerable  prominence  may 
be  helped  by  the  ministers,  in  order  that  they  may  not  lose  their 
vitality  and  spirituality. 

There  is  one  other  danger  that  I  want  to  refer  to,  and  I  think  it  is  a 
great  danger,  not  only  to  the  laity,  but  also  to  the  ministry,  namely, 


372  THE    SPIRITUAL   VITALITY    OF   METHODISM. 

the  tendency  nowadays  to  think  that  after  all  the  great  fact  of  the 
world  and  the  creation  is  man.  We  are  so  busy  making  use  of  the  great 
forces  which  God,  through  nature,  has  given  to  us.  Those  forces  came 
in  the  last  century  to  our  fathers,  and  held  their  attention  and  thought, 
and  brought  them  to  think  upon  the  God  who  gave  them  ;  but  in  the 
last  hundred  years  man,  by  his  wonderful  powers  of  thought  and 
ability  to  use  those  things,  has  been  controlling  those  great  forces  of 
nature,  and  there  is  a  subtle  temptation  that  in  the  Church,  too,  we 
may  think  that  somehow  or  other  a  man,  or  men,  are  the  great  facts 
that  we  have  to  deal  with.  We  want  special  missioners,  special  men, 
to  hold  special  services  everywhere.  I  think  we  are  inclined  to  forget 
that  every  minister,  every  local  preacher,  every  office  bearer,  and  every 
member  should  be  a  messenger  of  God,  sent  into  the  world  to  win 
souls  for  Christ. 

The  Rev.  George  Parkin,  M.A.,  B.D.  (Primitive  Methodist 
Church),  said : 

I  have  a  testimony  to  bear  which  I  think  will  be  of  interest  to  the 
members  of  this  Conference.  It  is  my  privilege  and  duty  to  meet 
young  men  every  day,  men  who  will  be  leaders  in  the  Church  to  which 
I  have  the  honour  to  belong,  and  I  notice  that  the  spiritual  life  of 
these  young  men  is  as  active  as  that  of  any  men  whom  I  have  met. 
The  curriculum  that  they  have  to  follow  is  linguistic,  philosophical, 
and  theological.  When  we  were  arranging  for  the  Simultaneous  Mis- 
sion early  in  the  year  a  request  came  that  some  of  these  young  men 
should  conduct  services  in  connection  with  that  mission.  At  first  I 
hesitated  to  let  any  go,  but  at  last,  under  a  better  impulse,  I  decided 
that  some  should  go.  One  went  to  a  place  near  Manchester,  and 
I  have  pleasure  in  saying  that  over  two  hundred  persons  passed 
through  the  enquiry  room.  Three  went  to  another  centre,  and  be- 
tween five  and  six  hundred  persons  passed  through  the  enquiry  room. 

If  conversion  be  a  sign  of  vitality,  I  think  we  may  say  on  behalf  of 
the  rising  ministry  of  our  Church  that  it  is  vital  through  and  through. 
One  reason  why  I  think  our  young  men  are  so  blessed  of  the  Lord  is 
this :  They  take  into  the  pulpit  a  positive  Gospel.  They  bring  before 
tho  people  the  truths  which  distinguished  the  preaching  of  the  founders 
of  Methodism.  We  know  that  the  Spirit,  like  the  wind,  bloweth 
where  He  listeth,  but  He  listeth  to  blow  about  the  cross,  and  when 
our  young  men  take  doctrines  connected  with  the  cross  into  the  pulpit, 
those  are  the  doctrines  that  affect  our  people  for  good.  I  have  plea- 
sure in  bearing  this  testimony  to  the  vitality  of  the  rising  ministrp-. 

The  Rev.  D.  Brook,  M.A.,  D.C.L.  (United  Methodist  Free 
Churches),  said: 

The  question  just  asked  can  only  be  answered  by  trying  to  get  the 
widest  variety  of  experience.  I  am  glad,  as  President  of  one  of  the 
branches  of  Methodism  in  England,  to  be  able  to  add  my  testimony 
to  the  general  testimony  that  has  been  given  this  morning.  The  speech 
of  Mr.  Shepherd  Allen  on  this  question  went  straight  to  my  heart. 
I  have  been  asking  myself  whether,  in  regard  to  the  branches  of  Metho- 
dism I  am  most  acquainted  with,  some  of  the  tests  that  have  been  sug- 
gested may  be  answered  favourably,  and  I  think  they  may,  one  and  all. 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  373 

Mr.  Buddie,  of  tho  Bible  Christian,  Church,  referred,  for  example,  to 
the  production  of  high,  Oliristian,  gentlemanly  character.  I  am  certain 
tliat,  looking  at  the  Churches  which  I  know  best,  the  grace  of  Jesua 
Christ  has  been  manifested  in  the  production  of  this  type  of  character 
in  a  marvellous  degree  in  these  later  years.  You  are  aware  that  some 
of  the  minor  Methodist  bodies  were  born  amid  a  great  deal  of  dissension 
and  contention,  amid  which,  perhaps,  some  of  the  finer,  rarer,  and  more 
beautiful  graces  of  the  Christian  character  did  not  so  easily  flourisli. 
By  the  grace  of  God.  that  is  past,  and  for  all  that  is  involved  in  the 
fine  old  English  gentleman,  I  believe  you  will  find  Christianity  has  pro- 
duced some  magnificent  specimens,  large  numbers  of  them  in  these 
later  days. 

I  think  that  the  success  of  the  Twentieth  Century  Funds  is  a  mani- 
festation of  spiritual  vitality.  The  great  movement  in  connection  with 
these  Funds  has  been  characterised  by  an  amount  of  sacrifice  on  the 
part  of  large  numbers  of  our  people  which  could  only  be  produced  by 
the  life  of  Jesus  Christ,  I  do  not  want  to  make  too  much  of  the  mere 
testimony  of  the  pocket.  I  know  people  can  give  from  various  motives, 
but  there  has  been  a  vast  amount  of  sacrifice  in  connection  with  this 
movement  that  must  be  a  proof  of  spiritual  vitality. 

Then  I  would  like  to  allude  to  what  I  may  call  briefly  the  new  con- 
science in  reference  to  the  masses  of  people  in  our  great  cities.  We 
all  lament  the  absence  of  one  of  the  most  interesting  personalities  in 
modern  Methodism,  the  Rev.  Hugh  Price  Hughes,  from  this  Conference. 
Mr.  Hughes  has  done  a  very  great  deal  which  will  make  his  name 
prominent  in  the  history  of  modern  Methodism,  in  the  history  of 
Christianity,  in  the  history  of  the  English  people  in  these  later  times. 
But,  of  all  his  services,  none  is  greater  than  the  marvellous  way  in 
which  he  has  helped  to  bring  it  home  to  the  conscience,  not  only  of 
Methodism,  but  of  Christendom,  that  we  are  responsible  to  the  extent 
of  our  power  for  the  evangelisation  of  the  masses  in  the  great  cities. 

The  last  test  which  has  been  suggested  is,  after  all,  the  most  im- 
portant, namely,  our  confidence  in  the  reality  and  eflScacy  of  prayer. 
That  means  that  we  are  in  contact  with  the  great  Source  of  power, 
and  we  believe  that.  I  am  confident,  in  regard  to  the  Churches  that 
I  know  best,  that  the  belief  in  and  the  simplicity  and  the  power 
of  prayer  have  never  been  greater  than  they  are  to-day.  We  have 
heard  a  great  deal  about  some  of  these  modern  efforts.  May  I  be  per- 
mitted, as  a  Methodist,  one  word  of  personal  testimony.  I  have  been 
the  Secretary  of  one  of  these  great  Twentieth  Century  Funds.  The 
Fund  of  the  United  Methodist  Free  Churches  would  never  have  suc- 
ceeded, I  am  perfectly  certain,  but  for  daily  prayer  at  the  Throne  of 
Grace.  As  simply  as  the  child  of  whom  we  have  just  heard  our 
prayers  have  been  offered  to  God,  and  day  by  day  the  answer  has 
come.  I  never  believed  in  prayer  so  much  as  I  hare  believed  in  it 
since  this  test.  The  Heavenly  Father  has  answered  the  test  grandly 
and  I  am  glad  of  the  opportunity  of  giving  my  testimony,  ' 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Mitchell  (Primitive  Methodist  Church)  spoke 
as  follows : 

I  think  we  have  reached  the  kernel  of  the  subjects  for  consideration 
at  this  Conference.  I  rejoice  in  the  widening  intelligence  of  Metho- 
dism, both  in  its  ministry  and  membership.  I  am  very  glad  to  know 
that  there  is  an  increasing  intelligence  in  the  ministry.'  Years  ago  it 
seemed  to  be  thought  that  Methodism  was  all  emotion,     Thirty°five 


374  THE    SPIRITUAL   VITALITY   OF   METHODISM. 

years  ago,  when  I  entered  the  ministry,  and  announced  the  fact  to  a 
Congregational  friend  that  I  was  going  for  a  short  training  in  our  Col- 
lege, he  said,  "Oh,  have  yon  Methodists  a  College?  I  thought  you 
talked  as  you  warmetl  "—implying,  I  suppose,  that  we  had  not  much 
intelligence.  I  hope  we  shall  never  cease  to  warm.  Let  us  retain  the 
intense  spiritual  fervour  while  we  have  the  growing  intelligence. 

I  want  to  put  in  one  plea  for  an  increased  spirituality  in  the  ofl&cial 
life  of  Methodism.  I  have  a  liking  for  statistics,  as  you  may  have 
inferred.  I  have  wondered  sometimes  what  proportion  of  the  total 
membership  of  the  Methodist  Churches  is  supplied  by  the  ofiicial  ele- 
ment— by  the  ministers,  local  preachers,  class  leaders,  and  Sunday 
School  teachers  ;  and  I  do  not  think  I  should  be  very  wide  of  the  mark 
if  I  suggested  that  perhaps  one-fifth  or  one-sixth  of  the  total  member- 
ship is  supplied  by  the  ofiicial  class.  I  believe  the  Methodist  people 
will  follow  the  leadership  of  their  leaders  ;  and  I  could  conceive  no 
greater  benediction  to  the  Methodist  Church  than  a  higher  and  intenser 
spirituality  on  the  part  of  its  official  class.  I  am  quite  sure  we  could 
preach  with  greater  power  if  we  had  a  more  intense  spiritual  life.  A 
young  friend  of  mine  once  preached  before  an  old  preacher,  and  his 
criticism  was  this:  "I  think  there  was  a  bit  o'  meat,  my  lad,  but 
thou'dst  do  better  if  thou  hadst  a  drop  of  gravy  with  it."  I  am  quite 
sure  the  congregation  would  approve  that.  We  want  the  intense 
spiritual  fervour  that  marked  our  fathers  to  be  wedded  to  the  wider 
intelligence  of  to-day. 

I  came  forward  mainly,  however,  to  give  an  incident  that  I  heard 
given  by  a  Wesleyan  minister  some  years  ago,  and  which  I  think  is  well 
worth  repeating.  In  the  Wesleyan  Conference  some  time  since  there 
was  a  conversation  on  the  work  of  God,  and  among  the  speakers  was  a 
prominent  layman  who  gave  this  incident.  He  said  :  "  In  our  town 
we  had  a  large  Bible  Class.  We  had  two  teachers,  teaching  on  alternate 
Sundays.  The  one  was  a  man  of  high  intelligence,  who  had  received 
an  academic  training.  He  had  travelled  widely.  He  had  been  in  the 
lands  of  the  East,  and  when  he  taught  a  Bible  lesson  he  could  make  the 
whole  scene  live  before  the  young  men,  so  that  they  were  intensely 
interested  in  it.  They  went  out  each  afternoon  after  hearing  him  with 
this  feeling,  'What  a  clever  fellow  our  teacher  is!  '  The  teacher  on 
the  other  Sunday  was  an  unlettered  man,  but  a  man  of  intense  spiritu- 
ality. He  knew  the  way  to  the  Throne  of  Grace,  and  he  knew  the 
way  to  the  consciences  of  the  young  men  he  taught  Sabbath  by 
Sabbath.  When  they  left  the  class  they  never  said,  "  What  a  clever 
fellow  our  teacher  is!  '  but,  'We  cannot  stand  this  much  longer.  We 
shall  either  have  to  yield  ourselves  to  Christ  under  these  appeals,  or 
we  shall  have  to  leave  the  class  altogether.'  "  I  say,  let  us  have  as  much 
intelligence  as  possible,  but  let  us  retain  the  spirituality  that  has  made 
Methodism  what  it  is,  and  that  can  make  Methodism  mightier  than  it 
has  ever  yet  been. 

I  have  read  somewhere  of  two  old  Methodist  preachers.  One  was  a 
man  of  high  intelligence,  of  great  oratorical  powers,  the  greatest 
preacher,  I  believe,  the  Methodist  Church  has  produced.  The  other 
was  a  man  unlettered,  comparatively,  but  he  knew  how  to  pray,  and 
he  was  singularly  successful  in  winning  men  to  Christ.  His  more 
talented  brother — for  they  were  on  terms  of  great  friendship — said  to 
him,  "John,  how  is  it  that  thou  hast  so  many  seals  to  thy  ministry, 
and  I,  have  not  so  many?"  The  quiet,  devoted  unlettered  preacher 
replied,  "  The  difference  is  here  :  Thou  goest  to  the  tree  of  knowledge 
and  I  go  to  the  Tree  of  Life."     Brethren,  let  us  go  to  both,  and  I 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  375 

believe  we  shall  make  the  Melhodlsin  of  the  future  better   than  the 
Methodism  of  the  past. 

The  Rev.  T.  Allen,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  con- 
cluded the  disoiission.     He  said  : 

I  notice  one  difference  between  America  and  England.  America 
criticises  men  and  praises  institutions.  On  this  side,  we  are  rather 
tender  towards  men,  but  we  are  always  criticising  our  institutions.  I 
am  about  to  say  one  word,  not  of  criticism  so  much  as  report.  The 
growth  of  population,  the  gathering  together  in  great  centres,  has  led 
to  the  development  of  new  forms  of  socialism.  I  do  not  refer  at  all 
to  economic  socialism.  That  is  altogether  beyond  my  scope  this  morn- 
ing. I  refer  to  new  and  enlarged  forms  of  association.  The  social 
gatherings  of  to-day  are  organised  on  an  extended  scale,  and  art  and 
taste  are  used  to  make  them  exceedingly  attractive.  The  worldly 
entertainments  of  the  day  are  magnificent,  and  they  are  attracting 
young  people  by  the  thousand.  The  popular  plaj^  attracts  the  people. 
A  notorious  football  match  will  bring  forty  thousand  young  men  on 
the  field.  People  are  finding  out  to-day,  as  they  never  did  before, 
how  they  can  enjoy  themselves  in  forms  which  are  simply  natural, 
that  and  nothing  else.  A  corresponding  change  has  taken  place  in  the 
Christian  Church.  We  have  to-day  the  concert,  the  reception,  the 
conversazione,  and  these  things  in  some  quarters  are  beginning,  at  any 
rate,  to  compete  rather  severely  with  the  purely  spiritual  ordinances 
of  religion.  I  attended  a  circuit  meeting  not  very  long  ago.  It  was  held 
at  a  farmhouse.  I  said  to  the  farmer,  "How  is  the  circuit  prospering  1 
He  said,  "  Well,  the  finances  are  all  right" — he  was  the  circuit  steward, 
so  it  was  only  natural  that  he  should  begin  there — and  he  continued, 
"  Our  people  are  interested  in  a  way  in  the  work  of  God.  Look  at  this 
wonderful  gathering.  We  can  get  people  together  by  the  thousand  in 
this  form,  but  they  stay  away  from  purely  spiritual  ordinances.  We 
cannot  get  them  to  attend  a  prayer  meeting,  or  to  attend  a  fellowship 
meeting." 

This  new  development  of  the  social  idea,  I  think,  is  a  good  thing. 
It  has  modified  caste.  It  has  introduced  a  great  deal  of  freedom 
and  naturalness  into  our  forms  of  association.  The  great  question  is, 
What  is  its  effect  on  the  spiritual  life  of  the  Church  1  It  is  contribut- 
ing magnificently  to  social  culture,  and  that  is  a  good  thing.  But  is  it 
bringing  us  into  deep  spiritual  fellowship  with  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ? 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  devotional  element  in  many  of  these  popular 
gatherings  has  been  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  refined  people  of, 
shall  I  say,  old-fashioned  piety  express  a  little  concern,  and  say,  "  Will 
these  gatherings  create  spiritual  tastes  and  spiritual  life,  or  will  they 
tend  to  produce  a  taste  for  the  pleasures  and  enjoymentsi  of  the  world  ?  " 
I  heard  the  other  day  of  a  young  man  who  had  just  gone  on  the  stage, 
and  I  was  informed  that  he  had  learnt  to  act  in  the  schoolroom  connected 
with  the  church  to  which  he  belonged.  I  am  neither  Puritanic  nor 
pietistic  myself,  but  I  confess  I  am  beginning  to  feel  that  there  is 
some  danger  in  the  direction  in  which,  I  was  going  to  say,  all  Churches 
are  rushing. 

If  we  advance  on  the  social  side — and  we  should — let  us  see  to  it  that 
we  do  not  decline  on  the  spiritual  side.  If  we  are  to  have  tennis 
clubs  and  cycling  clubs,  and  cricket  clubs,  in  connection  with  our 
churches,  for  young  people — and  I  think  we  may — let  us  see  to  it  that 


376  FAMILY   RELIGION   AND  WORSHIP. 

these  things  do  not  withdraw  the  sympathy  nf  the  young  people  from 
purely  spiritual  ordinances,  by  which  alone  the  devotional  life  of  the 
soul  is  cultivated  and  developed.  Muscular  Christianity  is  a  fine  thing, 
but  Christian  holiness  is  a  'finer  thing.  I  have  been  feeling  for  some 
time  that  there  is  some  danger  lest  Christian  people  in  all  sections 
of  the  Church  should  try  to  live  in  the  spiritual  sense  on  mere  social 
influence,  as  distinct  very  much  from  reading,  from  meditation,  from 
Christian  doctrine,  and  perhaps  I  may  add  from  personal  and  individual 
communion  with  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  I  sympathise 
thoroughly  with  the  remarks  made  by  Mr.  Mitchell.  I  think  that 
perhaps  the  great  need  is  that  the  natural  leaders  of  the  Churches 
Avho  are  in  the  front  line — and  if  they  do  not  move  the  people  behind 
cannot — should  lead  in  the  spiritual  sense.  If  they  will,  depend  upon  it 
that  those  behind  will  follow. 

The  session  was  dosed  with  the  Benediotion  by  the  President. 


SECOND     SESSION. 


TOPIC : 
FAMILY    RELIGION    AND    WORSHIP. 


The  Rev.  Chancelloi-  N.  Burwash,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of 
Canada),  again  presided  at  the  afternoon  session.  Prayer  was 
ofiered  by  the  Rev.  R.  W.  Freeman  (Methodist  Church  oi  Canada). 

The  Rev.  Prof.  W.  I.  Shaw,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Secretary),  read  the 
minutes  of  the  Open  Session  held  in  St.  James's  Hall  on  Wednesday 
evening,  which  were  confirmed.  The  Rev.  J.  Bond  (Secretary) 
read  the  Addresseai  presented  by  sister  Churches,  which  will  be 
found  in  the  report  of  the  Open  Session.  It  was  agreed  that  these 
three  Addresses  should  be  referred  to  the  Business)  Committee  for 
proper  acknowledgment. 

Bishop  G.  W.  Clinton,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal 
Zion  Church),  opened  the  afternoon's  programme  with  an  essay  on 
"  The  Neglect  of  Family  Religion  and  Worsihip."     He  said  : 

In  coming  before  you,  I  am  aware  that  there  is  nothing  more  em- 
barrassing to  a  speaker  than  to  be  impressed  with  the  importance  and 
magnitude  of  his  theme,  and  at  the  same  time  awed  with, a  conscious 
inability  to  measure  up  his  own  idea  of  the  demands  of  the  occasion. 
The  Committee  might  have  made  a  far  better  selection  than  myself 
from  among  the  distinguished,  cultured,  and  experienced  representa- 
tives of  our  great  Methodism  here  assembled.  However,  as  a  loyal 
Methodist,  believing  in  all  the  doctrines  and  tenets  of  her  creed  and 
polity,  I  am  ever  willing  to  contribute  what  I  can  towards  the  promo- 
tion of  her  interests  and  the  dissemination  of  her  principles. 


ESSAY    OF    BISHOP   G.    W.    CLINTON.  377 

Family,  Eeligion,  Worship — significant,  potent,  and  fundamental 
words  are  these.  They  carry  us  back  to  the  infancy  of  the  oldest  insti- 
tution on  earth — the  beginning  of  the  marriage  relation,  the  starting 
of  family  life.  There  comes  before  our  minds  the  home,  where  God 
planted  His  first  Church,  and  which  is  to-day  the  pillar  of  the  Church, 
the  parent  of  good  society,  and  the  corner-stone  of  the  progressive  and 
prosperous  State.  As  the  family  preceded  the  Church  and  State,  it  was 
but  fitting  that  religion  should  be  planted  in  the  family,  and  it  should 
be  expected  that  there  it  would  find  its  warmest  welcome,  its  most 
tender  nourishment.  The  family  was  God's  first  Church  and  School 
for  the  religious  training  of  the  human  race  in  the  knowledge  and 
truths  of  God.  It  was  against  the  family  that  the  enemy  of  God  and 
man  dealt  his  first  and  most  terrible  blow ;  and  his  endeavours  ever 
since  have  been  to  corrupt  and  disorganise  the  family  as  the  surest 
means  of  defeating  the  plans  of  God  and  destroying  human  happiness. 
There  is  no  institution  known  to  man  which  can  fully  take  the  place 
of  the  family  as  a  school  of  wholesome  religious  training  and  Bible 
instruction,  or  as  a  factor  for  the  promotion  of  true  piety  in  the 
home. 

God's  chosen  people  regarded  the  family  as  a  building,  and  if  we  look 
upon  it  in  the  same  practical  light,  we  shall  at  once  recognise  the 
value  of  family  religion  and  worship  as  the  best  means  for  properly 
building  up  the  Christian  home.  All  builders  should  have  a  model  or 
ideal.  The  Christian  family  should  be  built  according  to  the  ideal  of 
the  heavenly  family,  of  which  it  is  a  type.  When  inspired  men  Jn 
Old  Testament  times  would  picture  heaven,  and  bring  to  mankind  some 
idea  of  its  prospective  grandeur  and  glory,  they  found  the  terms  which 
portray  family  life  best  adapted  to  serve  their  purpose.  The  Apostle 
follows  on  a  similar  line  in  the  Christian  era.  You  have  but  to  con- 
template the  nature  and  needs  of  men  to  be  admonished  of  the  value 
of  religion  in  the  family.  Man  has  a  nature  divinely  adapted  to  reli- 
gion, and  without  which  he  is  incomplete.  One  has  said^  "  Man  is 
incurably  religious,"  while  the  great  English  statesman,  Edmund  Burke, 
said :  "  We  know,  and  it  is  our  pride  to  know,  that  man  is  by  nature 
a  religious  animal." 

If  we  accept  these  statements  to  be  well  founded — and  I  think  none 
cf  us  will  doubt  their  correctness — we  must  at  once  conclude  that  this 
innate  characteristic  of  man  should  be  cultivated  in  the  right  direction, 
and  by  the  most  efficient  means.  The  family  must  be  well  guarded, 
and  rightly  trained,  if  we  are  to  have  pure  society,  a  well-ordered 
State,  and  a  secure  nation.  The  family  is  the  place  where  life  begins, 
and  where  the  influences  which  mould  character,  and  in  a  large 
measure  shape  man's  destiny,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,  are  set  :n 
motion.  This  being  a  fact,  it  is  most  essential  that  whatever  will  give 
to  family  influences  and  training  the  most  ennobling  character  should 
receive  the  devoted  and  constant  attention  of  the  true  Christian. 

The  following  considerations  make  family  religion  a  matter  ot 
prime  importance  to  every  thoughtful  being,  and  a  subject  deserving 
the  serious  attention  of  every  Christian  homoj  and  they  should  ever 


37^  FAMILY   RELIGION   AND   WORSHIP. 

remind  us  of  the  danger  and  sad  consequences  of  its  neglect.  First, 
the  position  that  family  has  always  occupied,  and  must  ever  occupy,  m 
the  development  of  the  individual  and  the  human  race.  What  ihe 
family  is,  the  race  will  be.  As  an  evil  tree  cannot  bring  forth  good 
fi-uit,  neither  can  an  irreligious  family  be  expected  to  train  up  righteous 
children  and  develop  noble  characters. 

Secondly,  the  benefits  which  accrue  to  the  family  and  its  individual 
members  from  the  practice  of  religion  and  worship,  and  are  trans- 
mitted by  the  members  of  the  family  to  society  and  the  Church.  The 
great  purpose  of  religion  is  to  save  man  from  sin,  and  place  him  in 
right  relations  to  God  and  in  harmony  with  the  law  of  righteousness. 
God  hates  sin  and  loves  righteousness,  and  whoever  becomes  a  truly 
religious  man  cannot  do  other  than  hate  sin  and  all  forms  of  wrong. 
God  is  Love,  and  His  love  to  man  constrained  Him  to  provide  for 
man's  salvation,  and  makes  Him  delight  in  man's  happiness.  But 
God  does  not  desire  that  man  shall  be  selfish  with  his  religion  or 
exclusive  with  his  happiness.  He  saves  men  that  they  may  save 
others,  that  the  circle  of  happines^  may  be  widened,  and  all  earth 
become  a  sphere  of  more  extended  joy  and  moral  grandeur.  Religion 
is  the  regulation  of  life,  and  applies  to  all  things  that  concern  the  best 
interests  of  man,  whether  moral,  spiritual,  ethical,  or  what  else.  Say» 
a  great  English  scholar  and  theologian,  "  Religion  has  become  no 
simple  way  of  only  saving  men  ;  it  saves  them,  but  for  God's  ends, 
not  merely  for  their  own.  It  is  no  method  simply  for  giving  peace  in 
death  or  a  happy  immortality  ;  it  accomplishes  that  in  making  time 
happy,  and  a  happy  society.  Religion  is  that  eternal  justice,  eternal 
holiness,  eternal  harmony,  eternal  love  may  everywhere,  through  man, 
be  made  to  reign  among  men.  Religion  is  that  the  purposes  of  God 
through  all  the  ages  may,  by  men,  be  more  perfectly  fulfilled.  Where 
it  comes  in  its  perfection,  it  comes  for  ends  like  these."  These  words 
of  Dr.  Fairbairn  seem  so  appropriate  and  in  harmony  with  my  own 
views  of  religion  that  I  quote  fully,  and  simply  add  that  the  family 
altar  is  the  best  place  for  instilling  and  promoting  this  religion 
among  the  young,  and  for  creating  a  religious  atmosphere  in  the 
home.  The  religious  family  makes  the  Church  strong,  and  a  -jpiritual 
force  that  cannot  be  resisted.  The  religious  family  purifies  and 
elevates  the  social  realm  in  which  it  abides.  One  truly  religious 
family  in  which  the  practice  and  power  of  religion  prevail  will  leaven 
any  community,  and  change  the  moral  and  social  atmosphere  therein. 

A  third  consideration  that  should  make  the  observance  of  family 
religion  and  worship  a  universal  practice  is  the  influence  it  exerts  upon 
the  State  or  civil  life  of  man.  True  religion  follows  man  into  every 
sphere  where  he  is  necessitated  to  act,  and  constrains  him  to  put 
forth  his  best  efforts  to  dethrone  evil,  whether  that  evil  be  persoaal, 
social,  industrial,  or  political  ;  for  all  wrong  is  hateful  to  God,  and 
must  necessarily  be  abhorred  by  the  truly  godly.  George  Washington 
fully  recognised  the  value  of  religion  to  the  State,  and  did  not  hesitate 
to  adorn  his  ever-inemorable  farewell  address  with  a  lengthy  para- 
graph giving  his  estimate  of  the  worth  of  religion  as  a  conserving  force 


ESSAY   OF    BISHOP   G.    W.    CLINTON.  379 

to  the  State,  and  as  an  essential  factor  to  the  material  prosperity  of 
tho  nation.  He  said  :  "  Of  all  the  dispositions  which  lead  to  political 
prosperity,  religion  and  morality  are  indispensable  supports.  In  rain 
would  that  man  claim  the  tribute  of  patriot^'sm  who  should  labour  to 
subvert  those  pilLars  of  human  happiness,  those  firmest  props  of  Ihe 
duties  of  men  and  citizens."  The  mere  politician,  equally  with  the 
pious  man,  ought  to  respect  and  cherish  them.  A  volume  could  not 
trace  all  their  connections  with  private  and  public  felicity.  Let  it 
simply  be  asked,  Where  is  the  security  for  property,  for  reputation, 
for  life,  if  the  sense  of  religious  obligations  desert  the  oaths  which 
are  the  instruments  of  investigations  in  courts  of  justice  ?  Let  us 
with  caution  indulge  the  supposition  that  morality  can  be  obtained 
without  religion.  Whatever  may  be  conceded  to  the  influence  of  re- 
fined education  on  minds  of  peculiar  structure,  reason  and  experience 
both  forbid  us  to  expect  that  national  morality  can  prevail  in  exclusion 
of  religious  principle.  Human  society  reposes  on  religion.  Civilisation 
without  it  would  be  like  the  lights  that  play  in  the  northern  sky,  a 
momentary  flash  on  the  face  of  darkness,  ere  it  again  s'ettles  into 
eternal  night.  Wit  and  wisdom,  sublime  poetry,  and  lofty  philosophy 
cannot  save  a  nation,  else  ancient  Greece  had  never  perished.  Valour, 
law,  and  ambition  cannot  preserve  a  people,  else  Rome  had  still  been 
mistress  of  the  world.  The  nation  that  loses  faith  in  God  and  man 
loses  not  only  its  most  precious  jewel,  but  its  most  unifying  and  con- 
serving force,  and  has  before  it  "a  stygian  cave  forlorn,  where  brood- 
ing darkness  spreads  his  jealous  vrings,  and  the  night-raven  sings." 

The  chief  cause  of  the  decline  of  true  and  fervent  piety  in  the  hearts 
and  lives  of  many  individuals  and  households  who  are  or  have  been 
connected  with  the  Christian  Church  is  the  neglect  of  family  religion 
and  worship,  which  is  too  prevalent  in  our  time.  Family  worship  is 
indispensable  to  the  growth  and  perpetuation  of  true  religion  in  the 
home  and  community.  The  enemy  of  God  and  man  can  have  no  more 
effective  agency  in  carrying  forward  his  war  against  the  souls  of  men 
than  an  irreligious  and  godless  family.  A  family  without  an  altar 
upon  which  the  fires  of  devotion  and  worship  are  kept  alive  may  have 
the  name  of  being  a  Christian  family,  but  the  form  and  power  of  God- 
liness are  absent,  and  the  helpful  influence  which  family  worship  in- 
variably exerts  is  lost.  Those  who  come  up  under  such  influence  are 
void  of  the  restraining  and  elevating  spiritual  benefits  of  religion  and 
worship. 

The  neglect  of  religion  properly  nurtured  by  the  observance  of  family 
worship  is  largely  responsible  for  the  growth  of  impiety  and  the  con- 
sequent spread  of  worldliness,  unbelief,  and  scepticism.  The  influence 
of  home  training  upon  the  children  of  well-bred,  thoroughly  educated, 
and  cultured  families  is  seen  upon  the  children  brought  up  in  such 
homes,  wherever  they  move  and  act.  If  cultured  minds  and  well-bred 
social  influences  so  indelibly  stamp  their  impress  upon  the  young,  how 
much  more  ought  religious  training  and  family  worship  to  leave  their 
mark  upon  the  youth  enjoying  theif  influence.  Not  only  this,  but 
much  more  :  the  soil,  having  been  taken  in  liand  in  its  virgin  stale, 
and   sown    with  the  seeds  of  religion,   will   be   less  susceptible   and 


380     *  FAMILY   RELIGION   AND   WORSHIP. 

almost  invulnerable  to  the  attacks  of  evil  influences  which  are  abun- 
dantly abroad,  and  which,  if  they  once  find  lodgment,  and  are  allowed 
to  take  root,  require  nothing  less  than  a  new  creation  to  eradicate  their 
eflFects,  and  put  the  heart  in  right  condition  for  the  reception  and 
development  of  true  religion. 

Religion  and  family  worship  not  only  teach  man  his  dependence 
upon  and  duty  to  God  ;  but  they  also  define  his  relation  and  duty  to 
his  fellow-man.  They  bring  father,  mother,  children,  and  other  mem- 
bers of  the  household  on  one  common  level  before  one  common  Father, 
to  whom  each  and  all  must  look  for  strength,  wisdom,  and  guidance, 
which  can  come  from  no  other  source.  They  call  forth  their  reverence 
and  love  for  Him  who  supplies  all  their  need  according  to  His  riches 
in  glory  through  Christ  Jesus.  They  further  impress  upon  them  the 
fact  that  each  and  every  family  sustains  a  similar  r.elation  to  the  same 
great  Head  of  the  human  family  and  a  kindred  relation  to  each  other. 
I  think  I  speak  advisedly  when  I  claim  that  nothing  was  more  helpful 
to  the  growth  and  strength  of  Methodism  in  earlier  times  than  the 
devout  families  in  whose  households  religion  and  worship  moulded 
their  children,  and  in  many  instances  instilled  the  principles  of  reli- 
gion in  their  servants.  They  and  their  households  kept  the  Sabbath 
by  refraining  from  all  secular  employment,  and  employing  its  sacred 
hours  to  increase  their  knowledge  of  God  through  His  Word,  and 
strengthen  their  faith  in  Christ.  But  a  desire  to  imitate  others,  a  love 
for  earthly  things,  and  a  fascination  for  worldly  pleasures  gained 
ground,  regard  for  the  Sabbath  waned,  family  religion  and  worship 
received  less  attention,  children  were  allowed  to  remain  away  if  they 
chose,  the  reading  of  God's  Word  was  omitted  except  on  the  Sabbath, 
prayers  were  short  and  devoid  of  fervour,  and  the  whole  service  became 
formal  and  unctionless. 

I  have  in  mind  a  case  about  which  I  read  recently,  which  seems 
to  illustrate  the  point  which  I  have  been  discussing.  The  "  Christian 
Standard  "  tells  of  a  father  who  speaks  thus  :  "  There  was  a  time  when 
I  made  up  my  mind  that,  inasmuch  as  sometimes  I  had  unction  and 
liberty  in  family  worship,  and  sometimes  I  had  not,  I  would  only 
hold  it  when  I  felt  moved  by  the  Spirit  to  do  so.  So  night  came  and 
we  went  to  bed  without  having  family  worship.  My  little  Joe  was 
then  but  little  past  two  years  of  age.  But  he  seemed  restless  and 
uneasy.  At  length  he  turned  over  to  me,  and  putting  his  arms  around 
my  neck,  his  baby  voice  lisped,  'Papa.'  'What  is  it,  my  son?'  'We 
used  to  say  Our  Father,  didn't  we?'  'Yes,  dear,  go  to  sleep.'  A 
pause  followed.  Again,  'Papa,'  came  the  lisping  torie,  'What  made 
you  quit  it? '  You  may  be  sure,"  said  the  father,  "  it  was  the  last  time 
we  went  to  bed  without  family  worship."  I  was  once  conducting  family 
worship  in  the  home  of  a  presiding  elder  in  my  church,  and  when  I  had 
concluded  the  prayer  without  using  the  Lord's  Prayer,  a  little  girl, 
less  than  four  years  of  age,  ran  to  her  father  and  said:  "Papa,  that 
man  did  not  say  our  prayers,"  and  she  knelt  at  his  side,  her  smaller 
and  younger  sister  kneeling  with  her,  that  they  might  be  taught  the 
Lord's  Prayer.     I  believe   lliat  wherever  family  religion  and  worship 


ESSAY   OF   BISHOP   G.    W.    CLINTON.  38 1 

are  faithfully  piarliscd  the  <leclaration  found  in  Prov.  xxii.  6.,  "Train 
up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go,  and  when  he  is  old  he  will  not 
depart  from  it,"  will  bo  fully  verified. 

The  neglect  of  family  religion  and  worship  is  largely  responsible 
for  the  lack  of  the  exercise  of  Christian  charity,  fellowship,  and  friendly 
intercourse  between  many  men  and  their  fellow-men.  One  of  the 
first  fruits  of  religion  and  Christian  worship  is  the  bringing  of  men 
into  harmonious  relations  with  each  other.  Wherever  the  Christian 
religion  prevails,  and  family  worship  is  observed  in  a  community,  there 
cordial  relations  and  goodwill  characterise  the  intercourse  of  th© 
citizens  of  that  comnnmity. 

The  results  of  religion  and  family  worship  upon  the  lives  of  men  and 
women,  who  have  grown  up  in  Christian  families,  who  faithfully 
observed  these  essential  factors  in  human  development,  are  the  greatest 
testimonials  in  favour  of  the  observance  of  such  religion  and  worship. 
Solomon  in  Proverbs  iii.  33,  said :  "  The  blessing  of  God  is  upon  the 
habitation  of  the  just."  Because  Noah  was  found  righteous  before 
God  in  his  generation  God  provided  an  ark  for  the  saving  of  him  and 
his  household.  Because  God  knew  Abraham  would  command  his  chil- 
dren and  household  after  him  to  keep  the  way  of  the  Lord,  to  do 
justice  and  judgment,  God  favoured  Abraham,  blessed  him  and  made 
him  a  blessing,  and.  showed  favour  to  his  offspring. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  which  runs  like  a  golden  thread  throughout 
the  history  of  God's  dealings  with  His  people,  that  in  His  dispensations 
of  grace  He  seldom,  if  ever,  separates  the  child  from  the  parent.  The 
principle  of  parental  responsibility  and  representation  comes  before 
US  as  one  of  the  cardinal  features  of  the  Divine  government.  It  sheds 
a  glorious  light  upon  the  past,  and  sends  forth  its  brightening  rays 
to  illuminate  the  future.  We  do  well  to  pause  and  consider  how  much 
Methodism  owes  to  family  religion  and  worship,  in  the  home  of  Samuel 
and  Susannah  Wesley.  Before  Oxford  had  stamped  her  classical  train- 
ing and  educational  refinement  upon  the  master  minds  of  John  and 
Cliarles  Wesley,  Susannah.  Wesley  had  instilled  into  their  Eearts  the 
seeds  ot  piety,  and  sown  the  truths  of  God's  revealed  Word,  which 
gave  them  a  secure  foundation  that  could  not  be  undermined.  The 
sentiments  of  piety  and  devotion  which  are  breathed  forth  in  ti  .ir 
hymns  for  family  devotion  are  due  to  their  training  at  home.  May 
we  not  well  say  that  Methodism,  which  was  born  in  a  Christian  home, 
where  family  religion  and  worship  were  the  dominating  features,  is 
but  an  expansion  of  this  religion  and  worship  in  the  broader  Church. 

It  is  a  fact  worth  noting  that  the  strongest  men  of  our  Methodism, 
whether  we  call  the  roll  of  clergymen  or  laymen,  point  back  to  the 
influence  of  religion  and  family  worship  in  their  homes,  backed  up  by 
the  exemplary  lives  of  their  parents,  as  the  moulding  and  guiding  in- 
fluence which  shaped  their  characters  and  directed  their  future.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  well  to  observe  that  in  proportion  as  Methodist  families 
have  neglected  family  worship,  laid  aside  the  familiar,  but  beautiful, 
hymns  prepared  especially  for  use  in  family  worship,  and  discarded 
the  regular  use  of  the  Bible  and  catechetical  instruction  characteristic 


382  FAMILY   RELIGION   AND   WORSHIP. 

of  early  Methodism,  in  that  same  proportion  has  Methodism  lost  her 
hold  upon  her  young  peojjle.  The  Chmvh  may  (irganise  (iuilds  for 
young  people,  form  Epworth  Leagues  and  adopt  Christian  Endeavour 
organisations,  each  of  which  is  useful  and  helpful  in  its  place  ;  but 
none  of  these  will  serve  the  purpose  and  accomplish  the  results  of 
family  religion  and  worship.  The  parents  have  the  opportunity  to 
make  the  first  and  most  lasting  impressions  upon  the  child's  mind. 
If  those  impressions  be  in  harmony  with  God's  plan,  and  have  the 
sanction  and  nurture  of  His  Spbit,  surely  they  will  endure.  The 
child  will  go  from  the  home  into  the  Sunday  School  and  Church 
prepared  to  receive  the  further  instruction  which  these  agencies  of 
Christian  culture  provide  for  him.  Yea,  more,  he  goes  prepared  to 
contribute  his  part  to  the  services  and  influences  which  are  found  in 
these  places  of  religious  instruction. 

I  conclude  with  the  following  thoughts,  which  I  have  neither  time 
to  amplify  nor  emphasise  : — (1)  To  neglect  family  religion  and  worship 
is  to  neglect  a  duty  which  is  commanded  by  Him  who  is  the  God  and 
Father  of  us  all.  Listen  to  His  words  to  Israel,  words  as  pertinent  and 
applicable  to  God's  Israel  of  to-day  as  to  His  Israel  in  the  days  of 
Moses.  "  Hear,  O  Israel :  The  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord  :  And  thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thine  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul, 
and  with  all  thy  might.  And  these  words,  which  I  command  thee  t"his 
day,  shall  be  in  thine  heart.  And  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto 
thy  children,  and  shalt  taH^  of  them  when  thou  sittest  in  thine  house, 
and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou  liest  down,  and 
when  thou  risest  up."  I  repeat  again  the  admonition  found  in  Prov. 
xxii.  6  :  "  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go  ;  and  when  he  is 
old  he  will  not  depart  from  it."  I  need  not  say  that  only  religious 
training  by  truly  religious  parents  can  exert  such  a  lasting  influence 
upon  any  child.  Paul,  in  that  instructive  epistle  to  the  Ephesians  (vi. 
4),  gives  this  timely  advice :  "  And  ye  fathers,  provoke  not  your 
children  to  wrath  ;  but  bring  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition 
of  the  Lord."  Here  the  Apostle  admonishes  the  head  of  the  home 
against  any  conduct  that  will  provoke  the  children  of  his  home  to 
wrath,  and  with  equal  emphasis  he  entreats  him  to  so  train  them  that 
they  will  grow  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord. 

(2).  To  neglect  family  religion  and  worship  is  to  deprive  the  home  of 
its  main  safeguard,  and  the  State  of  its  strongest  prop,  and  leave  the 
children  open  to  evil  influences,  with  no  counteracting  force  to  check 
their  baneful  consequences.  The  observance  of  family  religion  and 
worship,  with  the  Scriptures  constantly  read  and  obeyed,  song  and 
prayer  lending  their  influence  and  inspiration  to  the  mind  and  heart, 
has  ever  exerted  a  restraining  power  on  individual  lives  and  house- 
holds, and  brought  men  into  sweet  communion  and  fellowship  with 
God. 

(3)  To  neglect  family  religion  and  worship  is  to  surrender  the  temple 
which  God  has  made  for  Himself,  to  the  rulership  of  a  foe  that  will 
introduce  a  reign  that  means  alienation  from  God  and  ruin  to  man.  To 
neglect  family  religion  and  worship  is  to  neglect  the  only  force  which 


ADDRESS   OF   REV.   S.  B.   CAWOOD.  383 

is  calculated  to  make  men  pure  in  their  lives,  faithful  to  their  homes, 
devoted  (o  tlitir  children,  well  fitted  for  good  society,  and  to  elevate 
tltem  to  that  noble  citizenship  which  constrains  them  to  ever  con- 
sider the  well-being  of  all  their  fellow-men  and  the  highest  good  of  the 
State. 

If  our  glorious  Methodism  is  to  exert  its  old-time  influence  as  a  spiri- 
tual and  conserving  force  in  the  world,  if  it  would  do  its  part  in  bring- 
ing peace  among  nations,  and  cordial  fellowship  between  man  and  man, 
regardless  of  racial  differentiation,  and  promote  the  Christ-spirit,  which 
is  the  only  spirit  that  exhibits  true  religion,  it  must  not  depend  upon 
powerful  preaching,  multiplied  organisations,  nor  other  agencies  under 
the  direction  of  these  organisations,  but  it  must  urge  that  family  reli- 
gion and  worship  be  observed  in  every  Methodist  home.  Methodism 
exerted  a  powerful  influence  upon  all  Christendom  in  the  days  of 
small  things,  through  the  piety  and  zeal  of  her  leaders  and  the  religious 
influence  of  her  homes.  What  ought  she  to  do  with  her  millions  of 
families  and  homes  of  to-day  all  lighted  up  and  kept  at  white  heat 
by  the  fires  of  religion  upon  the  altars  of  family  devotion  ?  Methodism 
must  ever  remember  that  only  "those  that  be  planted  in  the  House 
of  the  Lord  shall  flourish  in  the  courts  of  our  God."  The  planting  in 
youth  will  ensure  fertility  for  Gospel  seed,  and  make  revival  work 
easy,  and  the  future  of  Methodism  more  fruitful  than  in  any  period 
of  her  history.  If  we  shall  ever  live  to  see  the  day  when  family 
religion  and  worship  shall  prevail  in  professed  Christian  liomes,  we 
shall  see  a  fulfilment  of  Isaiah's  prophecy,  when  "  the  envy  also  of 
Ephraim  shall  depart,  and  the  adversaries  of  Judah  shall  be  cut  off : 
Ephraim  shall  not  envy  Judah,  and  Judah  shall  not  vex  Ephraim." 
The  clashing  of  arms  shall  cease,  conflict  between  labour  and  capital 
shall  abate,  race  antagonism  shall  be  no  more,  but  the  Fatherhood  of 
God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man  in  Christ,  cementing  all  races  in  the 
unity  of  the  Spirit  and  the  bonds  of  peace,  will  call  forth  the  glorious 
proclamation  from  heaven's  court :  "  The  Lord  God  omnipotent 
reigneth,"  and  "  The  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  become  the  Kingdoms 
of  our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ,  and  He  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever." 

The  Rev.  S.  Barrett  Cawood  (South  African  Methodist  Church) 
gave  the  first  invited  address.     He  said : 

We  cannot  afford  to  neglect  any,  even  the  least,  conditions  of  success, 
if  we  hope  to  succeed  in  anything.  Much  less  can  we  afford  to  ignore 
or  neglect  the  great  essential  means  if  we  desire  to  attain  to  some 
great  end.  We  held  Ladysmith  inviolate  simply  by  attention  to  all 
the  details  and  conditions  necessary — its  sanitation,  its  dietary,  all 
military  regulations  and  civilian  duties,  its  defensive  and  offen- 
sive measures,  and  the  various  means  for  the  conservation 
of  life,  as  well  as  the  recovery  from  wounds,  diseases,  fevers, 
and  accidents.  Of  course,  there  were  present  with  us  the  results  of 
forces  used  at  a  long  leverage,  such  as  the  sympathies,  and  prayers,  and 
hopes  of  the  English-speaking  world,  felt  by  us  in  the  exultant  thrills 


384  FAMILY  RELIGION    AND   WORSHIP. 

flashed  through  ua  by  means  of  the  "wireless,  spiritual  telegraphy" 
passing  in  wave  after  wave  through  our  enervating,  hope-killing, 
death-laden  atmosphere.  The  spiritual  factors  were  not  wanting  in 
the  production  of  resultants  which  slapped  the  impudent  face  of  in- 
fidelity with  emphatic  insult,  and  disproved  the  sceptical  assertions  of 
agnosticism. 

Over  and  over  again  I  have  been  asked,  "Were  you  not  afraid, 
with  the  17,000  shells  bombarding  you  from  all  quarters?''  I  have 
answered,  as  often,  "  Of  course  I  was  afraid,  and  horribly  perplexed 
as  to  what  was  best  to  be  done."  Until;  on  the  third  evening  of 
shelling,  while  lying  in  bed  and  reading  a  few  verses,  as  usual,  from 
the  Bible,  an  old  and  well-known  text  flashed  across  and  into  my 
consciousness,  like  a  Divine  radiancy  from  God's  own  Spirit.  It 
flamed  with  fires  supernatural.  It  took  possession  of  my  senses  irre- 
sistibly, omnipotently,  as  I  read,  "Are  not  two  sparrows  sold  for  a 
farthing?  One  of  them  shall  not  fall  on  the  ground  without  your 
Father.  But  the  very  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  numbered.  Fear 
ye  not,  therefore  ;  ye  are  of  more  value  than  many  sparrows."  After 
that  revelation  to  me  there  was  no  fear,  no  doubt^  no  uncertainty.  It 
would  have  been  worse  than  unbelief  in  me.  Indeed^  I  felt  less  fear 
and  unsafe  in  besieged  Ladysmith  than  I  do  upon  this  platform  to-day, 
under  the  batteries  of  your  eyes  and  the  scattering  shrapnel  from  tha 
bursting  shells  of  your  possible  criticism. 

To  those  who  have  carelessly  and  without  thought  scanned  and  read 
the  title  of  my  subject,  it  would  appear  to  only  affect  one  of  the  inci- 
dentals of  religious  observance  ;  perhaps  an  unfortunate  lapse  from  a 
good  and  customary  habit,  or  the  veriest  change  of  an  external  form, 
the  manner  and  method  of  which  scarcely  count  for  anything.  But  to 
anyone  really  interested,  accustomed  seriously  to  view  causes  together 
with  effects,  actions  in  relation  to  their  consequences,  the  subject 
appears  in  a  very  different  light,  and  possesses  heights,  depths, 
lengths,  and  breadths  of  possibilities  and  verities  which  are  startling 
and  appalling.  The  neglect  of  family  religion  and  worship  enters  so 
essentially  into  and  affects  the  very  soul  of  man's  relation  to  God,  that 
if  left  to  work  unchecked  it  would  soon  spell  disaster  to  the  great 
"  God  cau^e."  It  reaches  down  to  the  very  root  of  things,  and  has  to 
do  with  those  everlasting  verities,  ever  and  anon  divulged  by  the  very 
necessity  of  things,  the  forms  and  expressions  in  which  the  Eternal 
Father  has  been  revealing  Himself  to  His  earth-born  children. 

The  subject  leads  us  back,  link  by  link,  to  the  foundation  principle 
of  the  Fatherhood  of  God,  which,  like  to  the  wide  over-arching  sky,  is 
ever  stooping  over  and  lifting  up  towards  itself  all  its  kith  and  kin, 
however  denominated  and  wheresoever  placed.  The  Book  which  re- 
veals God  contains  within  itself,  and  teaches,  from  its  first  genesis, 
the  only  lines  of  true  development  and  evolution  for  the  human 
family ;  places  the  father  of  the  family  as  its  priest  in  his  right  place. 
Thus,  the  heads  of  families,  or  patriarchs,  first,  and  almost  uncon- 
sciously, represented  this  great  necessity  under  the  first  intention  and 
unfolding  of  God's  plan  and  purpose,  with  reference  to  the  human 


ADDRESS    OF    REV.    S.    B.    CAWOOD.  385 

race.  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  .Jacol),  after  Adam  himself,  of  necessitjr 
shadowed  forth  this  vital  principle,  acting  as  the  vicariate  of  God  in 
this  respect  towards  their  families.  God,  as  the  universal  AU-Fathei 
of  spirits,  impressed  His  Divine  and  infinite  personality  and  condition 
upon  His  finite  representative,  creation.  The  father  of  each  family- 
was  in  his  turn  to  stand  related  to  those  dependent  upon  him,  even 
as  God  stood  related  in  His  infinite  character  and  eternal  condition  to 
those  nearest  and  dependent  upon  Him,  thus  reproducing  earthly 
similitudes  "  after  the  pattern  of  things  in  the  heavens."  If  we  look 
at  it  from  the  underside,  we  cannot  but  be  struck  with  the  simple  and 
natural  expression  of  the  truth.  "Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  chil- 
dren, so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear  Him."  And  again,  "If  ye'^ 
(earthly  fathers),  "  then,  being  evil,  know  how  to  give  good  gifts  unto 
your  children,  how  much  more  shall  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven 
give  good  things  to  them  that  ask  Him  !  "  Again,  from  the  upper  side 
it  seems  just  as  natural  and  simple.  "  Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as 
your  Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect."  God's  revelation  through- 
out, from  Himself  "in  the  very  highest,"  down  to  His  meanest  and 
lowliest  creature,  is  all  of  one  texture — seamless^  like  unto  the  robe  of 
Christ,  "  woven  from  the  top  throughout." 

Early  in  the  Bible  story  heads  of  families  broke  through  this 
essential  rule  of  true  progress  and  development,  and  in  the  flood  and 
other  great  crises  of  history  such  violations  always  proved  disastrous. 
Following  the  course  of  events  downward  to  modern  times^  we  find  that 
the  indifferentism,  the  scepticism,  and  infidelity  of  the  day  are  largely 
owing,  in  the  families,  to  the  neglect  of  religion  in  the  example  of  the 
parents.  Never  before  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  there  been 
greater  danger  for  the  safety  of  this  "  ark  of  God  "  in  this  respect  than 
now.  An  age  of  such  keen  competition  !  Such  a  wild,  mad  rush  for 
the  prizes  of  commerce !  The  rapid  evolution  of  the  movements  of  the 
day,  so  quick  as  to  be  like  the  rotatory  movement  of  the  spheres, 
almost  imperceptible !  The  sudden  and  forcible  changes  of  landmarks 
and  boundaries  by  nations,  shaking  their  political  and  social  systems 
to  their  very  foundations !  The  discovery  of  treasures  so  great  and 
valuable  as  to  drive  speculation  wild,  to  the  very  verge  of  delirium, 
and  to  threaten  even  the  most  permanent  vested  interests  with  un- 
certainty and  vicissitude !  The  incredible  flood  of  certain  classes  of 
literature,  blinding  the  mental  vision  and  warping  the  morals !  Revo- 
lutions, wars,  rumours  of  wars,  upheaving,  destroying,  cordplicating, 
perplexing  !  Amid  all  this  boiling,  seething,  and  frothing  of  "  apocalyp- 
tic seas,''  the  bread-winners  and  priests  of  the  family  altars,  God- 
ordained  as  such,  to  guard,  protect,  and  provide,  have  in  many  in- 
starices  become  forgetful  and  neglectful  of  their  first,  highest,  most 
sacred  obligation  to  their  sons,  their  daughters,  and  their  dependents. 
Alas  for  the  outlook  on  the  future  of  the  race  if  this  be  so,  for  this 
grasping  after  vain  shadows  will  lose  to  us  and  ours  sublime  and 
glorious  substances.  Anglicanism  at  home  and  abroad,  like  Romanism 
in  all  lands  which  it  dominates,  or  where  it  is  tolerated,  has  invented 
a  substitute  for  God's  necessary  and  natural  provision — investing  its 

26 


386  FAMILY   RELIGION   AND   WORSHIP. 

own  priesthood  with  the  authority  and  influence  that  of  God's  right 
belong  alone  to  the  priest  of  the  family  alt-ar — they  have  set  up  a  sem- 
blance to  this  very  altar  in  their  cluirches,  the  bells  calling  the  families 
into  the  presence  of  these  "spurious  fathers"  to  matins  and  vespers, 
and  morning  and  evening  prayers.  ''  Call  no  man  your  father"  in  this 
sense  "  upon  the  earth,  for  One  is  your  Father,  which  is  in  heaven," 
the  great  Teacher  Christ  prophetically  and  emphatically  pronounced. 
Tisis  substitute  is  serving  to  destroy  God's  ideal  of  family  religion 
among  the  misled  people. 

By  many,  even  among  Methodists,  this  neglect  of  family  religion  and 
worship  is  scarcely  considered  a  source  of  danger,  and  the  morning  and 
evening  prayer  at  the  bedside  is  often  substituted  as  an  adequate 
equivalent.  Others,  again,  are  living  under  such  conditions  and 
among  such  environment  in  others'  homes,  and  in  boarding  and  lodg- 
ing houses,  where  such  exercises,  even  to  the  asking  a  blessing  and 
returning  thanks  at  meal  times,  are  considered  inexpedient  and  super- 
fluous. Man  is  so  largely  a  creature  of  circumstance,  and  an  imitative 
animal,  rather  copying  and  being  dragged  down  by  low  morals  than 
following  the  loftier  ideals,  that,  alas !  too  often  it  is  again  and  again 
reiterated,  "  Evil  communications  corrupt  good  manners." 

What,  then,  is  the  one  and  only  specific  for  this  growing  moral  and 
spiritual  epidemic?  What  is  the  remedy  for  the  disaster  following 
upon  the  neglect  of  family  religion  and  worship?  Plainly  it  must  be 
the  "  radical  prescription  "  laid  down  by  Christ  Jesus,  the  Eternal  Son 
of  the  Divine  Father.  We  must  go  back  to  the  primal  conditions. 
There  must  be  a  return  to  the  first  love  and  the  first  works.  "  Except 
ye  be  converted  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  not  enter  into 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven." 

An  artist,  as  the  legend  goes,  in  attempting  to  produce  a  true 
semblance  of  the  Christ  upon  his  canvas,  thought  he  must  submit  him- 
self and  the  value  of  his  work  to  the  innocent  eyes  and  unbiased  judg- 
ment of  a  little  child.  He  set  to  work  and  wrought  for  months  to  com- 
plete his  masterpiece,  and  when  it  was  finished  he  stepped  into  the 
street,  and  called  into  his  studio  a  little  girl.  The  draperies  were 
flung  off  from  the  canvas,  and  there  stood  revealed  before  the  child  the 
wonderful  conception  of  the  master's  mind.  Alas  for  him !  the  chUd'a 
wondering  eyes  were  shadowed  with  an  awful  fear,  and  she  shrank 
back  from  the  imperious  and  majestic  figure.  The  painter  saw  that  he 
had  miserably  and  lamentably  failed,  but  determined  to  succeed.  He 
set  to  work  again,  and  strove  to  evolve  the  portrait  of  the  Christ 
from  his  own  inner  consciousness  of  what  the  Christ  should  be',  and, 
as  he  wrought,  there  gradually  appeared  before  him  the  image  of  the 
Saviour  of  men,  as  formed  within  his  own  soul.  Again  a  child  was 
called  in  to  test  the  truth  and  reality  of  the  work,  and  as  she  looked 
the  wonder  grew,  the  interest  intensified  ;  the  gentle  Jesus,  with  the 
loving  eyes  and  the  sorrowful,  pitying  countenance,  drew  her  as  a 
worshipper  nearer  and  nearer,  until,  with  little  arms  stretched  out  for 
the  expected  embrace,  and  lips  apart,  the  murmur  escaped,  "Suffer 
little  children,  and  forbid  them  not^  to  come  unto  Me,  for  of  such  is 


ADDRESS    OF    REV.    T.    RIDER.  387 

the  Kiiigdnin   of   Heaven."     Brethren,    we    nnist   clierish   ami  nourish 
family  religinn  and  worship  if  the  world  is  to  be  saved. 

The  Rev.  T.  Ridek  (Methodist  New  Connexion)  gave  the  second 
invited  addresis,  as  follows  : 

It  is  assumed  that  there  is  neglect  of  this  important  duty,  and  there 
is,  alas  1  too  much  reason  to  fear  that  many  religious  people  have  become 
indifferent  in  relation  to  worship  in  the  family  circle.  Altogether  apart 
from  what  may  be  observed  in  the  daily  life  of  Christian  homes,  there 
are  certain  broad  characteristics  marking  a  good  deal  of  modern  society 
which  must  awaken  the  solicitude  of  all  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  and  His  Gospel.  Parental  authority  receives  very  scant  respect, 
the  Word  of  God  is  lightly  esteemed,  and  reverence  for  the  Sabbath  and 
the  sanctuary  has  suffered  decay.  No  doubt  the  scepticism  of  a  good 
deal  of  present-day  science  and  literature — religious  literature,  as 
well  as  secular  literature — may  have  much  to  do  with  this  state  of 
things ;  But  the  effective  causes  lie  deeper  and  at  the  back  of  these 
matters. 

The  minds  of  our  young  people  are  largely  influenced  by  the  instruc- 
tions they  receive  in  the  home,  in  the  school,  and  in  the  books  and 
magazines  they  read.  But  the  influence  they  receive  in  their  training 
is  vastly  greater  and  more  enduring.  The  true  place  of  training — • 
the  place  where  the  mind  receives  its  first  formative  impulses — is  not 
the  school,  or  university,  but  the  home.  When  the  teachings  of  Holy 
Writ  are  fairly  carried  out,  the  budding  place  of  morality  and  religion 
is  the  home  circle  ;  the  blossom  comes  in  the  school  or  university,  and 
the  fruitage  comes  in  the  life.  If  the  budding  period  of  life  is  neglected 
by  Christian  people,  we  may  be  sure  that  it  wUl  not  be  neglected  by 
the  forces  of  evil  ;  and  the  issue  will  be — what,  alas !  is  too  often  seen 
to-day — 'a  subtle  scepticism  haunting  the  minds  of  young  people,  blight- 
ing the  fear  of  God,  and  destroying  all  reverence  for  what  is  sacred  and 
Christ-like.  It  is  sometimes  said  that  society  makes  the  criminal. 
No  doubt  society  has  a  good  deal  to  answer  for  in  relation  to  the 
criminal  classes  of  this  and  other  countries,  but  are  we  quite  sure 
that  society  is  the  greatest  factor  in  the  production  of  criminals?  A 
thoughtful  man  has  boldly  said  that  "  it  is  nearer  the  truth  to  affirm 
that  the  family  makes  the  criminal,  than  to  say  that  society  makes 
him."  If  that  be  so,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  where  social  regeneration 
must  begin.  It  is  no  doubt  important  that  we  reform  our  schools,  our 
churches,  our  industries,  our  politics  ;  but  national  regeneration  must 
begin  in  the  family. 

Wliat,  then,  are  the  causes  which  have  led  to  the  neglect  of  family 
worship?  I  say  causes  advisedly,  for  no  doubt  many  things  have  con- 
tributed to  the  present  neglect  of  this  important  duty.  One  pervading 
cause  is  the  decay  of  deep  religious  conviction.  In  some  respects  the 
Cliristian  life  of  the  people  has  become  broader,  but  it  has  also  become 
shallower,  and  spiritual  doctrines  and  beliefs  have  not  so  strong  a  hold 
on  the  mind  as  in  former  times.  The  importance  of  a  daily  acknow- 
ledgment of  God  is  less  keenly  felt.     The  spirit  of  aggressive  worldli- 


385?  FAMILY    RELIGION   AND    WORSHIP. 

ness  and  aggressive  pleasure  is  abroad,  and  the  time  for  religious  duty 
and  devotion  has  been  so  much  encroached  upon  that  in  many  cases 
it  has  well-nigh  disappeared.  How  then  shall  we  secure  great  atten- 
tion to  this  duty  of  family  worship  ?  Something — a  good  deal — may  be 
done  by  the  rehgious  guides  and  teachers  of  the  people.  Let  t^em 
carefully  and  gently  point  out  the  secularisation  of  life  which  is  result- 
ing from  defective  Christian  training  in  the  home  ;  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  exhibit  the  far-reaching  blessing  with  which  God  enriches  the 
lives  of  those  who  fear  and  worship  Him.  In  the  next  place,  let  the 
young  people  hear,  in  the  ordinary  round  of  family  life,  the  name  of 
God  mentioned  with  reverence.  Let  them  see  God's  Word  and  His  min- 
isters held  in  honour.  Let  the  Sabbath  and  the  services  of  the  sanctuary 
be  duly  observed,  and,  so  far  as  possible,  no  day  pass  without  some 
act  which  clearly  recognises  the  presence  and  watchful  care  of  Almighty 
God. 

Difficulties,  I  am  aware,  are  apt  to  interpose  to  prevent  the  daily 
exercise  of  family  prayer.  Possibly  the  best  methods  have  not  always 
been  adopted.  In  aiming  at  too  much  many  have  failed  altogether. 
Those  families  which  have  greater  command  of  time  may  have  a  longer 
service,  and  may  sing,  read,  and  pray.  But  we  have  to  remember,  as 
Methodist  ministers,  that  large  numbers  of  our  people  belong  to  the 
working-classes.  In  their  case  the  claims  of  daily  toil  are  often  very 
exacting,  and  it  is  difficult  to  assemble  the  family  together  during  any 
part  of  the  day.  A  good  deal,  however,  may  be  accomplished  where 
there  is  an  earnest  determination  to  please  and  honour  God.  A  few 
verses  of  Holy  Writ,  followed  by  a  brief  petition  for  guidance  and  bless- 
ing, will  be  within  the  compass  of  many  families  of  even  working 
people.  Where  that  is  felt  to  be  difficult,  five  or  six  verses  of  Scripture, 
followed  by  the  Lord's  Prayer,  will  be  an  acknowledgment  of  God 
which  will  leave  a  permanent  impress  on  the  minds  of  young  people. 
Should  insuperable  obstacles  stand  in  the  way  of  even  so  brief  a  ser- 
vice as  that,  let  the  family  gather  round  the  Throne  of  Grace  on  the 
Sabbath  Day,  and  together  acknowledge  the  claim  of  the  All-Father 
to  the  reverence  and  love  of  those  who,  through  the  week,  have  been 
the  sharers  of  His  care  and  bounty.  Thus  the  families  of  our  churches 
shall  forge  the  imperishable  links  of  that  "  golden  chain  which  binds 
the  whole  round  earth  about  the  feet  of  God." 

The  Rev.  A.  K.  Sanford,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
commenced  the  general  discussion  on  the  topic.     He  said : 

I  assume  from  the  topic  that  there  is  a  neglect  of'family  religion. 
To  confirm  it,  permit  me  to  speak  of  family  religion  as  I  experienced 
it  in  childhood.  I  am  the  son  of  a  Methodist  preacher,  the  grandson 
of  a  Methodist  preacher,  and  he  was  the  first  male  member  of  the 
Methodist  Church  in  all  New  England — ^Jesse  Lee's  convert,  licensed 
to  preach  and  afterwards  ordained  a  local  deacon  by  Bishop  Asbury. 
In  this  Puritanic  school  of  Methodism  I  was  trained.  Morning  and 
night  the  Bible  was  read,  followed  by  family  prayer.  On  the  Sabbath 
afternoon,  after  public  worship,  the  old  Wesleyan  Catechism  was 
taught,  such  as :" Who  made  you ? "    "God."    "What  is  God?"    "A 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  389 

Spirit."  "Where  is  God?"  'Everywhere."  Then  the  Ten  Command- 
ments were  recited  by  the  children  one  after  the  other — seven  of  us — 
and  that  was  followed  by  prayer.  When  my  father  was  away  preaching 
the  Gospel,  my  mother  led  the  family  devotions,  and  her  prayers  burned 
a  way  down  into  my  little  heart.  Well  do  I  remember  her  taking  me 
into  a  spare  room,  all  alone  before  God,  and  there,  on  her  knees,  with 
her  hand  upon  my  head,  asking  God's  blessing  upon  her  boy.  I  was 
a  regular  attendant  at  the  Sabbath  School  ;  and  here,  I  fear,  is  often 
a  great  neglect.  No  Christian  parent  can  delegate  to  a  Sunday  School 
teacher,  or  an  Epworth  League  teacher,  the  duty  and  responsibility 
that  rests  upon  him  as  a  parent  in  the  training  of  his  children  at  home 
in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord. 

In  early  life  the  Spirit  of  God  convicted  me  of  sin.  It  was  at  a 
glorious  revival.  A  sermon  had  been  preached,  and  I  felt  that  I  ought 
to  give  my  heart  to  God.  But  I  was  young  and  timid.  "Wliile  trembling 
in  my  seat  a  whisper  in  my  ear  said,  "  My  son,  do  not  you  feel  that 
you  ought  to  become  a  Christian?  "  I  said  "  Yes."  "  Go,  then,  at  once," 
said  my  father,  "  and  give  your  heart  to  God."  In  a  little  while  his 
arms  were  around  me  at  the  altar  of  penitence,  and  in  earnest,  pleading 
tones  he  asked  God  to  save  his  boy  ;  and  God  did  it  for  .Jesus'  sake. 
When  I  believed,  I  was  a  mile  from  home.  Oh,  how  I  hastened  home  ! 
The  stones  seemed  to  be  praising  God.  My  parents  had  retired,  but 
every  door  was  thrown  open  by  me  very  soon,  and  by  the  bedside 
of  my  mother  I  told  her  what  Jesus  had  done  for  me  ;  and  there  was 
rejoicing  on  earth  and  in  heaven.  Subsequently  God  called  me  to 
preach,  and  when  a  pastor  in  the  city  of  New  York  my  aged  parents 
came  to  spend  the  holidays.  My  father  preached  for  me,  and  on  the 
next  day  met  with  a  fatal  accident.  He  was  brought  to  my  parsonage, 
and  lingered  for  several  weeks.  When  he  was  passing  away  I  whis- 
pered in  his  ear,  "How  is  it?  Is  Jesus,  whom  you  have  so  long 
preached,  still  precious  ? "  With  all  the  strength  he  could  muster 
he  breathed  out  these  words,  "  Jesus  is  precious  ;  all  is  well,  I  am 
going  home."  To  the  godly  counsels  and  example  of  pious  parents  at 
the  flimily  altar  I  owe  much  of  what  I  am  to-day  by  the  grace  of  God. 

The  day  that  Garfield  was  shot,  when  in  this  city  you  were  pre- 
paring for  the  first  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference,  we  followed  to 
the  grave  the  sacred  dust  of  my  mother— ninety  years  of  age.  I 
received  a  message  saying  that  she  was  very  ill.  I  hastened  to  her 
bedside.  She  was  conscious  and  clear  in  her  mind.  Said  she,  "My 
son,  I  have  often  wondered  why  it  was  that  God  permitted  me  to  have 
the  care  of  a  family  of  children.  I  have  always  felt  myself  so  un- 
worthy." Said  I,  "Mother,  you  do  not  feel  so  now,  do  you?"  "Well," 
she  said,  "I  have  lived  to  see  them  all  in  the  Church  of  God,  and 
walking  in  the  truth."  "Wondered!"  thought  I.  Two  of  her  sons 
in  the  ministry,  three  of  her  grandsons  in  the  ministry^one  of  them 
a  member  of  this  Conference — three  daughters,  all  wives  of  Methodist 
ministers.  What  blessed  influences  follow  faithful  home  instruction 
and  religion  1  Oh,  for  a  revival  of  early  Methodistic  training  in  the 
home ! 

Mr.  Peter  F.  Wood  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  spoke  as 
follows : 

I  am  veiy  glad  that  this  all-important  subject  has  been  brought  before 
this  assembly,  for  it  has  immense  influence.  We  cannot  spend  time 
more  profitably  than  in  considering  liuw  we  may  get  back  to  the  point 


39°  FAMILY   RELIGION   AND   WORSHIP. 

of  reviving  family  religion  and  worship,  which  I  am  afraid  has  very 
much  decayed  for  a  great  many  years. 

Is  not  this  neglect  of  family  religion  and  worship  at  the  bottom  of  a 
great  many  of  the  evils  that  afflict  the  Christiaai  Church?  I  believe 
it  is.  Is  not  the  decrease  in  the  attendance  at  our  Sunday  Schools, 
which  we  so  much  deplore,  largely  traceable  to  the  same  caused  I 
believe  it  is,  and  in  reference  to  that  I  do  not  think  we  should  do  well 
in  trying  to  comfort  ourselves  that  it  is  not  a  big  leakage,  and  things 
of  that  kind.  I  thinik  we  shall  do  the  best  for  the  Church  of  God 
by  doing  our  very  utmost  to  stop  this  leak.  The  proverb  says,  "A 
small  leak  will  sink  a  big  ship,"  and  we  had  better  try  and  stop  this 
leak  as  soon  as  possible.  Depend  upon  it,  if  we  do  not,  something 
will  result  such  as  happens  in  Holland  when  there  is  a  breach  in  the 
dykes.  I  should  like  to  emphasise  what  the  preceding  speaker  said, 
that  there  is  a  great  danger  in  these  days  of  parents  leaving  the  re- 
ligious instruction  of  their  children  too  much  to  Sunday  Schools  and 
other  good  organisations,  instead  of  themselves  attending  to  their  God- 
given  responsibilities  and  duties.  Not  that  I  undervalue  these  organi- 
sations. I  should  be  the  very  last  to  do  so,  I  thank  God  for  them  ; 
they  are  the  glory  of  the  Churches.  But  we  cannot  delegate  the  duty 
that  we  owe  to  God  as  parents.  Some  things  we  can  do  by  proxy,  but 
this  is  not  one  of  them. 

Family  worship  brings  not  only  spiritual  blessings  in  its  train,  but 
a  good  many  other  blessings  besides,  and  I  am  very  sorry  to  say,  I 
am  afraid  in  a  great  many  instances,  in  many  families,  it  is  very  much 
neglected.  In  the  press  and  hurry  and  rush  of  life  it  is  difficult— 
I  do  not  pretend  to  hide  that  it  is  difficult — always  to  have  family 
worship  in  the  home.  But  if  it  is  difficult  we  must  brace  ourselves 
up  to  facing  it,  and  we  must  find  a  way  of  making  circumstances  bend 
to  this  most  important  duty.  Then,  if  we  want  to  maintain  and 
increase  family  religion,  there  is  another  thing  that  we  must  be  more 
careful  about,  and  that  is  to  whom  we  entrust  our  children,  whether 
nurses,  or  governesses,  or  tutors,  or  schools,  or  colleges,  or  universi- 
ties. Good  and  holy  influences  and  the  formation  of  a  noble  character 
are  even  greater  than  educational  advantages.  I  am  very  much  afraid 
that  more  harm  is  done  by  sending  our  young  people  to  unsuitable 
tutors  and  seminaries,  and  so  on,  than  from  almost  any  other  cause. 
Let  us  place  our  children  only  where  they  have  the  grace  and  wisdom 
to  conscientiously  and  diligently  teach  them  how  to  make  the  best  of 
both  worlds. 

The  Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D.   (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 

made  the  following  remarks: 

I  have  a  fear  that  on  our  side  of  the  water  family  discipline  has  been 
too  much  relaxed.  The  fathers  and  mothers  of  to-day  do  not  stand 
at  the  doers  of  their  homes  to  guard  against  the  incoming  of  influences 
that  are  destructive  to  religious  life.  There  are  family  amusements 
that  aje  allowed  that  are  very  destructive  to  religion  in  the  home. 
I  have  never  known  a  family,  in  my  experience  as  a  pastor,  where 
games  of  cards  were  permitted  in  which  there  was  at  the  same  time 
a  family  altar.  It  is  related  that  when  a  company  of  Methodists  came 
over  from  Ireland,  at  the  very  beginning  of  Methodist  history  in 
America,  settling  in  and  about  what  is  now  the  city  of  New  York, 
they  fell  into  a  backslidden  state,  and  one  evening  that  woman  whose 
name  is  immortal    in  our  country,    Barbara  Heck,    came   upon   this 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  391 

company  of  backslidden  Methodists  playing  cards.  She  seized  the 
pack  of  cards  and  flung  them  into  the  fire,  the  best  place_  in  the  world 
for  a  pack  of  cards^ — would  that  they  were  all  treated  in  that  way  ! 
Another  thing  has  come  into  our  homes,  and  that  is  the  dancing  par- 
lour. I  have  never  known  a  family  in  which  there  was  dancing  in 
the  parlour  where  there  were  prayers  in  the  family  room.  Another 
thing  that  comes  into  some  of  our  families  is  the  permission  to  take 
strong  drink,  and  when  the  strong  drink  comes  into  the  home  it  is 
not  singular  that  the  boys  go  to  the  saloon.  These  are  three  things 
that  are  coming  into  the  families  of  Methodism  that  are  destructive  to 
family  religion. 

There  is  also  the  Sunday  newspaper  in  our  country,  which  is,  perhaps, 
the  worst  thing  that  comes  into  our  homes.  I  am  glad  that  in  London 
I  do  not  find  a  Sunday  newspaper.  I  believe  there  are  some  papers 
that  are  vended  on  Sunday,  but  I  am  told  that  there  are  no  papers 
printed  as  Sunday  newspapers  in  London.  I  hope  that  is  true.  I  wish 
it  were  true  in  our  cities  in  America.  The  worst  issue  of  the  weekly 
Press  with  us  is  the  Sunday  newspaper.  There  is  gathered  up  for  that 
issue  all  the  gossip  and  the  very  worst  news  of  the  week,  and  they  are 
crowded  into  the  Sunday  newspaper,  which,  in  our  great  cities  in 
America,  is  equal  to  a  good-sized  volume.  It  comes  into  the  home. 
The  man  that  reads  the  Sunday  newspaper  on  the  Sunday  morning  does 
not  usually  have  family  prayer  on  Sunday  morning,  neither  dnes  it 
qualify  him  for  the  service  at  the  sanctuary  on  Sunday  morning.  There- 
fore, the  coming  into  our  homes  of  the  Sunday  newspaper  has  been 
to  us  an  unmitigated  ctirse  in  the  loss  of  family  religion.  I  wish  there 
could  be  a  voice  raised  in  America  somehow  that  would  put  the  Sunday 
newspaper  out  of  existence.  If  these  amusements  are  permitted  in  our 
homes,  and  this  kind  of  literature  comes  in  for  our  children,  we  may 
not  expect  that  there  will  be  a  very  high  spiritual  tone  in  the  honsehold. 

The  Rev.  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South), 
was  the  next  speaker.     He  said  : 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  one  thing,  so  far,  at  least,  as  the  United 
States  are  concerned,  and  that  is,  that  family  prayers  are  not  as 
common  now  among  Christian  people  as  they  were  twenty-five  or 
thirty  years  ago.  When  I  began  my  ministry,  more  than  thirty  years 
ago,  I  rarely  spent  a  night  in  a  Christian  household  without  being 
invited  to  conduct  worship  either  in  the  evening  or  in  the  morning, 
and  usually  both.  But  in  recent  years  I  have  had  some  very  unsatis- 
factory experiences  on  that  subject.  I  shall  not  undertake  to  say  that 
family  prayers  and  family  religion  are  absolutely  identical,  but  I  assert 
that  it  is  an  exceedingly  difiicult  problem,  if  not  an  impossible  problem, 
to  maintain  family  religion  without  family  prayer.  One  of  the  chief 
difiiculties  in  regard  to  this  matter,  in  our  country,  at  any  rate,  is 
that  so  many  fathers  have  entirely  abdicated  their  religious  duties 
into  the  hands  of  their  wives.  Whether  it  is  so  in  Great  Britain  or 
not,  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  say.  I  have  a  sort  of  half-formed  notion 
that  the  ordinary  Englishman  never  surrenders  anything.  It,  how- 
ever, gives  me  very  great  satisfaction  to  add  that  in  many  cases  where 
the  father  does  not  conduct  family  worship,  the  mother  assumes  the 
duty,  and  discharges  it  witli  very  great  effect. 

May  I  be  pardoned  a  personal  word.  I  suppose  that  even  here  it  ia 
not  out  of  order  for   a  Methodist  to  give  liis  experience.     My  own 


392  FAMILY    RELIGION    AND    WORSHIP. 

father  was  not  a  Christian  man,  although  a  verj-  high-minded  gentleman. 
Yet  I  cannot  remember  the  day  when  my  mother  did  not  pray  with 
her  children.  I  cannot  remember  the  day  when  she  did  not  pray  for  my 
father.  It  was  my  good  fortune,  the  first  year  that  I  became  an  itinerant 
preacher,  to  be  sent  back  as  pastor  of  the  charge  in  which  I  was  brought 
up,  and  it  was  my  great  joy  to  receive  my  own  father  into  the  Church. 
He  was  the  first  person  that  I  received  into  the  Church.  It  was  rather 
an  awkward  task  for  him  to  take  family  prayers,  and  he  sometimes 
had  to  have  my  mother's  promptings,  for  he  was  a  reticent  man  and 
rather  slow  of  speech,  whereas  my  mother  had  a  wonderful  gift  in 
prayer,  as  so  many  of  the  saintly  women  of  early  Methodism  had.  There 
are  thousands  of  such  women  in  America. 

Another  fact  that  interferes  with  family  religion  among  us  in 
America  is  the  decay  of  the  conception  of  the  unity  of  the  family  life. 
Individualism  is  becoming  rampant  among  us.  The  family  begins  to 
fall  apart  at  a  very  early  period.  Every  boy  or  girl  has  his  or  her 
own  particular  interests,  their  own  separate  set,  their  own  circle  of 
friends.  They  are  not  merely  allowed  to  cultivate  and  develop  their 
peculiarities,  but  also  their  eccentricities.  So  that  it  becomes  a  very 
diflicult  thing  to  hold  the  family  together  in  a  common  and  united  life. 
My  own  impression  is  that  it  is  not  the  working  people  among  us 
who  find  most  trouble  in  having  family  prayer  ;  it  is  the  well-to-do 
people — those  who  go  into  society  and  stay  up  late  at  night,  and  are 
not  well  enough  to  get  up  early  the  next  morning.  The  problem 
of  the  masses  does  not  bother  me  so  much  as  the  problem  of  the  classes. 
The  worldliness,  ungodliness,  and  immorality  of  our  rich  people  is 
our  greatest  peril  in  America.  The  great  bulk  of  our  common  people 
are  sound  to  the  core,  instinctively  religious,  and  only  need  efficient 
training  in  order  to  make  good  Christians,  and  especially  to  make  good 
Methodists.  You  cannot  build  up  a  Methodist  Church  without  a  large 
incorporation  of  that  element — at  least,  the  experiment  has  never  been 
successful,  and  I  suppose  it  never  will  be.  Someone  said  to  the 
eminent  Dr.  John  Broadus,  one  who  was  close  enough  of  kin  to  the 
Methodists  to  have  a  good  Methodist  wife,  "  Dr.  Broadus,  you  have 
such  a  vast  number  of  common  and  ignorant  people  in  your  Church." 
"  Yes,"  said  the  Doctor,  "  and  God  have  mercy  on  you  because  you  do 
not  have."  I  think  the  two  things  I  have  referred  to  lie  at  the  root 
of  the  trouble  with  us. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Champness  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church) 
said  : 

I  do  not  think  anybody  here  has  a  better  right  to  speak  on  this 
subject  than  I  have,  because  I  am  the  religious  child  of  my  father 
and  mother  as  much  as  I  am  their  physical  child.  I  owe  everytliing 
in  this  world  and  the  one  that  is  to  come  to  Charles  and  Mary  Champ- 
ness. I  remember  my  father's  conversion.  I  remember  when  the  ale 
jug  ceased  to  go  to  the  public-house  on  Sunday,  and  when  the  folks 
that  used  to  come  together  to  empty  the  jug  did  not  come,  because 
the  jug  was  not  there.  My  father  began  at  the  right  end.  He  deter- 
mined that  where  he  was  going,  so  far  as  he  had  the  power,  his  chil- 
dren should  go  also,  and  he  led  us  to  the  house  of  prayer.  I  can  see 
the  free  sitting  that  we  used  to  sit  in.  We  always  sat  in  the  same 
free  sitting,  because  he  took  care  that  nobody  was  there  before  us, 
It  was  our  family  pew  to  us  in  that  respect.     I  remember  his  prayers. 


General  remarks.  393 

1  did  nni  liear  him  every  (la\-.  As  has  Ijcen  said  by  somebody  else, 
he  saw  his  children  most  when  they  were  asleep.  But  Sunday  was  the 
day  lie  gave  to  his  children.  He  never  was  away  from  his  children. 
Sometimes  he  used  to  give  himself  the  extraordinary  treat  of  going 
to  hear  some  great  preacher,  perhaps  miles  away  from  home  ;  but  he 
always  took  some  of  us  boys  with  him  wherever  he  went. 

I  have  listened  to  the  most  powerful,  and  eloquent,  and  soul- 
convincing  ministers  that  Methodism  has  produced  in  my  time,  but 
I  have  never  shed  so  many  tears  under  anybody's  preaching  as  I  have 
under  my  father's  godly  exhortation  on  Sunday  night.  He  used  to 
come  home  and  read  the  Bible,  and  explain  it,  and  I  remember  his 
words  to  this  day.  I  will  never  forget  them.  You  see,  it  was  not 
only  family  worship  but  family  religion — the  life  my  father  and  mother 
focussed  with  their  prayers.  I  never  saw  them  do  anything  unworthy 
of  their  prayers,  and  their  prayers  wrapped  round  all  parts  of  our  life. 
My  father  is  the  tmly  man  I  ever  heard  pray  for  the  business  life  in 
which  his  boys  were  working.  He  brought  in  business  life.  When  I 
was  an  errand  boy  my  father  used  to  pray  for  the  shop  where  I  was 
an  errand  boy.  It  seemed  to  me  as  if  it  sanctified  things  everywhere 
I  went.  I  would  like  to  make  every  Methodist  family  hear  what  I  am 
saying  now.  If  the  Lord  were  to  say  to  me  :  "  Champness,  this  is  the 
last  time  that  you  are  going  to  speak.  You  will  never  speak  any 
more.  Ask  of  Me  something  for  England,"  this  would  be  the  request 
I  would  put  up  as  my  last  prayer  in  this  world  :  "  Give  me  a  good 
father  and  mother  in  every  house  in  England."  Then  you  may  do  what 
you  like  with  your  ironclads  and  your  khaki. 

It  is  coming  on  sacred  ground,  but  in  my  home  there  is  one  who  has 
made  me  believe  in  holiness.  I  have  been  away  from  home  a  great 
deal,  but  my  wife  has  fenced  around  our  family.  When  I  was  leaving 
my  first  circuit  at  Ely  they  gave  me  a  picture  Bible.  They  little 
thought  what  an  inheritance  that  picture  Bible  was  to  be.  We  had  no 
children  in  those  days,  but  we  have  had  a  good  many  since,  and  every 
one  of  them  is  indebted  to  that  picture  Bible.  On  Sunday  afternoon 
my  wife  has  always  had  the  children  round  her,  and  has  expounded 
that  Book,  and  shown  it  with  the  pictures.  It  was  the  greatest  punish- 
ment that  could  come  to  any  of  our  children  to  be  excluded  from  their 
mother's  Sunday  afternoon  Bible-class.  Qne  of  my  boys  said  to  me 
the  other  day,  "  Father,  when  mother  and  you  are  gone,  if  my  brothers 
and  sisters  will  let  me,  I  would  like  to  have  that  picture  Bible, 
because  I  owe  everything  to  what  mother  has  said  to  me  out  of  that 
Book." 

The  Rev.  F.  W.  Bourne  (Bible  Christian  Church)  spoke  as  fol- 
lows : 

I  want  to  say  two  things.  The  Word  of  God  contemplates  the 
regular  transmission  of  piety  from  father  to  son,  from  mother  to 
daughter,  from  parents  to  children,  from  generation  to  generation. 
''  He  established  a  testimony  in  Jacob,  and  appointed  a  law  in  Israel, 
which  He  commanded  our  fathers,  that  they  should  make  them  known 
to  their  children  ;  that  the  generation  to  come  might  know  them,  even 
the  children  which  should  be  born,  who  should  arise  and  declare  them 
to  their  children."  I  was  at  a  meeting  a  few  weeks  ago  when  one  of 
the  speakers  belonging  to  another  section  of  the  Church  said  that 
Methodism  had  done  very  much  by  conquest  and  very  little  by  culture. 


394  FAMILY   RELIGION    AND   WORSHIP. 

I  do  nnt  believe  that  the  statement  was  quite  accurate,  hut,  if  it  he, 
our  husinoss  from  this  Oecumenical  Conference  is  to  resolve  that  we 
■will  ilo  as  much  hy  culture,  or  more,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  than  wo 
have  (lone  by  conquest.  I  am  quite  sure  that  in  the  home  we  have 
the  best  place  to  exhibit  our  religion,  and  win  oxa  greatest  triumphs. 

I  had  a  special  word  to  say,  which  I  need  not  say  now,  because  Mr, 
Champness  has  given  us  the  brighter  side  of  the  same  truth — that  it 
is  the  want  of  the  white  soul  and  the  white  life,  in  professing  Chris- 
tians who  are  heads  of  families,  that  prevents  the  fulfilment  of  that 
promise  which  is  made  concerning  family  religion.  I  have  heard  the 
text  preached  from  several  times,  "Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  thou  shalt  be  saved,"  but  the  words  joined  to  them  I  have  very 
seldom  heard,  "  Believe  on  tlie  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be 
saved,  and  thy  house."  Our  religion  is  a  religion  of  promise.  It  is 
"  unto  you  and  to  your  children." 

I  remember,  when  I  was  a  boy  of  fifteen,  soon  after  my  conversion, 
accompanying  the  Rev.  Thomas  Collins  to  one  of  the  special  services 
which  he  was  in  the  habit  of  holding  in  that  part  of  the  country  where 
I  lived.  He  took  a  particular  interest  in  me  at  that  time.  He  showed 
me  very  great  kindness,  and  I  learned  lessons  from  him  that  I  have 
never  forgotten.  I  learned  the  secret  of  faith,  if  I  had  never  learned 
it  before.  Faith,  it  is  said,  is  the  masterspring  of  a  minister  ;  but  it 
is  also  the  masterspring  of  a  parent  and  all  godly  workers  in  Christ's 
service.  May  I  illustrate  it  by  an  instance  which  occurred  only  a 
few  days  ago  'I  It  does  not  xefer  to  a  child,  but  to  a  husband.  There 
has  been  a  person  at  this  Conference  who,  a  few  months  ago,  in  one 
of  our  large  towns,  in  one  of  the  principal  streets,  on  meeting  a  lady 
whom  he  knew,  heard  her  praising  the  Lord.  He  was  astonished, 
and  asked  her  why  she  did  it.  "  Why,"  she  said,  "  I  am  praising  the 
Lord  for  my  husband's  conversion,"  This  friend  said,  "I  am  so 
grateful  to  hear  that  your  husband  is  converted.  I  did  not  know  that 
he  was  converted."  "No,"  she  said,  "he  is  not  converted,  but  he 
will  be."  The  sequel  is  that  during  that  very  week  that  man  became 
a  new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus. 

The  Rev.  W.  A.  Wright,  Ph.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
said : 

I  wish  to  call  attention  to  the  influence  of  a  custom.  A  fact  has 
been  conceded  here  this  afternoon — that  family  religion,  in  its  forms, 
at  least,  has  declined  among  us  as  Methodist  people.  I  think  that  I 
can  give  testimony  to  another  fact  which  is  along  tlie  same  line  and 
related  to  it.  It  is  that  the  baptism  of  infants  in  our  Church  is  also 
declining.  I  believe  that  this  is  not  the  fault  of  out  doctrine.  If  I 
understand  the  teaching  of  John  Wesley,  it  is  that  our  children  are 
born  in  the  Church  and  are  members  of  the  Church,  and  are  as 
members  of  the  Church  entitled  to  baptism.  That  is  our  doctrine, 
but  it  is  not  our  custom. 

Methodism  has  had  a  form  as  well  as  a  doctrine.  It  has  had  its 
custom  as  well  as  its  principles  of  teaching.  Its  custom  has  been 
that  of  Evangelism,  We  have  gone  everywhere  in  the  world  preach- 
ing to  adults,  preaching  conversion,  preaching  revolution  of  life,  instead 
of  culture  of  life.  That  has  been  our  duty.  It  has  been  our  provi- 
dential opportunity.     But  it  seems  to  me  that  out  of  that  custom  there 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  395 

has  been  the  concession  of  a  great  principle.  That  principle  has  been 
conlinually  persecuted  and  criticised  by  another  great  section  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  Oalvinistic  section  of  Christianity  has  ever  opposed  the 
doctrine  that  cliildren  are  born  into  the  Churcli.  Our  Baptist  people 
are  continually  teaching  our  people  that  children  have  no  right  to  be 
baptised,  and  that  it  is  foolishne.'is  and  idleness,  and  so  a  great  many 
of  our  people  have  thought  the  custom  of  regarding  their  children  as 
members  of  the  Church,  susceptible  to  baptism,  and  subjects  of  all 
the  operations  of  grace,   as  perhaps  not  true. 

"We,  as  Christian  teachers,  have  insisted  more  on  adult  conversion 
than  we  have  on  childhood  grace.  We  have  continually  preached  from 
that  mis-translated  text,  ''  Ye  must  be  born  again,"  instead  of  preach- 
ing from  it  as  it  ought  to  be  preached  from — "  Ye  must  be  spiritually 
born."  Christ,  in  that  sermon  to  Nieodemus,  was  only  calling  atten- 
tion to  the  difference  between  a  fleshly  birth  and  a  spiritual  birth,  and 
the  "againness"  of  the  birth  was  not  in  His  mind.  We  have  allowed 
ourselves  to  fall  into  the  mistake  of  allowing  our  children  to  become 
adults,  and  then  becoming  the  subjects  of  conversion  instead  of  re- 
garding them  as  the  subjects  of  Divine  grace,  and  of  the  operations 
of  the  Divine  Spirit,  from  the  moment  that  they  are  born  into  the 
world,  and  instead  of  believing  that  the  Spirit  always  meets  tiiem  at 
every  cross  road  of  character  and  conduct,  presenting  His  power  and 
His  allurements  to  draw  them  into  the  ways  of  eternal  life. 

So  I  believe  that  we  ought  to  re-think  our  doctrines.  We  ought  to 
go  down  again  to  the  very  bottom  of  this  question  of  membership  of 
the  Church,  and  to  see  that  children  are  regarded  as  subjects  of  the 
operations  of  the  grace  of  God  from  the  very  beginning  of  their  lives. 
Our  people  have  failed  to  hold  on  to  that,  and  that  is  the  reason  why 
I  think  that  they  are  neglectful  of  the  operations  of  grace  in  the 
family  circle. 

The  Rev.  J.  S.  Caldwell,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal 
Zion  Church),  said : 

I  would  like  to  add  my  experience  to  that  of  those  who  have  spoken 
this  afternoon,  especially  as  several  of  them  have  gone  in  a  parallel 
line  with  mine,  I  testify  that  there  is  great  power  in  family  rehgion 
and  worship.  I  remember  very  distinctly  that  my  father  was  a  Chris- 
tian man,  and  would  call  the  children  around  the  family  altar,  and 
especially,  with  his  hand  on  my  head,  very  many  times  did  he  petition 
Heaven  in  behalf  of  the  children,  and  the  members  of  the  family. 
The  first  impression  that  I  had  of  religion  was  around  the  family  altar. 
The  questions  propounded  and  the  answers  given  there  from  the  old 
catechism  I  remember  most  distinctly.  It  was  these  things  that  led 
me  along  in  my  childhood,  until  I  was  old  enough  to  accept  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ, 

I  want  to  say  also  that  the  Bible  is  all  on  our  side  in  this  contention 
for  family  religion  and  worship.  In  the  Book  of  Joshua  are  recorded 
these  words :  "  As  for  me  and  my  house,  we  will  serve  the  Lord." 
When  Bishop  Clinton  referred  to  that  question  which  was  propounded 
by  the  little  boy  to  his  father,  "  What  made  you  quit  if? "  I  thought 
then  that  if  ministers  would  next  Sunday  morning  all  around  the 
world  ask  their  congregations,  "What  made  you  quit  it?"  they  would 
be  astounded  and  put  to  it  for  an  answer  ;  and,  looking  for  that  answer. 


T,g6  FAMILY    RELIGION    AND    WORSHIP. 

manj'  of  them  -would  say,  like  that  father,  "I  will  never  go  to  bed 
again  without  asking  God's  benediction  u])on  the  family." 

Then,  not  only  have  we  that  reference,  but  I  see  the  Shunammite 
woman  hurrying  towards  the  seat  of  the  prophet,  and  as  the  prophet 
looks  out  and  sees  her  coming  in  haste,  he  tells  his  servant  to  go  and 
ask,  "  Is  it  well  with  thee  ?  Is  it  well  with  thy  husband  ?  Is  it  well 
with  the  child  ? "  We  want  to  ask  our  members  these  questions 
Ijointedly,  "  Is  It  well  with  thee,  with  the  child,  with  the  husband  ? " 
They  will  be  compelled  to  look  about  for  an  answer.  Not  only  have 
we  this  from  God's  Word,  but  in  one  of  the  Ejiistles  it  is  recorded 
that  God  sends  three  special  messages,  three  special  letters — one  to 
the  fathers,  because  they  knew  ;  one  to  the  young  men,  because  they 
were  strong  ;  and  one  to  the  children,  thus  including  the  entire  family 
in  that  Epistle. 

What  we  want  to  do  is  to  go  directly  to  them  and  ask  them  these 
pointed  questions.  I  know  that  there  are  quite  a  number  of  young 
men  in  our  congregations,  and  young  women  as  well,  possibly,  and 
fathers  who  do  not  look  after  this  matter  personally  as  they  should. 
What  we  want  to  do,  with  God's  Word  on  our  side,  is  to  take  that 
Word,  and  go  straight  to  them  with  it,  and  with  all  the  emphasis 
and  force  of  our  sou],  ask  them  these  questions,  and  in  the  searching 
for  an  answer  many  of  them  will  come  to  the  conclusion,  and  to  the 
decision,  that  they  will  serve  the  Lord. 

Mr.  J.  Wilcox  Edge,  J.P.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  spoke  as 
follows : 

My  own  religious  life  is  so  largely  the  product  of  the  religion  of 
the  family  that  I  feel  a  profound  interest  in  this  subject  this  after- 
noon. I  have  lately  had  the  opportunity  of  visiting  many  parts  of  the 
world  and  being  in  close  touch  with  our  Methodist  life.  All  round  the 
world  I  have  seen  much  that  has  caused  me  to  feel  thankful  to  God 
for  the  spiritual  state  of  things  among  us — some  things  which  have 
again  and  again  inspired  me.  But  I  am  bound  to  confess  that  for 
years  at  home,  and  now  from  my  experience  abroad,  I  have  felt  that 
this  question  before  us  is  one  of  the  weak  spots.  It  has  been  em- 
phatically acknowledged  this  afternoon  that  it  is  a  weak  spot.  As 
practical  men,  what  are  we  going  to  do  to  rectify  it?  Our  brother  who 
has  just  spoken  has  partly  led  the  way.  I  think  that  we  must  all 
take  our  own  share  of  the  responsibility  in  this  matter.  Forty  years 
ago  I  remember  that  this  subject  was  more  frequently  referred  to  in 
the  pulpit  than  I  hear  it  to-day.  Let  us  have  it  again  and  again  now. 
Then  the  local  preachers  must  help  in  it,  and  the  class-leaders  must 
help  in  it,  only  they  must  take  care  to  have  family  worship  themselves. 
I  have  known  class-leaders  and  local  preachers  who  were  good  men, 
but  who  were  faulty  in  this  respect. 

I  mention  this  subject  constantly  in  my  class,  and  especially  when 
any  of  the  members  are  about  to  be  married.  In  our  Church  life, 
being  in  touch  as  we  are  with  young  people  who  are  about  to  be 
married,  let  us  speak  faithfully  to  them  on  this  subject.  Again  and 
again  in  offering  my  congratulations  to  young  people  in  poor  or  middle- 
class  circumstances,  after  offering  the  congratulations  I  have  come  to 
this  question,  "Are  you  going  to  honour  God  in  your  family  life? 
Do  begin  there,    and  you  will  never  regret  it."     I  asked  a  wealthy 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  397 

gentleman  not  long  ago,  who  was  telling  me  of  his  son's  recent  marriage 
— ^he  was  a  good  man — "May  I  ask  one  thing?  Do  you  think  that  he 
will  honour  God  in  his  family  life  by  family  worship  ? "  He  said  he 
had  never  spoken  to  him  about  it.  He  had  feared  to  do  it.  That 
shows  that  the  friend  of  ours  who  spoke  about  the  classes  just  now 
was  touching  a  weak  point.     We  need  to  watch  that. 

The  other  day  I  was  in  the  Far  West — as  far  as  you  can  go  without 
going  East — under  the  guidance  of  the  Methodist  Archbishop  of  Canada, 
Dr.  Carman,  and  I  had  to  go  to  various  meetings.  The  first  one  I 
went  to  was  an  Indian  wedding.  It  was  a  most  interesting  sight  to 
see  those  two  Red  Indians  being  joined  together  in  matrimony.  The 
service  was  said  in  English,  and  then  translated,  and  then  Dr.  Carman 
had  to  come  forward  and  pronounce  the  benediction  and  give  the 
address.  To  my  amazement  he  said  that  there  was  an  Englishman 
present  who  would  also  say  a  few  words  to  the  newly-married  couple. 
I  was  obliged  to  obey,  and  as  I  had  this  subject  of  family  religion,  I 
said  a  few  earnest  words  to  Henry  and  Mary,  and  I  hope  that  God 
will  bless  them.  Let  us  see  to  it  that  we  have  more  family  religion, 
and  wo  shall  be  prosperous  Churches. 

Mr.  W.  J.  Ferguson  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada)  concluded  the 
discussion.     He  said : 

The  thought  that  has  impressed  me  as  I  have  listened  to  the  dis- 
cussion this  afternoon  is  the  fact  that  it  has  been  pretty  universally 
conceded  that  family  worship  occupies  a  weak  position  in  the  Methodist 
Church.  It  is  also  conceded  that  it  is  a  vital  necessity.  Those  two 
thoughts  have  produced  in  mc  the  question,  "How  can  it  be  cured?" 
I  have  always  had  the  most  unqualified  confidence  in  the  ability  of  the 
Methodist  preacher  upon  almost  any  line  that  you  direct  his  attention 
to  when  he  devotes  himself  to  it.  If  we  have  not  that  condition  rela- 
tive to  family  life  that  we  should  have  as  a  Church,  I  think  the  pastors 
will  have  to  take  the  question  home  to  themselves  directly.  The  laity 
have  the  greatest  possible  confidence  in  the  pastors.  I  have  often 
wondered  that  our  pastors  do  not  avail  themselves  of  that  confidence 
a  little  more  in  close  personal  conversation  with  the  laity,  along  the 
line  of  family  worship  and  attendance  at  class  meetings.  I  believe 
that  is  the  one  point  our  pastors  will  have  to  direct  themselves  to — 
that  they  will  have  to  make  use  of  the  confidence  that  is  reposed  in 
them,  and  that,  through  personal  conversation^  they  will  have  to  lead 
the  laity  who  are  not  already  enjoying  the  benefit  of  family  worship. 
My  own  experience  is  that  it  is  not  an  easy  matter  to  adopt  family 
worship.  I  was  not  a  Methodist  in  my  early  days.  I  was  converted 
in  Toronto,  when  I  was  twenty-four  years  of  age.  My  parents  belonged 
to  the  English  Church,  and  I  had  not  the  benefit  of  family  worship 
as  an  early  instruction.  But  having  listened  to  the  tender  words  of 
Dr.  Potts,  who  was  then  my  pastor,  and  through  whom  I  was  led 
into  the  Methodist  Church,  the  seed  of  Jesus  Christ  was  sown  in  my 
heart.  After  marriage  I  hegan  family  worship,  but  I  can  assure  you 
it  was  only  after  a  great  effort. 

I  think  that  if  our  pastoixs  will  only  take  the  matter  in  hand  in  a 
practical,  thorough  manner,  they  can  accomplish  infinitely  more  than 
they  have  aheady  done.  If  they  would  go  to  a  man  who  has  not  had 
any  experience  of  that  kind,  who  possibly  has  not  the  gift  of  prayer, 


^gS  BUSINESS   PROCEEDINGS. 

and  whose  spiritual  life  is  very  low,  and  would  suggest  to  him  the 
wisdom  of  at  least  reading  the  Scripture  with  his  family,  it  would  be 
productive  of  a  condition  of  heart  and  mind  in  that  man  which  would 
produce  on  our  pastors  themselves  untold  benefit  in  tiie  receptivity 
to  the  Gospel  that  will  follow  their  preaching. 

Through  tlie  eloquence  and  devotion  of  the  whole  of  the  Methodist 
Church,  in  our  country  at  least,  many  young  men  and  others  have  been 
called  into  tlie  Church.  Very  often  they  come  from  conditions  of  life 
where  they  have  not  this  early  training  and  tender  surroundings  that 
we  have  heard  explained  to-day.  I  am  sure  that  the  Methodist  Church 
is  under  special  obligation,  through  its  pastors,  to  give  special  attention 
to  the  instruction  and  development  of  the  family  life.  We  know  that 
the  Fatherhood  of  God  has  its  best  expression  in  and  through  the 
family  life,  and  practical  pastoral  work  along  that  line  will  certainly 
be  productive  of  a  helpfulness  towards  our  class-meeting  life,  which 
at  present  is  somewhat  below  the  standard  that  our  pastors  and  laity 
ahke  would  desire  to  see.  Results  are  what  people  are  after  to-day. 
In  every  department  of  life' results  are  the  objects  aimed  at,  and  there 
is  no  class  of  result  that  is  so  desired  by  our  pastors  as  the  spiritual 
improvement  of  the  liearts  of  their  hearers.  Undoubtedly  the 
associations  of  the  family  life,  and  its  obligations  and  privileges,  will 
be  very  helpful  and  distinctly  of  benefit. 

The  Rev.  Enoch  Salt  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  presented  a 
supplementary  list  of  the  provincial  meetings  in  connection  with 
the  Conference,  as  follows : 

Leamington. — September  18,  afternoon  and  evening :  The  Rev.  A.  C. 
Courtice,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada),  and  the  Rev.  J.  F. 
Morland,  Ph.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church). 

Dublin.— Friday,  September  20 :  The  Rev.  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South),  Bishop  W,  B.  Derrick,  D.D, 
(African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  and  the  Rev.  E.  J.  Watkin, 
D.D.  (Australasian  Methodist  Church). 

Belfast. -^^unday  and  Monday,  September  22  and  23 :  The  Rev. 
E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South),  and  the  Rev. 
E.  J.  Watkin,  D.D.  (Australasian  Methodist  Chtu-ch). 

The  Rev.  J.  Bond  (Secretary)  siaid  there  was  a  preacher  present 
(the  Rev.  G.  Camipbell  Morgan)  who  was  going  to  take  a  very 
important  position  in  America  as  successor  to  the  late  Mr.  D.  L. 
Moody. 

The  President  introduced  to  the  Conference  the  Rev.  G.  Campbell 
Morgan,  who  is  elected  to  be  Mr.  Mo-ody's  successor  at  Northfield. 
The  Rev.  G.  Campbell  Morgan,  in  response,  said : 

I  am  quite  sure  those  brethren  here  who  knew  Mr.  Moody  have 
only  to  look  at  me  to  know  how  impossible  it  is  for  me  to  succeed 
him.  I  would  have  you  understand — I  have  been  attempting  to  con- 
tradict that  very  kindly  statement  wherever  I  have  had  an  opportunity 
in  England   and  in  America  for  the  past  six  months — that  I  am  not 


RESPONSE   OF    REV.    G.    CAMPBELL   MORGAN.  399 

going  to  succeed  Mr.  Moody  in  any  single  thing.  I  simply  go  to  the 
tFnited  States  to  take  up  a  new  branch  of  work  which  he  desired  to 
see  started,  which  is  known  there — and  I  am  not  going  to  trouble  you 
with  any  explanation  of  what  it  means — as  the  Northfield  Extension 
Work. 

I  am  extremely  grateful  to  the  President  for  the  courtesy  of  his 
invitation  to  speak  one  or  two  words  in  such  a  gathering  as  this,  and 
I  should  like  to  add  a  word  on  the  most  interesting  subject  which  you 
have  been  discussing  this  afternoon.     I  have  no  right  to  attempt  to 
instruct  the  fathers  of  Methodism,  or  any  fathers,  as  to  their  duty 
concerning  family  religion,  and  yet  I  venture  to  say  that  I  have  been 
deeply  impressed  in  my  own  country,  and  in  the  country  which,  for 
some  years,   at  any  rate,   is  to  be  my  home,  with  the  fact  that  the 
fathers  are  supremely  to  blame  for  the  breakdown  of  family  religion. 
I  have  felt  in  this  country  again  and  again  that  we  have  lost  our  hold 
upon  our  young  people,   because  too  often  the  father  has  taken  the 
position  in  the  family  of  being  the  moral  policeman,   and  the  bread- 
winner.    A  man's  responsibility  cannot  end  there  about  his  children. 
Personally,  I  would  make  no  appeal  to  the  fathers  that  they  should 
bo  the  theologians  of  their  children  ;   my  own  conviction  is  that  a 
woman  is  far  better  as  a  child's  theologian  than  a  man,  and  I  would 
hand  over  the  whole  of  the  theology  of  the  httle  ones  to  their  mothers. 
I  thank  God  to-day  fox  what  I  learned  of  God  from  my  'mother.     But 
I  would  plead  everywhere  with  the  fathers  that  there  should  be  a  return 
to  interest  in  the  actualities  of  the  present  life  of  their  little  children. 
I  remember  a  Methodist  saying  to  me  once  wlien  I  was  conducting 
a  mission  in  a  Methodist  chapel  in  the  Midlands  of  this  countiy : 
"Will  you  tell  me,  Mr.  Morgan,  how  it  is  that  I  have  lost  my  hold 
upon  my  boys?    They  still  live  in  my  Imuse  ;  they  respect  me;  they 
reverence  me  ;  but  they  never  ask  my  advice  about  a  single  thing ; 
they  never  make  me  their  confidant."     I  ventured  to  say  to  him  : 
"  My  dear  friend,  when  your  boys  were  seven  years  old  did  you  ever 
play  marbles  with  them?"     "Oh,  no,''  he  said;   "certainly  not."     I 
said,  "  That  is  why  you  have  lost  your  boys'  confidence  when  they  are 
seventeen  years  old."    I  hold  this  to  be  one  of  the  most  important 
things  I  know,  that  the  godly  men  of  the  country  should  make  their 
boys  feel  that  they  are  their  best  chmns.     A  boy  wants  a  chum,  and 
if  you  will  allow  the  experience  of  a  young  father — ^I  have  left  my 
three  boys  behind  me  just  for  a  little,  as  I  often  have  to  do — whenever 
I  am  in  my  own  home,  no  day,  whatever  pressure  of  work,  passes  that 
I  do  not  give  an  hour  to  play  with  them.     I  want  them  to  feel,  as  the 
yeaTs  go  on,  that  I   am  their  friend,   to  whom  presently,   when  the 
interests  grow  away  from  playthings — as  they  do  all  too  soon — they 
will  still  come  with  their  problems  and  their  cares.     I  feel  that  our 
fathers  need  to  take  new  interest  in  their  children,  that  they  may  hold 
them  when  presently  they  grow  up  into  young  manhood  and  woman- 
hood. 

Is  it  not  time  that  we  began  to  see  that  this  question  of  family 
religion  is  the  question  to  which  we  are  bound  to  give  attention?  The 
child  is  to  be  the  centre  of  the  home,  of  the  city,  of  the  Church,  of 
the  nation,  and  all  our  life  is  to  be  ordered  in  reference  to  the  things 
we  bring  to  bear  upon  our  children,  and  all  our  work,  in  city  and  in 
nation,  is  to  be  on  behalf  of  the  children.  I  sometimes  have  wondered 
with  what  astonishment  some  people  must  come  across  that  phrase 
from  one  of  the  old  prophets.     In  one  of  those  moments  when  he  was 


400  RESPONSE   OF    REV.    G.    CAMPBELL    MORGAN. 

looking  on  to  the  golden  age,  and  t^peaking  of  some  of  the  gleams  of 
the  glory  of  that  age  which  his  eyes  had  seen,  he  wrote,  "  And  the 
streets  of  the  city  shall  be  full  of  boys  and  girls  playing  in  the  streets 
thereof."  What  a  wonderful  revelation  of  two  things  :  the  condition 
of  civil  life  in  God's  city — the  streets  fit  for  the  children — and  the 
condition  of  home  life  in  God's  city- — the  children  fit  for  the  streets. 
These  two  things  can  never  be  dissociated.  If  we  would  touch  our 
cities  and  our  land  for  God,  we  must  make  our  homes  centres  from 
which  there  shall  go  out  streams  of  purity  and  of  blessing.  I  would 
not  hesitate  to  say — I  do  not  expect  to  carry  all  of  you  with  me — to 
the  working  man  who  cannot  have  his  family  prayer  with  his  children 
day  by  day,  that  he  should  give  up  one  of  his  services  on  Sunday,  and 
gi/o  his  time  to  his  children,  for  an  investment  made  there  is  one 
that  will  pay  in  the  years  that  are  to  come.  I  thank  you  extremely 
for  this  kind  opportunity  you  have  given  me  of  saying  a  word  to  you 
on  the  most  important  subject  that  we  can  face  as  Christians. 

The  President  said  :  Before  closing  this  session.,  I  ajn  sure  every 
heart  will  go  up  to  God  in  prayer  that  His  blessing  may  rest  upon 
our  homes. 

The  Benediction  was  pronounced  by  the  Prbsidbnt. 


BUSINESS' PROCEEDINGS.  40I 


NINTH  BAY,  Friday,  September  13,  1901. 


TOPIC : 
TEMPEEANCE. 

EIRST     SESSION. 

The  Conference  resumed  its  se&sionsi  at  10  a.m,.,  the  Rev.  D.  Brook, 
M.A.,  D.C.L.  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches),  presiding.  The 
Kev.  E.  BoADEN  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches)  read  a  portion 
of  Scripture  and  offered  prayer. 

The  Rev.  J.  Bond  (Secretaiy)  repoi-ted  that  a  letter  had  been 
received  from  Epworth  offering  hospitality,  etc.,  to  the  delegates 
who  wished  to  visit  Epworth. 

The  Rev.  Professor  W.  I.  Shaw,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Secretary),  reported 
that  he  had  sent  a  copy  of  the  general  resolution  passed  in  refer- 
ence to  the  attempted  assassination  of  President  McKinley  to  the 
United  States  Ambassador  in  London.  A  telegraphic  reply  had 
been  received  as  follows : 

.  To  the  Secretary  of  the  (Ecumenical  Conference,  Wesley's  Chapel, 

City  Road. 
I  thank  you  and  the  members  of  the  CEcumenical  Conference  for  the 
expressions  of  sympathy  conveyed  in  the  resolution  of  the  7th  inst., 
which  I  have  forwarded  to  my  Government. 

Choatb,  Ambassador. 

The  Rev.  Professor  W.  I.  Shaw,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Secretary),  read 
the  Daily  Record  for  Thursday,  which  was  confirmed. 

The  Rev.  D.  Brook,  M.A.,  D.C.L.  (President),  in  introducing  the 
topic  for  the  morning  session,  said :  * 

1  do  not  think  it  has  been  customary  for  the  President  to  make  any 
special  opening  remarks,  but  I  should  like  to  say  we  all  appreciate  the 
great  importance  of  this  Conference.  We  cannot  think  too  highly  of  it. 
It  is  important  as  a  demonstration  of  the  unity  and  catholicity  of 
Methodism,  but  it  is  still  more  important  for  the  magnificent  opportu- 
nity which  it  gives  us,  first  of  all,  for  fellowship,  mutual  encourage- 
ment, and  of  deliberation  as  to  plans  and  principles  to  be  adopted 
in  the  days  to  come.  But,  secondly,  and  more  important 
even  than  that,  it  is  important  because  of  the  special  oppor- 
27 


402  TEMPERANCE. 

tunity  it  gives  us,  as  representatives  of  world-wide  Methodism, 
of  coming,  with  our  huge  responsibilities,  into  the  presence  of 
the  great  Head  of  the  Church  and  securing  the  special  grace 
which  He  is  prepared  to  bestow  upon  us  because  of  those  respon- 
sibilties.  I  would  fain  hope  that  we  try  to  remember  all  through 
the  hours  of  our  discussion  that  Divine  presence  for  that  express  pur- 
pose, and  that  we  keep  our  minds  susceptible  to  the  Divine  influence, 
and  that  we  allow  more  spontaneity  for  responding  to  the  inspirations 
of  the  hour,  so  that  our  discussions  should  have  more  of  genuine, 
brotherly,  and  at  the  same  time  filial  relationship  to  the  Church  as  a 
whole,  the  Church  and  its  Head  together.  With  a  little  more  open- 
ness, readiness,  and  freedom,  our  debates  would  not  lose  in  interest, 
and  they  would  gain  immensely  in  practical  utility.  We  all  want  to 
make  the  very  best  possible  use  of  the  splendid  opportunity  which  this 
Conference  presents. 

This  waa  the  Temperance  session  of  the  Conference,  and  Mr. 
Daniel  Baker  (Methodist  Protestant  Church)  led  off  with  an  essay 
on  "Practical  Methods  of  Dealing  with  the  Liquor  Traffic."  He 
said  : 

The  liquor  traffic  is  in  the  world.  Any  man  who  prophesies  its 
overthrow,  complete  and  real,  must  be  regarded  as  an  optimist  indeed. 
Such  I  am,  for  I  believe  God  will  conquer  all  the  evil  in  the  world.  I 
extend  my  hand  in  sympathy  to  every  form  and  variety  of  temperance 
work.  So  long  as  human  beings  are  individuals  and  capable  of  think- 
ing for  themselves,  so  long  will  there  be  honest  individual  differences 
of  opinion  as  to  the  best  methods.  Yet  the  next  century  would  be 
still  sounding  its  praise  if  on  this  one  subject  alone  this  Conference 
could  arrange  a  definite  plan  of  action,  so  that  all  branches  of  our 
beloved  Methodism  could  go  to  their  homes  with  one  rallying  cry,  that, 
by  the  help  of  Grod,  each  of  us  will  pledge  his  life,  happiness,  and 
fortune,  to  the  overthrow  of  the  liquor  traffic. 

The  liquor  traffic  is  ruining  homes,  destroying  lives,  pauperising 
communities  and  the  State.  The  Christian  State,  Christian  leaders 
and  rulers  in  Parliament  and  Congress,  Christian  Presidents  and  Kings, 
either  assent  or  consent  to  the  thing  being  done.  In  this  day,  when 
men  should  feel  that  Grod  rules,  and  we,  His  children,  are  entrusted 
with  the  affairs  of  His  government,  this  traffic  lives.  "In  this  day 
when  human  achievements  in  every  department  of  activity,  new  inven- 
tions, new  discoveries,  new  wonders  in  science  and  revelation  startle 
us  anew  almost  every  morning,  we  continue  to  suffer  the  same  old 
iniquity  and  are  paralysed  by  the  same  old  difficulties  ;  the  traffic  still 
lives."  Why  should  it  live?  No  orator  for  the  defence  of  the  traffic 
has  ever  yet  given  a  good  reason  why  a  Christian  government  should 
be  a  partner  in  the  saloon.  I  am  familiar  with  the  reason  given  for 
the  taxation  of  the  business  and  the  plea  made  for  the  State  being  a 
partner  therein,  but  no  State  should  permit  itself  for  money  to  become 
a  partner  in  a  traffic  of  tears  and  broken  hearts. 


ESSAY   BY   MR.   DANIEL    BAKER.  403 

I  am  asked  to  say  what  we  can  do  about  it.  We  can  agitate.  An 
agitator,  even  for  a  good  cause,  is  not  always  a  popular  man.  Neitiier 
was  the  Nazarene.  No  great  reform  has  ever  been  inaugurated,  prose- 
cuted or  consummated  without  the  agitator.  The  history  of  the  last 
century  on  both  sides  of  the  sea  is  fuU  of  instances  verifying  this  state- 
ment. What  shall  we  agitate?  We  can  in  our  homes,  our  towns,  our 
cities  raise  our  voices,  not  only  once,  but  continuously  against  this 
thing,  remembering  that  our  goal  is  to  be  "Total  Abstinence  for  the 
individual  and  Prohibition  for  the  State." 

Every  Methodist  pulpit  should  be  sacredly  consecrated  to  this  end. 
One  of  the  saddest  sights  I  imagine  a  Methodist  minister  to  witness 
is  for  one  of  his  members  to  be  a  director  in  a  brewery  combine,  or  a 
stockholder  in  a  whisky  trust.  The  only  sadder  thing  than  that  is  for 
the  minister  to  be  afraid,  because  of  these  or  similar  conditions,  to 
speak  out  as  the  real  messenger  of  the  Gospel.  We  should  not,  I 
think,  depreciate  the  good  work  of  the  Temperance  Societies,  but  in 
our  homes,  churches  and  societies  stimulate  and  encourage  them.  One 
of  the  most  sacred  of  a  life  of  pleasant  memories  is  the  old  family 
temperance  pledge  in  the  family  Bible  of  my  father  and  mother,  each 
of  whose  children  signed  the  pledge  at  nine  years  of  age.  Now  in  turn 
each  of  their  children  has  a  similar  pledge  in  the  Bible  of  their  families, 
and  each  of  their  children  are  signing  at  nine.  Why  should  not  every 
Methodist  home  have  a  similar  pledge  ?  Who  will  estimate  the  value  of 
the  individual  work  that  the  temperance  pledge  and  societies  are  doing? 
Why  should  it  be  impossible  for  the  constituency  represented  here  to 
have,  first  a  temperance  pledge  in  each  home  ;  secondly,  such  a  pledge 
in  each  Sunday  School  and  Church,  so  that  our  people  in  their  indi- 
vidual lives  should  be  committed  individually  against  the  liquor  traffic 
in  all  forms. 

Why  should  not  our  Press  give  more  space  to  warning  and  instruction 
along  this  line  ?  About  this  I  speak  emphatically,  as  the  written  word 
is  the  word  of  power.  "In  respect  to  moral  reforms  and  Christian 
enterprise  what  our  young  people  will  think  depends  largely  upon 
what  our  editors  and  writers  want  them  to  think."  Every  Methodist 
paper  should  have  a  temperance  department.  We  should  also  agitate 
the  necessity  of  teaching  our  children  in  the  schools  the  damage  to 
mind  and  body  wrought  by  the  use  of  intoxicating  stimulants  ;  exhort- 
ing them  to  remember  that  in  Christ's  image  we  are  made  and  that 
our  bodies  are  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  that  to  defile  this 
temple  by  the  use  of  alcohol  is  sin.  All  honour  to  that  noble  band 
of  women  who  have  been  so  largely  instrumental  in  having  such  a 
course  of  study  already  introduced  into  some  of  our  schools.  Our 
Churches  should  more  cordially  co-operate  with  the  Women's  Christian 
Temperance  Union  and  kindred  agencies,  which  are  of  such  importance 
to  this  sin-sick  world,  but  which  organisations  so  often  go  sorrowing 
for  the  word  of  sympathy  which  is  desired  but  not  given.  Let  us  throw 
open  wide  the  doors  of  our  churches  to  them,  and  assist  in  all  possible 
ways  in  their  work  of  training  and  rescue. 


404  TEMPERANCE. 

If  any  should  doubt  the  efficacy  of  agitation,  I  have  but  to  point 
to  the  history  of  many  of  the  noblest  victories  of  temperance  which  have 
been  won  by  agitation.  In  1812  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  of  the  United  States  met,  and  the  committee  which  had 
been  appointed  the  previous  year  to  consider  what  could  be  done 
to  abolish  the  evils  of  intemperance  reported  that  they  had  attended 
to  the  subject  committed  to  their  consideration,  but  that  intemperance 
had  been  for  some  time  increasing  in  the  most  alarming  manner,  and 
that  after  the  most  faithful  and  prayerful  inquiry  they  were  obliged  to 
confess  that  they  did  not  perceive  that  anything  could  be  done.  Dr, 
Lyman  Beecher,  however,  arose  and  demanded  the  appointment  of  a 
committee  of  three  to  devise  ways  and  means  for  the  suppression  of  the 
traffic.  The  report  of  that  committee,  written  by  Dr.  Beecher,  sug- 
gested a  system  of  agitation  so  far-reaching  that  its  good  effects  remain 
to  this  day.  In  the  same  year,  at  the  meeting  of  the  General  Con- 
ference of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  of  the  United  States,  the 
following  resolution  was  offered  by  the  Rev.  .James  Axley : — "Re- 
solved, That  no  stationed  or  local  preacher  shall  retail  spirituous  or 
malt  liquors  without  forfeiting  his  ministerial  character  among  us." 
Four  previous  attempts  had  been  made  to  pass  it,  and  on  this  fifth 
attempt  the  resolution  was  lost.  The  good  man  turned  his  face  to  the 
wall  and  wept  bitterly. 

The  agitation  of  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  the  Rev.  Justin  Edwards,  and 
a  host  of  others,  the  platform  movements  of  John  B.  Gough,  Father 
Mathew,  and  Francis  Murphy  resulted  in  thousands  signing  the  pledge. 
A  recent  result  of  agitation  in  our  land  is  the  abolition  of  the  sale  of 
liquor  from  the  army  canteen  of  the  United  States,  and,  as  it  had 
previously  been  abolished  from  the  navy,  the  sale  of  liquor  is  now 
absolutely  prohibited  at  the  post  exchanges  of  the  army  and  navy  of 
the  United  States.  That  result  was  brought  about  by  the  persistent 
agitation  of  the  question  by  the  friends  of  temperance.  It  would  not 
have  been  considered  a  violation  of  clerical  etiquette  even  fifty  years 
ago  for  a  Methodist  minister  to  have  been  seen  taking  a  glass  of  wine, 
but  now  a  minister  who  would  so  violate  the  proprieties  would  not  be 
desired  by  any  congregation  to  break  to  them  the  Bread  of  Life.  No 
town  meeting,  no  platform  eft'ort,  no  fight  for  local  option,  no  temper- 
ance sermon,  has  ever  been  without  its  direct  result  for  good. 

Reviewing  the  splendid  results  of  agitation  from  every  point  of  view, 
let  us  hold  on  to  the  weapon  which  has  proved  so  effective,  and  let 
us  add  another  stronger  yet — ^the  Ballot. 

There  is  a  weapon  better  yet. 
And  stronger  than  the  bayonet ; 
A  weapon  that  comes  down  as  still 

As  snowflakes  fall  iiipon  the  sod. 
And  executes  the  freeman's  will, 

As  lightning  does  the  will  of  God  ; 
And  from  its  force  nor  doors  nor  locks 
Can  shield  you — 'tis  the  ballot  box. 


ESSAY    BY   MR.    DANIEL    BAKER.  405 

Our  ballots  should  be  as  sacred  as  our  praj-ers  ;  indeed,  a  ballot  is 
a  prayer.  Believing,  as  I  do,  that  this  question  will  find  its  final  settle- 
ment at  the  polls,  I  want  to  win  my  audience  to  a  careful  consideration 
of  this  phase  of  the  question.  Why  should  not  the  Methodist  vote  of 
the  world  always  count  against  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicating 
liquors  ?  Why  should  not  the  Methodist  Church  be  the  political  party 
of  the  world  on  this  question? 

Is  it  the  right  thing  for  us  to  do  ?  Let  us  see.  In  our  country,  as 
early  as  February  27,  1774,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Continental  Congress, 
the  following  resolution  was  offered: — "Resolved,  That  it  be  recom- 
mended to  the  several  Legislatures  of  the  United  States  immediately 
to  pass  laws  the  most  effectual  for  putting  an  immediate  stop  to  the 
pernicious  practice  of  distilling  grain."  Have  the  Legislators  of  the 
United  States  the  right  to  pass  such  laws  ?  This  question  has  been 
decided  affirmatively  more  than  once  by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States.  Notably,  when  the  cases  in  Massachusetts,  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  Rhode  Island  were  combined  and  taken  to  the  Court  in 
1846  and  1847,  and,  notwithstanding  that  Messrs.  Webster  and  Choate 
argued  for  the  opposition  side,  the  Court  decided  unanimously  that  the 
State  had  the  right  to  regulate  and  even  prohibit  the  traffic.  Mr. 
Chief  Justice  Taney  said  :  "  I  see  nothing  in  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  to  prevent  it  (the  State)  from  regulating  and  restraining 
the  traffic,  or  from  prohibiting  it  altogether  if  it  sees  proper."  These 
decisions  are  accepted  as  law,  and  the  Christian  voter  is  called  upon 
to  exercise  his  right  as  a  freeman  to  vote  on  this  question.  He  is,  in 
my  opinion,  much  nearer  the  goal  of  victory  than  he  thinks.  If  only 
the  Christian  voter  can  understand  this,  all  will  be  well.  There  is  a 
strong  verse  in  the  Bible  from  which  many  ministers  present  at  the 
Conference  have  no  doubt  preached,  "  The  word  is  nigh  thee  ;  even 
in  thy  mouth."  I  verily  believe  that  one  of  these  days  the  Christian 
people  of  the  Christian  nations  of  this  world  are  going  to  use  the 
weapon  that  is  already  nigh  them — the  ballot.  The  question  asked 
by  thousands  of  Methodists  is.  Shall  my  ballot  count  ?  They  seem 
more  concerned  as  to  whether  their  vote  shall  count  than  whether  their 
prayers  are  answered,  or  whether  their  sermons  avail.  They  proceed, 
and  rightly  so,  to  pray  and  preach  because  the  Lord  directs  them  to  do 
so.  They  should  act  on  the  same  principle  with  their  ballot.  No 
Methodist  should  vote  for  a  party  in  favour  of  the  liquor  traffic.  No 
Methodist  should  vote  for  an  individual  who  is  not  pledged  to  laws 
favourable  to  the  suppression  of  the  liquor  traffic. 

What  shall  we  do,  and  what  can  we  do?  I  can  only  suggest  what  we 
ought  to  do  in  the  United  States,  but  I  am  sure  the  same  principle 
applies  elsewhere.  I  have  referred  to  the  decision  of  the  Supreme 
Court  showing  the  right  of  the  State  to  prohibit  the  manufacture  and 
sale  of  liquor.  I  believe  every  Methodist  should  be  a  Prohibitionist, 
voting  with  that  party  as  long  as  its  purpose  is  devoted  solely  and 
exclusively  to  the  prohibition  of  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicat- 
ing liquors.     What  a  glorious  sight  an  International  Prohibition  Party 


4o6  TEMPERANCE. 

would  be !  More  majestic  than  the  march  of  any  imperial  guard  !  The 
•watchmen  of  the  interests  of  the  world  and  future  generations  would 
riso  and  call  it  blessed.  If  we  and  our  constituents  would  vote  solely 
and  alone  for  the  prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic  for  ten  years,  and  let 
it  be  known,  we  would  so  attract  the  Christians  of  other  Churches  that 
we  would  hold  the  balance  of  power,  and  compel  the  passage  of  pro- 
hibitory laws.  This  would  have  to  be  persistently  and  regularly  kept 
up.  We  would  in  doing  this  at  least  vote  definitely.  We  would  cer- 
tainly be  voting  for  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ.  If  in  all 
the  States,  as  there  are  in  some,  prohibitory  laws  can  be  made,  would 
not  it  be  worth  the  sacrifice?  Would  you  not  feel  compensated  for 
severing  the  ties  that  now  bind  you  to  the  old  political  parties  ?  Would 
you  not  rejoice  in  the  outcome?  Is  not  that  your  duty?  You  say 
impossible  !     I  say  possible. 

You  who  are  commissioned  to  preach  the  Gospel,  and  believe,  aa 
you  should  believe,  that  your  work  is  the  Lord's,  and  yet  do  not  grow 
discouraged  when  you  see  the  millions  yet  lying  in  sin  and  darkness, 
do  not  be  afraid  of  this  proposition  that  the  liquor  traffic  is  sin,  and 
must  be  abolished.  Be  courageous  and  brave,  and  go  down  from  this 
place  of  hallowed  privileges  resolved  that,  by  God's  help,  by  vote  as 
well  as  voice,  you  will  do  all  you  can  to  bring  this  to  pass.  With  these 
two  weapons.  Agitation  and  the  Ballot,  persistently  used,  under  the 
blessing  of  God,  victory  is  sure  to  come,  and  this  sin,  with  its  blight 
and  curse,  will  no  more  abound.  May  He  hasten  the  consummation  of 
an  end  so  much  desired  1 

Mr.  John  H.  Frebborough  (Wesleyan  Reform  Union)  gave  the 
first  invited  address.     He  said  : 

There  is  no  question  affecting  the  moral  and  political  welfare  of  the 
people  that  lends  itself  to  such  effective  treatment  from  the  platform  aa 
the  Drink  question.  There  is  so  much  of  tragedy  and  pathos.  The 
deepest  and  most  affecting  sentiments  of  our  hearts  are  appealed  to, 
and  readily  respond.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  question  which 
presents  so  many  difficulties,  or  which  has  an  opposition  so  obstinate, 
60  powerful,  so  wealthy,  so  conscienceless,  that  the  way  of  the  reformer 
is  made  very  hard,  and  his  progress  most  disappointingly  slow.  You 
will,  therefore,  I  trust,  bear  with  me  if,  while  endeavouring  to  strictly 
confine  myself  to  the  subject,  my  remarks  lack  that  emotional  element 
which  makes  temperance  addresses  so  interesting  and  effective. 

The  first  condition  of  practical  reform  is  that  the  Reformer  should 
have  a  clear,  lucid,  and  adequate  knowledge  of  the  subject.  The  abso- 
lute necessity  of  this  I  think  I  can  make  plain  by  one  or  two  remarks, 
j-iiere  are  in  Great  Britain  156,103  places  licensed  for  the  sale  of 
intoxicating  liquor.  That  means  that  there  are  at  least  300,000  holders, 
or  tenants,  personally  interested  in  these  licences.  To  supply  these 
places  with  liquor,  and  to  maintain  them,  requires  the  unthinkable  sum 
of  not  less  than  £250,000,000  invested  capital.  Taking  a  moderate 
estimate,  it  means  that  not  less  than  200,000  people  have  invested  their 


ADDRESS  BV  MR.  JOHN  H.  FREEBOROUGH.  407 

money,  snmo  of  tlicin  in  largo  .sums.  Five  of  the  best-known  com- 
p.inies  show  share-lists  that  number  about  8,000  names.  These  share- 
hcklers  are  drawn  from  the  wealtliy  and  most  influential  classes — - 
peers,  professional  men,  many  women,  and,  most  startling  and  strange 
to  say,  300  who  put  the  prefix  of  "Rev."  to  their  names — bishops, 
deans,  canons,  and  ministers.  I  do  not  know  how  many  people  are 
employed  in  the  traffic,  but,  assuming  that  for  every  £1,000  capital 
rliere  is  one  person,  that  would  total  up  to  about  250,000.  That  means 
that  either  financially,  or  in  the  way  of  labour,  there  are  750,000  in- 
terested in  the  maintenance,  protection,  and  extension  of  the  trafiic. 
Or,  to  put  it  another  way,  the  population  of  Great  Britain  is,  say, 
50,000,000.  JJeduct  the  number  of  young  people  under  fifteen  and  the 
total  abstainers,  and  you  get  the  startling  fact  that  one  out  of  every 
fifty  of  the  population  is  personally  and  vitally  interested  in  the  trade. 
Add  to  these  appalling  figures  the  vast  crowd  of  your  fellow-country- 
men for  whom  these  places  are  opened,  and  who  consume  the  liquor, 
and  you  then  get  something  like  an  idea  of  the  enormous  weight  of 
public  opinion  that  you  have  to  deal  with. 

Touch  the  trafiic  in  any  one  of  its  parts,  and  you  are  immediately 
confronted  with  an  ojiposition  perfectly  organised,  with  limitless 
wealth,  untrammelled  with  any  moral  sense,  fierce  and  strong  by  the 
personal  interest  at  stake.  When  you  attack  these  licences  you  meet 
first  the  publican  himself,  then  the  capital  investors,  then  the  wider 
bulwark  of  the  drinkers.  A  leading  brewer  in  Sheffield  once  said,  in 
addressing  the  trade,  that  a  publican  was  a  poor  man  who  could  not 
take  seven  voters  to  the  poll  at  an  election.  In  the  ward  that  I  live 
in  at  Sheffield  there  are  something  like  2,300  voters.  Of  that  number 
twenty  per  cent,  do  not  vote.  That  leaves  the  effective  voting  strength 
about  1,800.  There  are  about  160  licences,  so  that,  according  to  the 
brewer's  estimate,  about  1,100  of  the  1,800  could  be  taken  to  the  poll 
by  the  publicans.  I  have  not  dealt  with  the  public  demand,  which, 
within  certain  limits,  must  be  recognised  as  lawful.  I  have  only 
touched  the  fringe  of  the  terrible  influence  that  the  traffic  can  bring  to 
bear,  but  I  think  I  have  indicated  sufficient  to  show  that  the  work  of 
the  reforiner  is  not  an  easy  one. 

The  second  point  of  my  campaign  would  be  to  make  effective  the 
existing  law.  The  difficulty  here  experienced  is  that  while  the  main 
feature  of  the  law  is  clear,  the  details  are  fearfully  complicated,  being 
spread  over  some  250  Acts  of  Parliament,  dating  from  1828.  These 
should  all  be  swept  away,  and  in  their  place  one  great,  clear,  simple 
measure  passed,  dealing  with  every  class  of  licence.  In  the  present 
state  of  public  opinion,  I  think  that  the  authority  for  granting  all 
licences  should  be  a  committee  of  the  magistrates  for  the  district,  who 
should  have  absolute  discretion  to  refuse  either  new  licences  or  re- 
newals. If  any  appeal  from  their  decision  is  required,  let  it  be  to  a 
fuller  bench  of  magistrates  for  that  particular  district.  The  appeal  to 
Quarter  Sessions,  as  at  present  constituted,  is  a  mockery  and  an  insult. 
The  law  dealing  with  drunkenness  should  be  made  more  stringent.  I 
(vculd  make  drunkenness  in  a  public  place  a  penal  offence,  and  that  if 


4o8  TEMPERANCE. 

a  drunken  man  is  seen  coming  out  of  licensed  premises,  the  burden  of 
proof  should  lie  with  the  publican  to  show  that  he  has  not  supplied 
the  man  with  liquor.  Drunkenness  in  the  public  street  I  regard  to  be 
almost  as  bad  as  indecency.  It  would  be  easy  to  catalogue  a  number  of 
other  simple  reforms  that  are  dealt  with,  both  by  the  Majority  and 
the  Minority  Reports  of  the  recent  Licensing  Commission,  but  all  these 
have  to  be  got  through  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  and,  alas  !  the  wheels 
of  Parliament  grind  very  slowly,  and  very  badly.  The  Children's  Bill 
is  an  illustration  of  the  subtle,  intangible,  but,  nevertheless,  all-power- 
ful influence  that  clogs,  and  finally  emasculates  every  measure  that 
seekti  to  limit  the  power  and  liberty  of  the  traffic  in  strong  drink. 

My  third  point  is  the  creation  of  a  great  national  sentiment  upon 
this  question,  based  on  knowledge,  justice,  and  fraternity.  There  is  a 
large  section  of  the  intelligent,  well-to-do  element  of  English  society 
wlio  have,  so  far,  stood  aloof  from  temperance  reform,  mainly  because 
they  have  not  shared  the  ideals,  nor  approved  the  methods,  of  tem- 
perance reformers.  Their  alliance  to  any  effective  reform  is  absolutely 
essential.  Without  them  we  can  accomjilish  little  or  nothing.  The 
simple  remedies  suggested  afford  ?.  platform  upon  which  they  can  join 
in  the  greatest  and  most  pressing  work  of  amelioration  of  our  times. 

Practical  methods  of  dealing  with  the  drink  traffic  are  bound  to  be 
ineffective  apart  from  a  great  ideal.  As  citizens  of  this  great  Empire, 
an  Empire  fraught  with  such  immense  responsibilities,  and  in  whose 
welfare  that  of  the  world  is  also  almost  bound  up,  we  must  regard  the 
life  of  the  individual  as  being  inseparably  associated  with  the  life  of 
the  community.  If  the  will,  and  power,  and  moral  qualities  of  the 
individual  are  undermined  and  destroyed,  the  ultimate  collapse  of  the 
nation  is  but  a  question  of  time.  I  would  urge,  therefore,  that  in 
every  possible  way,  through  the  medium  uf  the  Day  Schools,  the  Sunday 
Schools,  the  pulpit,  the  platform,  the  Press,  the  political  centres,  the 
minds  of  the  people  should  be  educated  upon  this  great  question,  until, 
with  its  wider  view,  its  more  perfect  knowledge,  its  national  ideas 
purified,  it  will  regard  as  utterly  and  absolutely  intolerable  that  a 
trafiic  like  the  one  in  intoxicating  liquors  should  have  withii^  itself  the 
power  to  paralyse  the  legislative  force  of  this  country,  and  in  a  sense 
control  the  moral  and  political  destiny  of  the  people. 

The  Hon.  Thos.  H.  Murray  (Methodisit  Episcopal  Church)  gave 
the  second  invited  address,  as  follows  : 

In  the  brief  time  allotted  I  desire  to  offer  three  suggestions  upon  this 
most  difficult  subject.  One  is  the  importance  of.  uniting  temperance 
people.  In  our  country  there  have  been  two  methods  of  temperance 
work.  One  has  sought  to  reform  the  drinker  and  to  induce  others  to 
avoid  drink.  The  other  has  addressed  itself  principally,  if  not  entirely, 
to  the  destruction  of  the  saloon.  A  great  deal  of  discussion  has  ensued 
as  to  the  relative  merits  of  these  two  plans.  This  discussion  has  often 
run  wide  of  the  mark  by  overlooking  or  ignoring  the  fact  that  each 
method  relates  to  a  different  part  of  the  same  great  work.     One  deals 


ADDRESS    BY   HON.    THOMAS   H.    MURRAY.  409 

n-ith  the  conduct  of  the  individual.  The  other  with  the  removal  of  a 
dangerous  and  destructive  institution.  The  result  has  been  that  the 
people  who  are  really  for  temperance  are  not  by  any  means  at  harmony. 
This  lack  of  united  thought  and  action  by  those  who  desire  and  work 
for  the  same  common  object  is  the  most  deplorable  fact  in  the 
present  condition  of  the  temperance  work.  United  action  of  temper- 
ance people  is  a  primary  condition  of  success.  It  has  been  demon- 
strated by  actual  and  repeated  experience  that  this  condition  exists  in 
some  parts  of  our  country,  and  does  not  exist  in  others.  The  real 
question,  in  any  given  locality,  is  not  whether  the  saloon  is  an  evil. 
All  will  agree  upon  that.  But  rather  whether  its  removal,  at  that 
point,  is  such  a  possible  thing  that  work  for  that  purpose  exclusively 
can  secure  such  united  action  of  temperance  people  as  to  furnish 
promise  of  success.  If  not,  it  does  not  follow  that  nothing  helpful  to 
the  cause  can  be  accomplished.  Much  may  be  done  as  a  basis  for  future 
work  where  prohibition  now  is  so  nearly  impossible  as  to  render  a 
present  attempt  of  doubtful  wisdom.  It  is  probable  that  more  flexi- 
bility in  the  application  of  these  respective  plans  to  sections  of  the 
country  where  one  method  is  practicable  and  the  other  not  would  lead 
ta  more  harmonious  and  eflicient  work. 

At  least,  a  more  willing  recognition  of  the  varied  conditions  which 
characterise  the  people  of  different  places  would  seem  to  be  required 
by  the  fact  that  these  conditions  are  often  so  much  the  outgrowth  of 
early  traditions,  and  modes  of  thought,  and  fixed  notions  of  life,  as  to 
render  any  radical  change  wholly  impossible,  except  by  gradual  and 
progressive  steps  leading  up  slowly,  it  may  be,  to  the  ultimate  object 
so  much  desired  by  all.  A  willingness  to  adopt  any  method  leading  in 
the  direction  of  final  results,  although,  by  slow  processes,  would  have 
the  merit  of  securing  wkat  is  now  more  desirable  than  anything  else 
which  is  certainly  attainable,  and  that  is  the  union  of  forces.  The 
solution  of  the  difficulty  which  the  present  situation  discloses  lies 
in  a  willingness  to  recognise  the  importance  of  keeping  together  :  a 
purpose  to  go  as  far  in  the  direction  of  what  is  wanted  as  the  combined 
force  of  temperance  workers  can  be  induced  to  go.  That  is  statesman- 
ship. That  is  the  kind  of  work  which  reaches  practical  results.  Slavery, 
so  often  referred  to  as  an  illustration,  could  not  be  destroyed  at  a  single 
blow,  nor  by  a  single  method.  When  destroyed,  the  death  biow  was 
dealt  out  by  those  who,  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  work,  had  been 
charged  with  lack  of  fidelity,  because  they  were  only  willing  to  move, 
step  by  step,  with  the  greater  force,  which,  in  the  end,  was  found 
sufficient  to  destroy  the  evil. 

We  have  made  progress  on  the  other  side  of  the  water  during  the 
century  just  closed.  The  character  of  that  progress  is  significant  and 
instructive.  In  no  other  respect  has  there  been  so  much  progress  as  in 
the  changed  public  sentiment  towards  the  drink  habit.  This  has  been 
especially  the  product  of  the  work  of  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  Let  anyone  who  questions  whether  great  advancement  has 
been  made  ask  himself  how  a  man  addicted  to  drink  stands  l)elore  a 


14.10  TEMPERANCE. 

Christian  community  now  as  compared  with  the  standing  such  a  man 
had  fifty  years  ago,  and  he  will  no  longer  doubt.  During  the  century 
our  real  and  substantial  advancement  has  been  by  education  rather 
than  by  legislatiofi,  and  we  can  only  judge  of  the  future  by  the  past. 
In  the  early  part  of  the  century  there  were  many  embarrassments.  In 
many  communities  people  who  signed  the  pledge  at  all  would  attach  a 
condition  to  it.  In  some  localities  they  would  pledge  themselves  not 
to  drink,  except  in  harvest  time.  In  parts  of  New  England  it  was 
common  to  sign  a  pledge  not  to  drink  except  in  sheep-shearing  time. 
A  man  who  had  so  pledged  himself  was  complained  of.  He  insisted 
that  he  had  not  violated  the  pledge.  Upon  investigation  it  was  found 
that  he  had  kept  an  old  wether  tied  up  all  the  time,  from  which  he 
took  a  clip  of  wool  every  time  he  wanted  a  drink. 

Another  suggestion  is  that  the  young  people  are  a  much  larger 
factor  in  this,  as  in  every  other  reform,  than  heretofore.  There  is 
more  hope  for  harmonious  action  by  them  than  by  the  generation  ju&t 
in  advance  of  them.  Their  freedom  from  party  affiliation  ;  their  free- 
dom from  business  interests,  to  warp  their  judgment  ;  their  freedom 
from  the  domination  of  favourite  theories,  often  not  less  paralysing  to 
the  judgment ;  their  larger  capacity  for  being  united  by  the  power  of 
association  will  help  in  this  matter.  Then,  much  has  been  done  to 
widen  their  opportunity,  and  enlarge  their  responsibility..  In  many 
States  special  instruction  as  to  the  effect  of  alcohol  upon  the  body  has 
been  added  to  the  Free  School  course  of  study.  The  Church  has  finally 
and  authoritatively  declared  that  "The  liquor  habit  is  so  pernicious 
in  all  its  bearings  that  the  only  proper  attitude  towards  it  of  Christians 
is  that  of  relentless  hostility,"  that  "  licence  higli  or  low  is  vicious  in 
principle  and  powerless  as  a  remedy."  These  young  people  have  all 
this  to  start  with  more  than  the  generation  preceding  them  had.  There 
is  no  other  source  from  which  so  much  power  for  good  may  come  ;  no 
other  field  which  promises  so  rich  a  harvest  for  the  cause  of  temperance. 
Let  the  effort,  then,  everywhere  be  to  so  unite  them  in  this  great 
work  that  whatever  divisions  there  may  be  in  the  present  generation, 
the  oncoming  generation  will  present  a  united  and  unbroken  front  to 
the  common  foe  ;  so  that  in  their'  day,  if  not  in  ours,  the  great  evil 
may  be  dethroned  and  blotted  from  the  map  of  Christian  civilisation  the 
world  over. 

A  final  suggestion  is  that  the  great  agent  in  overcoming  this,  as  every 
other  evil,  is  the  Church  of  tlw  Living  God.  It  alone  has  the  promise 
of  absolute  conquest.  It  has  direction,  too,  as  to  the  kind  of  weapons 
to  be  employed  in  the  conflict.  With  these  weapons,  and  not  without 
them,  the  Church  is  the  greatest  agent  for  good  in  the  world,  the 
greatest  power  for  the  overthrow  of  evil.  Let  her  people,  therefore, 
get  closer  to  Bible  standards.  Let  them  carry  into  their  work  more  of 
the  Spirit  of  the  Master.  Then  they  will  come  closer  together,  and 
their  work  will  be  as  the  work  of  one  man,  and  that  one  imbued  with 
Divine  power.  Then  will  they  and  their  children  work  out,  here  and 
over  yonder,  the  greatest  moral  reformation  the  world  has  ever  wit- 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  411 

nessed.  They  will  hand  down  to  generations  yet  unborn  this  land 
of  the  fathers,  and  our  Land  of  their  children,  redeemed  not  only  from 
all  the  wrongs  of  human  bondage,  but  also  freed  from  the  ravages  of 
the  greatest  crime  of  all  the  centuries — Intemperance. 

The  Rev.  Edward  J.  Gray,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
opened  the  general  discussion  on  the  topic.     He  said : 

The  traffic  in  liquors  probably  involves  more  practical  difficulties 
than  any  other  question  with  which  the  Church  or  the  State  has  to 
deal.  These  difficulties  have  increased  enormously  during  recent 
periods,  because  the  traffic  has  assumed  new  relations  or  an  economic 
issue.  The  moral  tone  of  the  Christian  Church,  however,  is  higher, 
touching  the  use  of  all  stimulants  and  narcotics,  but  especially  towards 
the  use  of  liquors  as  a  beverage,  than  it  was  even  a  quarter  of  a  century 
ago.  Hence  the  attitude  of  the  Church  toward  this  question  as  a  whole 
is  more  hopeful. 

The  conviction  is  steadily  growing  that  to  gratify  an  acquired  appe- 
tite, or  to  sate  a  cultivated  taste,  merely  for  the  pleasure  it  affords, 
and  especially  when  that  gratification  invades  a  realm  where  moral 
issues  are  involved  touching  other  human  beings,  to  whom  gratification 
of  a  like  appetite  may  mean  possible  debauchery,  is  incompatible  with 
the  inspired  injunction  to  glorify  God  in  our  bodies,  because  they  are 
to  be,  equally  with_our  spirits,  the  holy  temple  of  God.  Out  of  that 
conviction  have  come  many  practical  results,  and  among  them  an 
imperative  order  which  bars  the  portal  to  the  ministry  in  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  without  a  solemn  pledge  to  wholly  abstain  from  the 
use  of  tobacco.  Not  that  tobacco  and  hquor  affect  the  moral  nature 
alike,  or  equally,  but  it  is  felt  that  a  minister  representing  Jesus  Christ 
should  be  clean  in  body  as  well  as  in  heart.  That  standard  will  never 
be  lowered.  On  the  contrary,  it  will  steadily  grow  until  it  has 
included  the  membersliip,  as  well  as  the  ministry,  in  its  requirements. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  traffic  in  liquors,  brewed  and  distilled,  has 
become  an  economic  question,  largely  affecting  the  industries  of  the 
people,  and  widely  increasing  the  revenues  of  the  Government.  While 
in  other  countries  it  has  long  been  reckoned  among  the  important 
industries  and  revenue-producing  commodities,  in  the  United  States 
of  America  fifty  years  ago  it  played  a  comparatively  insignificant  part 
in  these  capacities.  To-day  millions  of  bushels  of  grain  and  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  men  and  women  are  employed  in  the  manufacture  and 
sale  of  liquors,  while  the  revenues  to  the  State  and  General  Govern- 
ments swell  into  immense  proportions.  The  people  are  made  to  believe 
that  their  industries  are  greatly  increased  and  their  taxes  largely 
diminished  by  this  abominable  traffic,  and  it  is  next  to  impossible  to 
convince  them  that  the  increase  in  taxes,  by  crime  through  the  liquor 
traffic,  far  exceed  the  revenue  derived  therefrom.  This  is  the  problem 
to  be  solved,  and  experience  has  proved  that  the  solution  is  extremely 
difficult. 

My  judgment  is  that  all  measures  dealing  with  this  traffic  should 
steadily  look  towards  the  proliibition  of  the  manufacture  and  sale  of 
liquors,  except  for  mechanical  and  medicinal  purposes.  What  specific 
measures  shall  best  and  most  surely  lead  up  to  that  result  is  a  question 
concerning  which  there  is  not  unanimity  of  sentiment  among  the 
warmest  friends  and  the  strongest  advocates  of  the  utter  prohibition 
of  the  traffic  in   liquors.      The  vital  question  now  is,    How  shall  the 


412  TEMPERANCE. 

friends   of  prohibition  and   the  final   suppression   of  the  liquor  traffic 
be  brought  into  a  united  effort?    That  secured,  the  end  is  comparatively 

The  Conference  was  at  this  point  sadly  interrupted  owinj?  to  the 
receipt  of  bad  news  from  America  oonceraing  President  McKinley. 
The  Rev.  N.  Curnock  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  said  : 

I  have  had  handed  to  me  a  telegram,  which  has  just  appeared  in  the 
London  Press,  which  will  be  of  painful  interest.  It  relates  to  President 
McKinley.     It  is  as  follows  : 

President — Latest. 

Buffalo,  2  a.m.— Doctors  again  summoned.  Five  physicians  in  attend- 
ance.    Two  more  nurses  summoned. — Central  News. 

Buffalo,  3  a.m. — President  critically  ill. — Renter. 

Buffalo,  3.15  a.m. —President  was  sinking  for  a  little  after  two 
o'clock  ;  physicians  administered  restoratives.  Secretaries  of 
State  summoned. — Renter. 

Buffalo,  3.30  a.m. — All  the  physicians  at  bedside. — Reuter. 

Buffalo.  4  a.m. — President  has  rallied  somewhat. — Official. 

The  Rev.  D.  Brook,  M.A.,  D.C.L.  (President),  said  he  was  sure 
the  very  best  course  they  could  adopt  would  be  to  s.pend  a  few 
minutes  directly  in  the  presence  of  the  great  Master.  He  then 
called  upon  the  Rev.  Thomas  Allen,  D.D.,  the  Ex-President  of  the 
Wesleyan  Conference,  who  led  the  assembly  in  prayer. 

The  President  said  :  We  shall  certainly  continue  this  discussion 
with  very  chastened  feelings  and  with  very  anxious  thoughts.  There 
is  not  one  individual  here,  from  whatever  side  of  the  Atlantic,  but 
feels  the  intensest  personal  interest  in  President  McKinley,  as  if 
this  great,  good  man  belonged  to  us.  Let  us  all  hope,  and  continue 
earnestly  praying  that  the  great,  anxious  desire  of  the  Church  may 
1)3  gratified  by  its  Head,  and  that  this  invaluable  life  may  yet  be 
preserved. 

The  Rev.  J.  B.  Carns,  D.D.,  Ph.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 

then  resumed  the  discusision.     He  said  : 

t 

I  bring  you  greetings  from  our  sad  country.  My  mother  and  my 
people  live  in  Canton,  the  region  of  our  splendid  President.  In  that 
locality  he  is  beloved  by  Democrat,  Populist,  Republican,  Catholic, 
and  Protestant. 

I  feel  sad,  but  I  bring  you  good  cheer.  The  great  arm  of  the  reforma- 
tion in  temperance  work  is  seen  over  our  horizon.  You  know  how 
our  Church  stands.  Forty-seven  of  our  railway  trunk  lines  have  pulled 
together  and  turned  down  the  drinking  men.  One  million  railroaders 
in  the  T'^nited  States  have  to  jtretend  that  they  are  sober  men  so  as  to 
hold  their  job.     Only  one  old  Life  Insurance  Comj)any  will  insure  a 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  413 

rlriiiking  man  to-day,  and  (hat  Company  puts  a  d'nil)le  price  on  liim. 
The  life-saving  crews  of  our  country  along  the  Atlantic,  across  the 
(iulf,  and  up  to  the  Pacific  require  prohibitionists  for  their  crews. 
The  other  day  a  man  spoke  to  Mr.  Long,  tlie  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
for  a  third  examination,  so  that  he  might  enter  the  navy.  Mr.  Long 
said,  "I  see  that  your  fingers  are  yellow.  You  must  be  a  cigarette 
smoker.  Do  you  smoke,  sir?"  "Yes,  sir."  "Do  you  not  drink  occa- 
sionally?" "Yes,  sir."  "Then  we  do  not  want  you  in  the  United 
States  Navy."  That  is  our  splendid  United  States  Navy,  which  is 
represented  by  our  Deweys  and  others.  Last,  ])ut  not  least,  the  canteen 
has  been  knocked  out  of  the  army. 

The  whisky  men  have  obtained  a  hold  on  the  great  Press  of  the 
country,  and  they  are  trying  to  make  you  believe  that  they  are  the 
injured  ;  but  the  Christian  Press  knows  to  the  contrary  ;  and  we,  in 
the  incoming  United  States  Assembly  at  Washington  in  December, 
will  see  that  the  reform  does  not  turn  back.  We  will  be  there  in  that 
great  gathering  to  see  that  our  country  passes  a  law  prohibiting  any 
unloading  of  intoxicants  in  Manila,  Porto  Rica,  Cuba,  and  our  half- 
civilised   outlying   provinces. 

The  United  States  has  sprung  to  her  feet  on  this  question.  Since 
the  last  (Ecumenical  Conference  there  has  been  organised  in  our 
country  the  great  American  Anti-Saloon  League  movement — a  move- 
ment that  was  suggested  by  Dr.  Kynett,  the  man  whose  fertile  brain 
instituted  our  Church  Extension  Society,  which  has  resulted  in  placing 
to  our  common  fund  one  million  dollars,  so  that  our  Denomination 
will  never  be  so  hard  up  that  she  will  not  have  a  million  dollars  to 
build  churches  in  the  waste  places.  He  was  one  of  the  two  men  who 
joined  in  a  conversation  riding  from  Chicago  to  Philadelphia,  and 
who  isaid  :  "  We  must  have  some  additional  help  on  this  great  reform. 
We  must  combine.  We  have  had  various  kinds  of  splendid  work  done 
in  all  these  years  gone  by,  but  the  fact  is  that  half-a-million  whisky 
men  have  downed  twenty-seven  million  Christians.  They  have  downed 
our  millions  and  waved  the  banner  of  power  in  all  kinds  of  American 
politics."  "Well,"  said  Dr.  Kynett  and  Bishop  Ireland,  "cannot  we 
have  in  Washington  a  heterogeneous  representative  body  of  all  kinds 
of  Denom'nations  and  all  kinds  of  Temperance  organisations?  In  this 
day  of  combination  in  our  Bible  Societies  and  Sunday  School  Unions, 
and  such-like,  let  us  get  the  Christian  Church  to  combine  unitedly  to 
put  forth  an  efiort  as  a  common  opposition  to  the  drink  traflSc."  They 
met  in  Convention — and  no  man  was  more  instrumental  in  gathering 
that  Convention  than  Dr.  Wilson,  our  presiding  elder  of  the  Washing- 
ton district.  Finally  we  were  gathered,  and,  after  some  days  of  splendid 
eloquence,  by  men  of  special  faith  in  the  temperance  business,  we 
agreed  that  we  were  all  in  favour  of  one  thing — namely,  that  we  were 
all  opposed  to  the  American  saloon.  "  Well,  then,"  they  said,  "  if  that 
is  as  far  as  all  kinds  of  Churches,  and  all  kinds  of  Temperance  organi- 
sations in  the  United  States,  can  go,  let  us  go  that  far."  And  there 
and  then  they  organised  the  American  Anti-Saloon  League,  an  organi- 
e'ation  to-day  that  is  strong  enough  to  stand  any  kind  of  opposition, 
we  do  not  care  what  it  is — an  organisation  that  is  liberal  enough  to 
take  into  its  embraces  any  kind  of  temperance  man  who  wishes  the 
prohibition   of  the  American   saloon. 

We  are  organised  in  thirty-seven  of  our  forty-four  States.  When 
we  met  in  our  National  Convention  in  Cleveland  we  found  SQ  many 
Methodist  preachers  that  we  were  a  little  embarrassed.  Methodism 
has  taken  the  initiative  in  this  work.    Each  of  these  thirty-seven  States 


4^4  TEMPERANCE. 

has  a  selected  preacher,  who  lias  charge  of  the  work.  These  preachers 
are  not  superannuated  preacliers.  The  men  selected  for  these  particular 
places  come  from  various  Denominations,  and  are  men  whose  ministry 
was  marked  by  revivals,  and  by  the  raising  of  money.  We  are  well 
organised  to-day.  We  have  about  two  hundred  men  scattered  through 
these  thirty-seven  States,  and  I  thank  God  we  are  finding  plenty  of 
money  to  carry  out  our  plan.  You  people  ought  to  be  tired  of  sacri- 
ficing your  boys.  Every  seventh  Methodist  family  in  the  United  States 
furnishes  a  boy  to  be  a  drunkard,  besides  the  girls  they  are  raising 
who  will  be  drunkards'  wives.  Methodists  in  this  country  are  fur- 
nishing a  yet  larger  quota  than  that. 

Mr.  Adam  Adams,  J.P.  (Primitive  Methodist  Church),  made  the 
following  reonarks : 

There  are  so  many  phases  to  this  discussion  that  to  take  up  the 
question  as  a  whole  would  be  impossible.  I  am,  therefore,  going  to 
speak  to  only  one  of  them.  We  lack  the  legislative  methods  in  this 
country  that  our  American  friends  have  ;  but  I  want  to  point  out  a 
problem  which,  so  far  as  we  and  our  families  are  concerned,  demands 
a  solution. 

I  am  a  man  of  business,  a  shopkeeper.  I  know  something  about  the 
grocery  business,  and  twenty-three  years  ago,  at  great  sacrifice,  I  gave 
up  all  licensed  business.  I  am  in  the  crusade  against  all  narcotics, 
andwe  have  nothing  to  do  with  tobacco,  not  even  in  that  milder  form 
of  cigarettes.  One  of  the  greatest  dangers,  if  not  the  greatest  danger, 
to  the  State  at  this  moment  is  the  grocers',  and  refreshment  house 
licences.  I  am  a  member  of  the  Bench  and  also  one  of  the  Licensing 
Committee  of  our  Bench,  and  therefore  I  know  what  I  am  talking 
about.  There  is  no  difficulty  about  the  pothouse.  Magistrates,  as  a 
rule,  are  always  ready,  if  they  can,  to  abolish  two  or  three  of  these 
licences  if  they  can  give  them  to  a  respectable  man  who  is  going  to 
put  up  a  respectable  hotel,  but  the  grocers'  licence  will  be  about  the 
last  that  will  be  dealt  with,  because,  presumably,  the  grocer  is  a 
respectable  and  intelligent,  and  too  often  known  to  be  a  Christian 
man.  Some  of  the  leading  Christian  men  of  my  district  are  big  grocers, 
whose  profits  largely  come  out  of  the  bottling  trade.  In  the  present 
day,  when  competition  is  so  rife,  it  is  very  .easy  for  such  grocers  to 
contend  with  Stores  and  their  prices,  because  they  look  for  profit  from 
the  remunerative  business,  the  bottling  trade. 

We  are  appealing  to  the  Methodist  families  all  over  the  world.  We 
want  to  appeal  to  the  Methodist  families  of  Great  Britain.  They  can 
solve  this  question.  As  to  going  to  Parliament,  well,  you  would  have 
thought  that  the  last  Bill  would  have  been  popidar  with  all  classes. 
You  need  not  go  to  Parliament.  Let  the  wives  of  Methodists  and  their 
children  keep  out  of  the  licjuor  shops.  "But,"  you  say,  "you  are 
advocating  boycott  this  morning."  Do  not  you  boycott  the  low  public- 
house  ?  If  it  is  fair  to  do  that,  if  you  boycott  one  class  of  public-house, 
then  you  should  deal  in  the  same  way  with  another  having  anything 
to  do  with  the  traflSc — with  the  grocer  that  sells  strong  drink.  If  I 
say  nothing  more  to  this  great  Conference  than  that,  I  have  said 
something  to  the  point,  and  I  hope  you  will  accept  it  and  carry  it  out. 
I  am  glad  that  my  appeal  has  met  with  a  response.  Let  it  not 
evaporate  ;  carry  it  to  your  homes.  Say  to  your  wives,  "Do  not  go 
into  a  grocer's  shop  where  drink  is  ;  not  even  where  the  drink  is 
bottled  " 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  4*5 

Tk-e  Rev.  Thomas  Champnbss  (Wcsleyan  Motbodist  CJhurch)  spoke 
as  foUo-wa : 

The  last  Pastoral  Address  sent  to  the  Methodist  people  of  the  Con- 
ference with  which  I  have  the  honour  to  work  contains  this  sentence : 
"  The  love  of  strong  drink  still  sets  at  defiance  all  prudential  motives 
and  ties  of  affection,  and  brings  thousands  of  its  victims  to  despair 
and  destruction."  "Despair  and  destruction"  are  the  outcome  of  the 
liquor  traffic,  whether  the  man  that  sells  the  drink  is  an  infidel  or  a 
local  preaclier.  What  the  brothel  is  to  the  adulterer  the  public-house 
is  to  the  drunkard.  The  liquor  traffic  is  the  child  of  covetousness  and 
lust,  and  more  like  its  grandfather,  the  devil,  than  its  parents. 

I  have  been  surprised  that  all  three  brethren  who  spoke  so  ably  to 
us  from  this  platform  at  the  beginning  of  this  discussion  were  laymen  ; 
there  was  not  a  minister  among  them.  I  hope  it  was  an  accident, 
because  I  want  to  say  to  my  brethren,  the  ministers  and  preachers  all 
over  the  world,  that  if  the  pulpit  does  not  kill  the  barrel,  the  barrel 
will  kill  the  pulpit.  Yesterday  we  had  some  good  talk  about  family 
prayer,  family  life,  and  family  religion.  This  is  a  family  question. 
If  wives  could  speak  here — some  women  who  are  already  widowed, 
except  in  the  fact  that  the  husband  remains  with  them,  to  their 
disgrace  and  sorrow  ;  women  whose  only  hope  for  the  comfort  of  their 
children  is  that  their  husbands  may  die  ;  they  could  tell  us  that  the 
beginning  of  the  decay  of  family  worship  can  never  be  forgotten  by 
them,  because  the  mother  had  to  say  to  the  boys  and  girls,  "  Father's 
not  well,  and  has  had  to  go  to  bed."  That  was  the  loving  way  of 
saying  that  which  gave  the  wife  a  stab  at  the  heart,  because  she  saw 
the  beginning  of  ceaseless  sorrow  and  disgrace. 

What  are  the  practical  methods  of  dealing  with  the  liquor  traffic? 
First,  abstinence  ourselves.  "  Come  out  from  among  them,  and  be  ye 
separate  ....  and  ye  shall  be  My  sons  and  daughters,"  saith 
the  Lord  Almighty.  This  thing  is  a  stain  and  a  source  of  corruption, 
and  every  pure  man  and  woman  in  the  world  should,  even  at  personal 
risk,  if  need  be,  come  out  and  show  himself  on  the  side  of  abstinence 
and  self-denial. 

Another  practical  way  is,  Do  not  ask  anybody  else  to  drink.  A 
young  fellow  said  to  me,  speaking  of  the  new  minister,  who,  on  the 
.  first  Sunday  in  September,  began  his  work  in  the  circuit,  "  He  will  go 
to  three  places,  and  in  every  one  of  those  three  places  he  will  be  asked 
to  drink."  I  have  some  boys  who  go  out  to  preach.  I  do  not  want 
any  man  to  say,  "  Never  mind  your  father ;  be  a  man  yourself."  I  do 
not  want  any  boy  of  mine  to  be  enticed  to  cut  the  mother's  apron 
string — ^the  finest  cable  that  was  ever  spun. 

Then  it  is  our  business  to  warn  the  man  who  is  connected  with  the 
liquor  traffic.  What  says  Jesus  Christ?  "The  Son  of  Man  shall  send 
forfli  His  angels,  and  they  shall  gather  out  of  His  Kingdom  all  things 
that  offend,  and  them  which  do  iniquity  ;  and  shall  cast  them  into  a 
furnace  of  fire.''  Shall  we  not  warn  these  men,  because  they  are 
associated  with  that  which  causes  men  to  stumble,  that  they  are  in 
danger  of  hell  fire?  We  have  heard  something  said  to-day  about  the 
assassin.  Ruskin  says :  "  The  encouragement  of  drunkenness  for  the 
sake  of  profit  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  criminal  methods  of  assassi- 
nation for  money  ever  adopted  by  t!he  bravoes  of  any  age  and  country." 
What  are  we  to  do  with  the  assassin?  Are  we  to  put  him  into  an 
officer's  uniform?    Will  they  do  that  with  the  assassin  who  wanted  to 


41 6  TEMPERANCE. 

slay  the  President  of  the  United  States?  Will  they  make  him  a  Sena- 
tor ?  If  not,  why  should  the  Church  put  these  men  into  office  ?  Uni- 
versal Methodism  should  say  :  The  man  who  makes  money  out  of  tears 
and  blood  shall  not  enter  into  our  pulpits  or  manage  the  affairs  of  the 
Church  we  love. 

The  Rev.  J.  0.  Willson,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South),  was  the  next  speaker.     He  said  : 

I  wish  to  speak  a  word  of  warning.  I  am  from  a  State  which  has 
two  unique  distinctions  :  In  the  first  place,  no  divorce  can  be  granted 
in  the  State  of  South  Carolina  for  any  cause.  What  God  has  joined 
together  we  allow  no  man  to  put  asunder.  I  am  glad  of  that.  But 
the  other  distinction  is  that  our  State  has  assumed  the  work  of.  buying 
and  selling  liquor  to  her  citizens.    Of  that  I  am  profoundly  ashamed. 

It  came  about  in  this  way.  Temperance  sentiment  advanced  in  our 
State  so  rapidly  that  something  had  to  be  done.  Finally  they  gave  us 
an  opportunity  for  an  informal  ballot,  and  the  ballot  was  for  prohibi- 
tion. What  did  the  politicians  then  do  for  us?  They  studied  the 
Gothenburg  system  a  little,  and  another  system  in  Athens,  Georgia, 
and  then  established  what  they  called  "  the  dispensary."  That  is  to  say, 
the  State  of  South  Carolina  buys  the  liquor  and  appoints  officers. 
Some  of  those  officers  are  members  of  the  Churches  of  God,  and  they 
deal  out,  just  as  individuals  have  been  dealing  out,  that  which  destroys 
soul  and  body  in  hell. 

We  must  watch  those  who  are  in  authority  and  &ee  that  they  do 
not  give  us  a  stone  when  sometimes  we  ask  for  bread.  It  is  fair  to 
say,  with  reference  to  this  dispensary,  this  new  thing  in  our  country, 
that  there  are  no  sales  at  night,  that  there  are  said  to  be  no  sales  to 
children,  and  no  sales  to  drunken  people.  But  the  trouble  is  that 
in  order  to  make  the  thing  acceptable  to  those  who  otherwise  would 
repudiate  the  plan  of  involving  me  and  my  fellow  citizens  in  this 
wretched  traffic,  they  put  the  profits  for  the  education  of  children! 
They  destroy,  and  in  order  to  carry  on  the  destruction,  they  delude 
fathers  and  mothers  with  the  fact  that  our  public  school  fund  will 
be  increased  and  our  children  will  be  educated  by  it. 

I  come  to  the  platform  this  morning  for  this  single  purpose :  to  beg 
our  friends  in  the  Western  Section  and  in  the  Eastern  Section  still  to 
stand  together  ;  but  never  to  accept  any  of  those  substitutes  that  are 
given  to  you  by  politicians,  for  they  always  set  back  the  cause  of 
temperance  in  its  progress  towards  prohibition. 

The  Rev.  J.  Luke  (Bible  Christian  Church),  continuing  the  dis- 
cussion, said : 

Alcoholic  drinks  are  bad  things  in  themselves.  Their  use  is  always 
attended  with  danger.  The  common  sale  of  these  drii^ks  always  and 
everywhere  is  mischievous  and  disastrous  to  the  commonwealth.  You 
cannot  by  change  of  name,  change  of  environment,  make  this  bad 
thing  a  good  thing.  In  this  country  the  traffic  was  bad  prior  to  1830. 
The  Beer  Act  of  1830  did  not  improve  the  traffic.  The  Grocers'  Licences 
Act  of  1861  did  not  improve  the  traffic.  Having  drink  sold  in 
clubs  does  not  make  it  a  good  thing.  Having  drink  sold  in  clencally- 
conclucted  public-houses  does  not  make  it  a  good  thing.  It  is  bad. 
You  cannot  make  it  good.  Therefore,  all  good  men  and  all  true 
Churches  should  combine  to  get  rid  of  it  as  quickly  as  possible. 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  417 

There  liave  liecn  some  words  deprecating  legislation.  We  must  have 
moral  suasion,  but  we  must  haVe  logislatiA-e  action  also.  We  must 
remember  that  there  is  not  a  man  in  this  country  who  has  a  right  to 
sell  intoxicating  drinks.  He  simply  sells  in  virtue  of  a  privilege, 
and  that  privilege  has  been  dealt  with  again  and  again  on  the  line  of 
being  restricted  with  a  view  to  lessening  the  mischief  flowing  from  the 
exercise  of  the  privilege.  What  we  ask  is  that  the  privilege  shall  be 
interfered  with  up  to  the  point  of  being  really  effective. 

In  order  that  we  may  do  something  that  shall  be  a  distinct  gain  in 
this  great  work  and  warfare,  it  is  important,  it  is  vital,  that  the 
Church  be  clean-handed.  The  Church  is  not  yet  clean-handed.  There 
is  yet  too  great  complicity  with  this  mischievous  and  ruinous  traffic, 
and  it  is  folly  for  us  to  talk  about  temperance  reform,  and  to  pass 
resolutions,  unless  we  are  prepared,  by  putting  away  the  drink  our- 
selves, to  banish  it  throaighout  our  Churches  and  our  families,  and  from 
the  Lord's  Table.  Then,  clean-handed,  we  shall  be  ready  for  the 
battle. 

We  must  be  clear  in  our  thought  as  to  what  we  have  to  do.  We 
cannot  reach  prohibition  by  one  stage,  but  we  must  reach  it  by  several 
stages.  There  are  very  many  desirable  things  that  we  ought  to  co- 
operate in  to  bring  about  as  speedily  as  possible.  We  must  have 
Sunday  closing  in  this  country.  We  must  have  a  more  rigid  enforce- 
ment of  our  laws  in  respect  to  the  public-house.  We  must  have  shorter 
hours.  We  must  have  greater  limitation  of  the  hours  for  the  sale  of 
intoxicating  drinks.  We  must  insist  that  the  people,  be  the  commu- 
nity small  or  large,  where  the  people  are  wise  enough,  moral  enough, 
and  courageous  enough  to  veto  the  traffic,  shall  have  the  right  and  the 
power  to  do  so. 

Then  we  must  remember  that  this  great  traffic  is  not  to  be  got  rid 
of  easily.  You  are  not  going  to  carry  Spion  Kop  with  an  assault  of 
bows  and  arrows.  "  Diseases  desperate  grown,  by  desperate  appliances 
are  relieved,  or  not  at  all."  It  is  useless  for  us  to  talk  about  being 
moderate  and  mild.  The  moderate  men  have  had  their  chance,  and 
what  have  they  done?  We  have  waited  for  the  moderate  men  to  do 
what  they  are  able  to  do,  and  they  have  done  very  little.  Let  us 
brace  ourselves  for  this  battle,  for  it  is  a  stern  warfare,  and,  while-  we 
hold  to  total  abstinence  for  the  individual,  let  us  go  further,  and  let 
the  Church,  cleared  from  all  complicity,  and  united  as  one  man,  push 
the  battle. 

The  Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
made  the  following  remarks  : 

We  have  come  to  the  burning  question  of  our  day.  There  is  no 
other  question  that  equals  this  in  impoi-tance.  You  may  aggregate  all 
the  other  evils  of  our  civilisation,  and  they  do  not  begin  to  compare 
with  this  one  great  crying  evil  of  our  day.  We  must  face  it,  and  there 
are  only  two  ways  to  deal  with  it.  Only  two  ways  are  proposed.  One 
is  regulation,  and  the  other  is  prohibition.  Those  are  the  two  words 
that  stand  for  the  two  policies. 

I  assert  that  all  efforts  at  regulation  have  been  stupendous  failures. 
I  think  that  it  was  Sir  Wilfrid  Lawson,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  who  said 
in  the  British  House  of  Parliament  that  England  has  had  four  hundred 
years  of  regulation,  and  the  result  was  the  most  drunken  nation  on 
earth.  I  do  not  say  that  is  true,  but  I  give  it  as  the  opinion  of  that 
28 


4^8  TEMPERANCE. 

man.  It  is  true  that  there  has  been  an  increase  of  drink  per  capita  in 
England  for  the  last  two  hundred  years,  and  there  is  a  growing  increase 
under  all  forms  of  regulation. 

I  have  taken  the  pains  in  the  United  stales  to  collect  the  statistics 
on  this  question  of  regulation,  and  in  no  one  single  instance  have  the 
friends  of  regulation  been  able  to  show  that  any  kind  of  licence — high 
licence  or  low  licence,  or  any  place  between — has  been  able  to  decrease 
the  quantities  of  liquor  sold  or  the  evil  results  flowing  from  the  traffic. 
That  ought  to  be  enough,  I  think,  to  satisfy  any  candid  mind  that 
regulation  is  a  stupendous  failure.  You  cannot  make  a  regulation  law 
that  liquor  dealers  will  not  circumvent  and  violate.  You  may  put  any 
provisions  into  it  that  you  will  that  are  of  a  prohibitive  character,  and 
they  will  persistently  violate  those  restrictions.  They  are  law- 
breakers, and  we  are  dealing  with  that  class  of  men. 

But  you  may  say,  on  the  other  hand,  that  prohibition  is  a  failure. 
In  the  United  States  of  America  we  have  at  this  time  281,375  square 
miles  of  territory  under  prohibitory  law,  and  those  are  the  only  States 
in  the  American  Union'  that  show  a  decrease  of  drunkenness  or  a 
decrease  in  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors.  We  do  not  say  that  the 
law  absolutely  prohibits.  We  have  a  law  in  the  United  States  that 
prohibits  murder,  but  murder  is  committed  in  all  the  States  of  our 
Union,  and  possibly  our  President  lies  dying  at  this  hour  from  the 
hand  of  an  assassin.  We  have  laws  against  theft,  against  adultery, 
against  many  other  evils,  but  none  of  those  laws  absolutely  prohibit. 
Shall  we  adopt  the  policy  of  regulating  these  crimes,  because  we  cannot 
absolutely  prohibit  them  1  Shall  we  have  regulation  for  murder,  or  for 
theft,  or  for  these  other  crimes  ?  No  ;  we  may  not  absolutely  pro- 
hibit, but  the  truth  is  that  the  prohibitory  policy  is  the  only  policy 
that  has  ever  decreased  the  evil. 

That  being  true,  it  answers  the  question  at  once  as  to  what  policy 
ought  to  be  pursued.  Get  shorter  hours  for  selling,  if  you  can.  That 
is  prohibition.  Close  on  Sunday,  if  you  can.  That  is  prohibition. 
Have  local  option,  if  you  can.  That  is  prohibition.  Our  friends  from 
the  South  know  to  what  extent  all  through  the  South  great  sections  of 
States  are  under  prohibitory  law  by  local  option.  In  the  State  of 
Massachusetts  there  are  not  less  than  eighteen  of  the  principal  cities 
outside  the  city  of  Boston  that  have  been  under  prohibition  for  years, 
and  that  is  the  policy  that  more  and  more  seems  to  be  claiming  the 
attention  of  the  American  people. 

I  am  glad  to  say  that  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  stands  four 
square  on  this  question  to  all  winds  that  blow.  I  delight  in  the  paper 
that  Mr.  Baker  read.     Every  word  in  it  had  the  true  ring. 

The  Rev.  D.  Brook,  M.A.,  D.C.L.  (President),  said :  I  have  to 
read,  however  much  pain  it  may  give  you,  the  last  despatch  from 
America  concerning  President  McKinley.  It  is  'to  this  effect  : 
"  Death  is  hourly  expected.  As  a  last  resort  salt  injections  have 
been  resorted  to." 

The  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  said  :  I  feel  that  the  occasion  is  so  pathetic,  and  there  are 
so  many  hearts  in  this  meeting  which  are  moved  to  their  very 
depths  by  tlie  situation  in  which  President  McKinley  is  believed 


ESSAY   OF   REV.    P.    LUKE    WISEMAN.  419 

now  to  be,  tliat  1  tliiiik  that  wo  should  spend  some  time  iu  jirayer 
now,  nnd  then  adjourn.  This  propo.sition  was  agreed  to'  unani- 
mously. 

The  Pke.sident  then  called  upon  the  following  delegates  succes- 
sively to  pray  in  the  order  in  which  their  names  are  given  : — Mr. 
John  Broxap  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Cliuiroh),  the  Rev.  C.  W.  Bald- 
win, D.D.  (Methodisit  Episcopal  Church),  the  Rev.  F.  W.  Bourne 
(Bible  Christian  Church),  Bisibop  C.  B.  Galloway,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Chm-ch,  South),  and  the  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephen- 
son, D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church).  The  chapel  was 
profoundly  silent,  except  for  the  occasional  deep  and  general  re- 
sponses, which  told  how  earnestly  the  whole  assembly  joined  in  the 
fervent  petitions  that  the  President's  life  might  be  spared. 


SECOND     SESSION. 


TOPIC  ; 
GAMBLING. 


The  Conference  resumed  its  sessions  in  the  afternoon  under  the 
darkening  shadow  caused  by  the  serious  condition  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States.  The  Rev.  D.  Brook,  M.A.,  D.C.L.  (United 
Methodist  Free  Churches),  was  again  in  the  Chair.  Prayer  was 
offered  by  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Cory  Harris  (United  Methodist  Free 
Churches),  who  pleaded  for  God's  blesi&ing  on  the  stricken  Presi- 
dent, asking  that  he  might  realise  in  the  bour  ocE  his  extremity  the 
blessedness,  sweetnessi,  and  power  of  that  infinite  grace  which  he 
had  experienced  and  exemplified  in  his  public  life. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  (Secretary),  made  a  statement  which 
was  received  with  deep  relief  by  the  assembly,  the  loud  and 
numerous  ejaculations  of  "Thank  God,"  and  "Amen,"  testifying 
to  the  lightening  of  a  heavy  burden  on  the  hearts  of  all.  Dr.  King 
said  the  announcement  had  spread  from  lip  to  lip  that  the  gi-eat 
President  had  passed  away,  but  by  the  courtesy  of  one  of  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Press  the  following  message  had  been  received 
from  the  Press  Association  :  "  McKinley  is  not  dead.  Latest  infor- 
mation received  at  the  White  House  in  Washington  at  7  a.m.  ig 
that  there  is  a  slight  improvement." 

The  Rev.  F.  Luke  Wiseman,  B.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church), 


420 


GAMBLING. 


opened  the  subject  for  the  afternoon  with  an  essay  on  "  The  Ethics 
of  Gambling."     He  said  : 

I  do  not  know  what  my  special  qualiticati(Jiis  for  this  duty  uiay  be 
other  than  this.  Two  working  men  were  present  one  afternoon  when 
I  was  giving  a  little  address  in  my  church  on  the  subject  uf  Gambling. 
One  turned  to  another — ^it  was  just  before  a  famous  Lincoln  Handicap 
race  some  years  ago — and  said  :  "  He  seems  to  know  something  about 
it,  don't  he?"  The  other  said:  '  Yus,  don't  yer  know,  Wiseman  is 
running  for  the  Lincoln  Handicap." 

The  Committee  has  been  well  advised  to  devote  a  session  of  this 
Conference  to  considering  this  evil.  As  practised  to-day,  gambling  is 
probably  productive  of  more  ruin  and  misery  than  any  other  single 
evil.  Yet  the  Churches  have,  up  to  the  present,  done  but  little  to 
grapple  with  it.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  discussion  of  tliis  after- 
noon will  arouse  the  Methodist  Church  to  a  deep  sense  of  responsi- 
bility in  the  matter. 

Gambling  is  an  ancient,  inveterate,  and  universal  vice.  Hindu  and 
Chinese,  Persian  and  Arabian,  Greek  and  Roman,  Saxon  and  Latin, 
Negro,  North  American  Indian,  and  Greenlander  have  alike  felt  its 
fascinations  and  fallen  under  its  spell.  Despite  teaching  of  moralists, 
invective  of  satirists,  threats  of  law,  and  frequent  and  terrifying 
warnings  of  experience,  it  claims  the  submission  of  an  ever-increasing 
number  of  votaries.  Formerly  confined  to  a  few  games  of  chance,  it 
has  now  captured  nearly  every  English  sport,  and  has  invaded  the 
domain  of  commerce. 

At  one  time  only  the  players  gambled  ;  now  the  public  gambles  on 
the  result  of  play  ;  and  the  strange  code  of  honour  has  arisen  that  the 
players  themselves  must  not  gamble,  in  order  that  the  public  may  I 
The  old  sophistical  justification  of  playing  for  money  was  that  the  rich 
risked  their  superfluities ;  now  the  working  classes  have  caught 
the  infection,  and  hard-earned  wages,  the  money  for  children's  bread 
and  clothes,  are  recklessly  squandered  away  week  after  week.  It  is 
needless  to  speak  of  the  part  played  by  the  racecourse  and  the  public- 
house.  The  mischief,  however,  is  not  confined  to  them  ;  our  streets 
are  the  resort  of  betting  touts  ;  our  places  of  business,  factories,  ware- 
houses, and  shops  are  hot-beds  of  the  disease,  which  has  also  invaded 
our  Day  Schools,  and  even  our  Sunday  Schools.  Betting  is  now  a 
gigantic  business,  with  its  great  financial  houses,  its  public  Press,  its 
innumerable  and  unscrupulous  agents.  With  a  daily  turnover  com- 
puted at  £16,000,000  sterling,  it  adds  nothing  to  the  vorld's  wealth  or 
happiness ;  its  products  are  dislike  of  toil,  mistrust,  lying,  knavery, 
strife,  hate,  theft,  poverty,  despair,  suicide. 

With  such  a  plague  in  our  midst,  you  would  have  thought  society 
would  never  rest  until  it  had  effectually  rid  itself  of  such  a  pest. 
Strange  to  say,  some  Governments,  on  the  contrary,  make  money  by 
it  ;  others  frown  on  it  with  the  brow,  but  wink  with  the  eye  ;  and  none 
aro  resolute  and  uncompromising  in  its  suppression.  Indeed,  in  the 
present  state  of  public  opinion,  such  an  attitude  would  hardly  be  pos- 


ESSAY   OF   REV.   F.   LUKE   WISEMAN.  '421' 

sible.  There  is  no  real  unanimity  of  opinion  as  to  a  definition  of 
gambling,  and  still  less  as  to  the  moral  quality  of  the  act.  Now,  as 
all  reform,  to  be  beneficial  and  lasting,  must  rest  on  a  sound  ethic, 
the  duty  of  those  who  are  alive  to  the  evil  is  to  show  clearly  what 
gambling  is,  and  wherein  the  wrong  consists.  To  such  task,  within 
the  time  allotted  to  me^  I  would  address  myself. 

Desiring  to  know  the  latest  thought  on  the  subject,  I  invoked  the 
aid  of  a  recent  standard  American  dictionary,  and  read  the  first  mean- 
ing assigned — "  Gamble — to  lose  by  gaming  !  "  That  is  the  definition 
of  bitter  experience,  a  definition  which,  in  a  utilitarian  and  materialis- 
tic age  might  be  sounded  forth  with  much  advantage.  But  it  suggests 
the  result,  not  the  quality  of  the  act,  and  is  not  suflScient  for  exact  pur- 
poses. A  further  endeavour  of  the  same  authority  is  more  precise  and 
nearer  the  truth :  "  To  risk  money  or  other  possession  on  an  event, 
chance,  or  contingency."  An  able  English  writer  offers  the  following 
as  his  definition :  "  The  risking  of  larger  sums  than  one  can  afford 
on  ventures  over  which  his  own  industry  exercises  little  or  no  control." 

Both  these  writers  agree  that  gambling  is  the  risking  of  property  on 
chance.  The  former  is  too  wide,  as  nearly  all  business  transactions 
involve  the  risking  of  property  on  an  events  and  a  certain  amount  of 
contingency.  The  latter  brings  in  a  limiting  clause  as  to  the  amount 
of  property  involved  which  confuses  the  act  with  the  moral  quality 
of  the  act.  The  writer  evidently  thinks  gambling  is  wrong,  but 
cannot  see  the  wrong  of  small  risks,  and  so  frames  his  definition  with 
his  eye  on  that  which,  in  the  judgment  of  all,  is  wrong — that  is,  the 
risking  of  "larger  sums  than  one  can  afford."  Surely  such  limitation 
in  a  definition  is  unjustifiable.  The  character  of  the  act  in  itself  is 
not  changed  by  the  amount  of  property  involved  in  the  transaction. 
Gambling  is  gambling,  whether  the  stake  is  a  penny  point  or  a  king- 
dom. The  former  may  conceivably  be  harmless,  the  latter  flagrantly 
wrong  ;  but  the  act  is  the  same  in  both  cases.  If  the  latter  is  gambling 
so  is  the  former.  The  first  definition  I  want  somewhat  to  limit,  the 
latter  to  enlarge,  and  finally  would  suggest  that  the  essential  act  in 
all  gambling  is  the  "risking  of  property  upon  mere  chance." 

The  conclusion  at  which  I  am  compelled  to  arrive  with  reference  to 
the  moral  quality  of  the  act  of  gambling  is  that  all  such  gambling  is 
wrong.  Here,  of  course,  I  part  company  not  only  with  the  English 
authority  to  whom  I  have  referred,  but  also  with  the  very  large  number 
of  excellent  people  who,  quite  alive  to  the  dire  consequences  of  gamb- 
ling, and  greatly  desiring  to  restrain  the  evil,  nevertheless  see  no  harm 
in  an  occasional  "mild  flutter"  at  the  card-table  or  the  race-course. 
Their  case  is  admirably  presented  by  a  recent  writer  in  a  religious 
weekly,  who  signs  himself  "Sporting  Parson."  It  appears  that  the 
race  is  not  yet  extinct.  He  states  that  in  his  younger  days  he  went 
occasionally  to  the  Newmarket  races,  and  other  places  of  sport,  and 
backed  his  fancy,  but  saw  no  harm  in  it ;  and  when,  later,  he  made 
his  confession,  previously  to  admission  into  the  priesthood,  although 
ho  liad  many  and  grave  sins  to  acknowledge,  it  never  occurred  to  him 


422  GAMBLING. 

that  these  deeds  constituted  matter  of  confession.  His  losses,  if  such 
hajT  befel,  he  regarded  as  a  price  he  could  well  afford  to  pay  for  a  day's 
amusement  and  excitement.  Leaving  the  plea  for  subsequent  examina- 
tion, we  may  at  once  thank  the  "  Sporting  Parson  "  for  carrying  the 
case  beyond  the  courts  of  mere  self-interest  and  worldly  prudence  to 
that  Supreme  Tribunal  of  Christ,  whence  the  final  and  universal  judg- 
ment proceeds. 

Others,  referring  especially  to  gaming,  argue  that  the  winner  in  a 
game  has  probably  manifested  superior  skill,  knowledge,  or  ability, 
and,  provided  always  the  stakes  are  of  moderate  amount,  he  receives 
the  legitimate  reward  of  his  superior  powers.  A  moment's  considera- 
tion will  show  that  the  basal  theory  of  gambling  is  that  the  result 
must  depend  upon  nothing  but  chance.  That  is  to  say,  every  effort 
must  be  used  to  make  the  probabilities  of  success  the  same  for  all 
parties.  It  is  idle  to  say  that  in  handing  over  to  you  my  share  in  the 
stakes  I  am  rewarding  your  superior  powers  ;  for  had  I  known  that 
you  possessed  them,  I  should  either  have  declined  to  play  with  you  at 
all  or  demanded  from  you  such  points,  odds,  handicap,  as  would  have 
neutralised  your  superiority,  and  reduced  the  result  of  the  game  to 
jiure  chance — that  is  to  say,  to  probabilities  unknowable,  or,  at  any 
rate,  unknown  to  both  of  us.  If  ever  the  probabilities  of  a  game 
become  the  subject  of  mathematical  demonstration,  the  game  will 
cease  as  a  gambling  game.  It  is  on  this  ground  that  it  seems  to  me 
the  essence  of  gambling  is  risking  on  chance,  and  nothing  but  chance. 

It  is  this  characteristic,  that  gambling  is  always  and  essentially  the 
risking  of  property  on  chance,  which  forms  the  ground  of  its  moral 
condemnation.  The  limitation  of  the  risk  to  a  sum  one  can  well  afford 
introduces  a  qualification  that,  while  it  confuses  the  issue,  does  not 
really  affect  the  essential  moral  quality  of  the  act.     Watts  sang  : 

"It  is  a  sin  to  steal  a  pin. 
And  how  much  more  a  greater  thing." 

So  with  gambling.  To  risk  property  on  mere  chance  is  wrong.  To 
risk  more  than  you  can  afford  adds  to  the  wrong.  But  what  does 
"more  than  you  can  afford"  mean?  If  it  signifies  more  than  one  has, 
of  course  it  is  wrong  to  risk  other  people's  property.  If  it  means  more 
than  one  could  part  with  while  still  maintaining  his  present  social 
estate,  then  the  question  arises  if  he  is  under  any  Divine  obligation  to 
remain  in  that  estate.  If  the  Marquis  of  Hastings,  instead  of  parting 
with  his  goods  to  pay  his  gambling  debts,  had  deliberately  sold  them 
that  he  might  give  to  the  poor  and  follow  Christ,  would  anyone  dare 
afhrm  that  he  was  doing  an  immoral  acti  A  better  case,  with  the 
New  Testament  open  before  us,  could  be  made  out  for  parting  with 
possessions  than  for  retaining  them.  Under  certain  circumstances  you 
can  afford  to  part  witji  all  your  goods.  Property  is  a  trust — a  trust 
from  God.  Of  that  property  we  must,  as  stewards,  give  account.  No 
one  would  feel  justified  in  gambling  with  trust  money!  The  amount 
makes  no  difference.  Be  the  stake  little  or  much,  the  sin  is  in  dealing 
with  the  trust  money  after  that  method. 


ESSAY   OF    REV.    F.    LUKE    WISEMAN.  423 

What  is  the  wrong  in  risking  property  on  chance  ?  Such  transaction 
involves  a  denial  of  God  and  of  personal  worth.  A  denial  of  God, 
for  by  the  terms  of  the  gambling  covenant  the  issue,  as  we  have 
^!leady  seen,  is  to  be  decided  by  pure  chance.  The  appeal,  then,  is 
that  the  All-wise,  All-loving,  Over-ruling  Providence  should  abdicate 
in  favour  of  irrational,  unloving,  impersonal  chance.  Or,  if  blasphemy 
proceeded  so  far  as  to  appeal  to  God  to  determine  the  issue,  then  it  is 
tho  making  of  God  to  serve  with  our  sins  ;  He  must  be  the  servant  of 
our  avarice,  that  covets  our  brother's  goods,  and  seeks  to  take  away 
from  him  without  giving  any  return.  Well  may  Chrysostom  say, 
"Not  God  but  the  devil  found  out  play."  It  is  also  the  denial  of 
personal  worth.  It  is  the  deliberate  renunciation  of  our  God-given 
powers  of  reason,  effort,  and  will.  It  takes  the  determination  as  to 
the  use  of  our  possessions  out  of  the  region  of  our  own  judgment  and 
decision.  For  that  act  we  unman  ourselves.  On  such  grounds  the 
risking  of  any  property  on  mere  chance  is  of  the  essence  of  sin. 

From  the  consideration  of  the  moral  quality  of  the  act,  I  now  pro- 
ceed to  examine  the  moral  quality  of  the  result.  Imagine  yourself 
the  winner  of  a  bet.  As  the  property  is  being  transferred  to  you,  let 
your  conscience  ask  this  query  :  "  Have  I  any  right  to  receive  this 
money?  Can  I  keep  it  and  maintain  my  self-respect  and  integrity 
before  God?"  Remember,  until  the  transference  it  was  the  property 
of  another.  It  is  not  treasure  trove,  nor  new  wealth  created,  but  the 
property  of  another  now  being  handed  over  to  you.  There  are  two 
conditions  on  which  it  is  legitimate  to  receive  the  property  of  another  : 
(1)  As  a  gift.  If  well  within  the  power  of  the  giver  to  bestow,  if 
accompanied  by  hearty  goodwill,  and  as  a  token  of  regard,  you  may 
accept  a  gift,  with  the  thorough  approval  of  conscience.  (2)  As  an 
equivalent  for  service  rendered,  or  commodity  accepted  in  exchange. 
Money  for  service  ;  money  for  goods  ;  goods  against  goods ;  goods  for 
service.     Conscience  approves  exchange.     The  advantage  is  mutual. 

But  what  is  one  to  say  of  that  gambling  money  ?  '  It  certainly  is  not 
a  gift.  So  far  from  desiring  to  give  me  a  present  of  money,  my  part- 
ner in  a  betting  transaction  intended  to  get  money  from  me !  He  bet 
to  win  !  He  has  lost,  and  pays  his  money  like  a  man  ;  but  his  consent 
does  not  accompany  the  transference.  He  assents,  but  while  he  hands 
it  over  he  is  planning  how  he  may  come  to  win  his  own  again.  Clearly, 
then,  the  money  cannot  be  received  and  cannot  be  offered  as  a  gift. 
As  certainly  it  is  not  exchange,  nor  the  reward  of  service,  for  I  give 
him  nothing  in  return.  I  take  all,  and  give  nothing.  Nor  can  I  cheat 
myself  into  the  belief  that  I  am  receiving  the  reward  of  my  skill.  So 
far  from  benefiting  him  by  my  superior  wit,  strength,  or  skill,  I  have 
positively  used  it  exclusively  in  my  own  interests.  Why  should  he 
pay  me  for  that?  Equally  futile  is  it  to  say  that  he  is  paying  for  his 
excitement,  and  his  chance  of  winning.  Even  if  he  were,  why  pay 
me?  He  received  neither  from  me!  I  did  nothing  with  a  view  to 
give  him  excitement,  and  over  the  chance  I  had  absolutely  no  control. 
If  I  had,  I  should,  I  fear  me,  have  been  sorely  tempted  to  turn  its 
regard  to  myself  rath«r  than  to  him.     He  may  consider  it  a  debt — a 


424  GAMBLING. 

debt  of  honour.  But  no  instructed  conscience  would  permit  the  receipt 
of  such  money  as  payment  of  a  debt,  and  the  Law  Courts  would 
promptly  non-suit  a  man  if  he  tried  to  recover  it  by  their  aid. 

Some,  in  taking  their  winnings,  seek  to  justify  themselves  by  the 
fact  that  they  exjwsed  themselves  to  a  like  risk,  and  that  they  have  a 
right  to  profit  by  their  good  fortune.  An  exactly  similar  argument 
used  to  be  advanced  by  the  advocates  of  duels,  but  the  common  senso 
of  the  Anglo-American  people  has  long  since  decided  that  the  duellist 
who  kills  his  man  is  not  acquitted  of  the  charge  of  murder  because  he 
exposed  his  own  body  to  the  chance  of  death.  In  like  manner,  the 
fact  that  your  opponent  had  the  chance  of  taking  your  property  does 
not  alter  the  moral  quality  of  your  taking  his  ! 

Not  a  few  comfort  themselves  with  the  idea  that,  after  all,  it  is  the 
bookmaker  that  pays,  and  he  is  rich;  and  can  afford  it.  The  man  who 
can  "  break  the  bank "  is,  indeed,  a  popular  hero !  But  whence  does 
the  bookmaker  get  his  fortune?  He  does  not  create  wealth.  He  gets 
it  from  somebody  else.  He  is  only  the  medium  of  communication. 
Winnings  do  not  come  from  the  bookmaker,  but  from  those  who  have 
lost  to  the  bookmaker,  and  he  who  wins  takes  his  money  from  them 
as  surely  as  though  they  handed  it  to  him. 

Hitherto  we  have  seen  gambling  in  its  most  favourable  light,  have 
looked  at  it  in  itself,  without  any  of  its  unworthy  accessories.  So  to 
speak,  we  have  examined  the  infant.  But  if  you  want  to  see  what  is 
in  the  child,  let  him  come  to  the  full-grown  man.  The  harvest  differ- 
entiates crops,  and  the  similarity  of  seeds  will  not  justify  the  farmer  in 
planting  tares.  Science  tells  us  there  is  nothing  in  the  effect  that  is 
not  first  in  the  cause,  and  one  wonders  how  a  thing  can  be  harmless  in 
itself  when  it  is  productive  of  such  widespread  evil.  The  specious 
arguments  to  which  we  have  listened  are  special  pleading,  the  texts 
with  which  the  error  is  blessed  and  approved. 

"  There  is  no  vice  so  simple  but  assumes 
Some  mark  of  virtue  in  its  outward  parts. '^ 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  men  gamble  and  bet  to  win — to  get  money  with- 
out the  trouble  of  earning  it. 

"Bern  facias,  rem 
Si  possis  recte;  si  non,  quocunque  modo  rem." 

This  coach  is  driven  by  avarice,  and  he  is  not  particular  about  his 
passengers.  As  Charles  Kingsley  long  ago  pointed  out,  gambling  is 
the  one  occupation  in  which  the  honourable  man  is  no  match  for  the 
dishonourable.  Chance,  which  in  theory  presides  over  the  tiani-;io- 
tion,  must,  so  far  as  possible,  be  eliminated  in  your  favour.  Hence  the 
origin  of  knavery  at  play  :  confederates,  looking-glasses,  unfair  shuff 
ling,  secreted  cards.     And  after  a  scuffle, 

"  The  floor  it  was  strewed 
Like  leaves  un  the  strand, 
With  the  cards  that  Ah  Sin  had  been  hiding, 
In  the  game  he  did  not  understand." 


ADDRESS    OF    REV.   J.    P.    BRUSHINGHAM.  425 

Hence,  again,  the  search  for  secret  inforniationj  the  use  of  unscrupu- 
lous bookmakert*,  lying  tipsters,  and  the  debased,  foul-mouthed  crew 
of  the  race-course. 

Gambling  is  deleterious  alike  to  winner  and  loser.  A  man  begins 
with  small  risks.  He  wins,  so  imagines  himself  lucky,  and  increases 
his  stakes.  If  still  successful  he  neglects  his  business,  increases  his 
expenditure,  seeks  admission  to  the  smart  set,  plays  on  till  luck  turns, 
and  his  castle  of  cards  falls  and  overwhelms  him.  Or  he  loses,  plays 
higher  to  recover,  loses  again,  and,  pressed  to  pay,  embezzles.  Often 
the  day  of  discovery  and  ruin  is  u^jon  him  before  he  can  restore  the 
money  stolen.  Or,  having  been  rooked  himself,  he  becomes  a  rook, 
and  takes  a  cynical  delight  in  doing  to  innocent  greenhorns  as  he  has 
been  done  by. 

The  evil  is  upon  us.  Dire  as  are  the  effects  of  drunkenness,  the  effects 
of  gambling  seem  even  more  disastrous,  both  to  the  moral  nature  and 
to  society.  Mr.  Justice  Manisty  declared  that  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
say,  from  his  experience  as  a  judge,  that  there  was  no  greater  evil  in 
society,  and  none  which  caused  more  misery  and  ruin  to  families  ;  and 
his  opinion  is  abundantly  confirmed  by  other  judges  and  magistrates. 

Many  remedies  might  be  suggested.  Among  the  chief,  the  making 
illegal  the  publication  of  betting  odds,  the  advertisements  of  foreign 
betting  houses,  the  issue  of  tipsters'  circulars  ;  more  drastic  dealing 
with  street  betting  by  means  of  imprisonment,  instead  of  small  fines  ; 
the  extrication  of  the  Post  Office  from  complicity  with  the  traffic  ;  and, 
if  only  it  could  be  done,  the  abolition  of  the  trade  of  bookmaker. 
But  such  improvement  of  the  law,  even  if  made,  would  become  a  dead 
letter  unless  supported  by  a  healthy  public  opinion  in  its  favour. 
It  behoves  us  of  the  Christian  Church  first  to  keep  ourselves  entirely 
free  from  suspicion  of  complicity  with  gambling,  whether  in  games, 
horse-racing,  the  Stock  Exchange,  or  commerce,  and  to  do  all  in  our 
power,  especially  among  our  young  people,  to  show  the  dishonour  and 
inherent  wro.ig  of  the  practice.  Low  as  moral  fervour  seems  to  have 
fallen  in  our  generation,  we  shall  yet  stand  our  best  chance,  and  give 
our  most  effective  witness,  if,  while  pointing  to  a  legitimate  self- 
interest,  we,  nevertheless,  make  the  burden  of  our  appeal  the  wrong 
which  gambling  is  to  our  own  higher  nature,  our  neighbour,  and  our 
God. 

The  Rev.  J.  P.  Brushingham,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
in  place  of  Chief  Justice  Charles  B.  Lore  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  who  was  unable  to  be  present,  gave  the  first  invited 
address,  as  follows : 

The  theme  of  the  hour  is  a  living  one,  if  not  a  new  one.  Gambling 
is  old  as  sin,  and  began  with  Christian  history,  when  the  Roman 
soldiers  cast  lots  at  the  foot  of  the  cross  for  the  Saviour's  seamless 
robe.  Men  have  taken  chances  from  that  day  until  the  latest  pro- 
gressive euchre  party  that  played  cards  for  prizes  last  evening  at  New 


426  GAMBLING. 

York,  or  the  last  bank  clerk  who  defaultcfl  through  ventures  on  the 
London  Stock  Exchange. 

I  am  informed  that  the  gambling  mania  increases,  especially  in  the 
large  cities  of  Great  Britain.  It  prevails  chiefly  under  three  main 
heads — card-playing,  betting  on  races,  and  stock  speculation.  The 
professional  bookmaker,  although  sub  rosa,  is  as  much  in  evidence  as 
the  doctor  or  lawyer.  He  plies  his  trade  among  all  classes,  from  the 
aristocrat  to  the  street  urchin  who  wagers  pennies  on  his  favourite 
horse,  whose  pedigree  and  merits  he  determines  from  the  newspapers, 
or  by  listening  to  the  tipster.  In  America — for  vice  and  folly  know 
no  geography — working  people,  like  your  clerks,  cabmen,  and  busmen, 
buy  lottery  tickets,  bet  upon  baseball,  footballj  the  elections,  and 
almost  every  variety  of  subjects.  The  betting  upon  elections  has  be- 
come so  prevalent  that  well-meaning  people  are  thoughtlessly  en- 
trapped. An  elder  in  the  Church  was  indicted  by  the  grand  jury,  and 
appeared  before  the  judge  with  great  indignation.  "What  does  this 
mean,  sir?  Did  I  not  help  to  elect  you?  Am  I  not  a  friend  of  yours? '' 
"  I  am  surprised  and  pained  to  find  you  here,"  replied  the  justice,  "  and 
shall  impose  upon  you  an  unusually  heavy  fine,  for  you  ought  to  know 
l)etter,  and  doubtless  will  know  better  hereafter." 

I  am  informed  by  a  young  Englishman  that  clerks  in  the  business 
establishments  of  London  bet  with  the  custodians  of  the  buildings. 
Students  in  our  American  colleges  do  not  escape  this  virus.  In  the 
city  of  Chicago  the  merchants  and  bankers  have  recently  organised  to 
make  war  upon  race-track  gambling,  purely  in  the  interests  of  the 
young  men  whom  they  employ  as  clerks,  and  whom  they  will  not 
employ  if  they  are  known  to  be  gamblers.  I  have  received  many 
letters  from  Guarantee  Companies,  and  among  the  questions  almost 
invariably  asked  is  this  :  "  Is  the  young  man  in  the  habit  of  gamb- 
ling?" They  fear  the  oft-repeated  tragedy  of  the  clerk  who  touches 
his  emjjloyer's  till  in  the  hope  that  the  goddess  of  fortune  may  smile 
upon  him.  She  does  not  smile,  but,  instead,  the  furies  pursue  him  to 
utter  ruin. 

Two  thoughts  more.  First,  What  is  gambling,  and  what  does  it  do 
for  a  man?  Secondly,  How  can  it  be  overcome?  Some  have  made  a 
philosophical  distinction  between  vice  and  crime.  Vices  such  as  drun- 
kenness and  gambling  are  said  to  afifect  the  individual  only.  A 
gambler,  they  say,  loses  his  own  money,  and  injures  himself,  but 
crimes  such  as  theft,  arson,  or  murder  injure  others.  I  am  sure  that 
the  line  of  demarcation  between  vice  and  crime  is  but  a  shadowy  one. 
Gambling  is  both  a  vice  and  a  crime.  It  not  only  injures  the  indi- 
vidual, by  undermining  the  foundations  of  all  character,  manhood,  and 
self-respect,  but  the  trail  of  the  serpent  crosses  the  threshold  of  his 
home,  curses  his  parents,  wife,  or  children,  often  makes  him  a  thief  or 
forger,  with  a  free  passport  behind  prison  bars.  If  a  gambler  is  suc- 
cessful his  victim  is  robbed.  There  is  no  surer  proof  of  man's  de- 
pravity, folly,  and  utter  abandonment  of  righteousness  and  the  image  of 
God  than  gambling.  I  have  known  a  young  husband  to  leave  the 
bedside  of  his  convalescing  wife,  after  the  advent  of  their  first-born 


ADDRESS    OF    REV.    J.    P.    BRUSHINGHAM.  427 

child,  and  instead  of  returning  witli  medicine  and  nourishment  for 
wife  and  habe,  remain  all  nifj;lit  and  use  the  money  in  a  gambling  hell, 
while  a  day  or  two  later  he  pawned  her  clothing  and  jeweller}-  for  tho 
gaming  table  ;  yet,  aside  from  the  accursed  mania  which  hail  weakened 
and  dehumanised  him,  he  was  a  kind-hearted  man.  My  wife  has  closed 
tho  eyes  of  an  abandoned,  dying  wife  and  mother,  whose  wretched 
husband,  although  not  a  drunken  man,  was  in  a  gambling  house  in 
the  same  city  all  that  dreary  night. 

That  men  will  risk  money  in  the  hopes  of  defeating  a  professional 
gambling  house  at,  its  own  game  seems  the  height  of  folly,  for  the 
dice  are  all  loaded  against  the  player,  while  every  cog  in  every 
wheel  is  dedicated  to  the  profit  of  the  owner  of  the  establishment. 
Yet  we  need  only  call  to  mind  Monte  Carlo  and  its  suicidal  victims, 
who  fall  like  moths  into  the  destructive  candle,  or  like  those  ocean 
birds  that  beat  their  lives  out  against  the  stone  lighthouses  and  fall 
bleeding  on  the  rocks  beneath,  to  understand  the  height  of  madness  to 
which  gambling  leads. 

We  not  only  have  the  directly  ruinous  forms  of  gambling  which 
number  their  victims  in  high  and  low  jjlaces,  but  there  is  indirectly 
at  work  a  spirit  of  gambling  which  creeps  in  upon  human  life  un- 
awares. Sometimes  ministers  of  God  have  a  speculative  turn  of  mind 
in  business  ventures,  which  bodes  no  good  for  their  efficiency  and 
spirituality.  The  Roman  Church  openly  violates  the  law  of  civilisation 
written  upon  statute  books  by  rattles  and  varied  chances  at  Church 
fairs.  Occasionally  there  steals  into  the  camp  of  the  Evangelicals  some 
innocent-looking  wooden  horse  filled  with  armed  men.  How  are  we  to 
deal  with  this  incipient  gambling  in  our  Chnrch  circles?  We  should 
not  tolerate  anything  of  the  kind  for  an  instant.  A  ladies'  society  in 
a  former  clmrch  of  mine  had  arranged  a  Japanese  tea.  The  price  per 
cup  was  large,  but  a  certain  fortunate  cup  would,  secure  the  whole  tea- 
set.  In  the  morning  of  that  day,  when  the  pastor  insisted  that  the 
Church  would  not  be  permitted  to  violate  the  laws  of  the  State  of 
Illinois,  it  was  decided  to  sell  the  china  in  a  legitimate  way.  Another 
American  pastor  found  that  the  church  folk  were  preparing  to  sell 
chances  upon  a  cake  which  contained  a  valuable  ring.  He  threatened 
to  call  the  police,  and  the  illegal  procedure  stopped.  The  gambling 
spirit  is  so  much  in  the  air  that  Church  people  become  unwittingly 
infected,  even  to  the  children's  bran  tub  or  grab  bag. 

How  are  Christian  teachers  and  preachers  to  meet  this  problem? 
By  carefully  instructing  the  young  that  gambling  is  fundamentally 
wrong — wrong  in  principle  as  well  as  practice.  That  it  is  an  attempt 
to  get  something  for  nothing  ;  that  it  is  an  utter  perversion  of  that 
principle  of  reciprocity  which  renders  an  equivalent ;  that  what  one 
gains  another  loses  illegitimately ;  it  substitutes  luck  for  pluck,  the 
wheel  of  fortune  for  honest,  manly  effort ;  and,  if  persisted  in,  inevit- 
abl<^  ruin  is  sure  to  follow.  Young  men  must  be  taught  to  hasten  to 
the  goal  of  fame  and  wealth  between  the  posts  of  duty  ;  at  least,  not  to 
seek  to  leap  into  possessions  at  the  expense  of  others,  but  to  climb  the 
heights  of  life  by  straight,  and  not  by  crooked  paths.     A  lettei  from 


428  GAMBLING. 

home  says  that  Vice-President  Roosevelt  advanced  this  thought  while 
preaching  to  young  men  last  Sunday  week  in  the  First  Methodist 
Cluuch  of  Chicago,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Gideon  Band.  Jesus 
Christ  in  the  heart  is  the  supreme  remedy.  "  He  can  minister  to  a 
mind  diseased"  and  "purge  the  foul  bosom  of  that  perilous  stuff  that 
weighs  upon  the  soul."  His  ineffable  presence  excludes  all  forms  of 
sin  and  folly,  vice  and  crime.  Even  the  cold,  callous  heart  of  the 
drunkard  and  gambler,  the  thief  and  the  prostitute,  may  be  savingly 
warmed  by  the  gulf  stream  of  His  Divine  incoming 

"  Down  in  the  human  heart, 

Crushed  by  the  tempter, 
Feelings  lie  buried  that  grace  can  restore  ; 

Touehed  by  a  loving  heart, 

Wakened  by  kindness, 
Chords  that  were  broken  will  vibrate  once  more," 

Mr.  Thomas  R.  Ferens  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  gave  the 
second  invited  address.     He  said  : 

We  are  greatly  indebted  to  Mr.  Wiseman  for  the  most  able  paper  he 
has  given  us.  As  he  was  reading  the  paper  I  thought  he  was  building 
up  round  about  him  an  impregnable  rock.  We  were  also  much  stirred 
by  the  address  of  Mr.  Brushingham. 

This  great  Qilcumenical  Conference  represents,  I  believe,  about 
twenty-five  million  adherents.  I  have  been  surprised  to  be  asked, 
again  and  again,  What  is  to  be  the  practical  outcome  of  the  Confer- 
ence? Surely  much  every  way.  This  aftefnoon's  work  will  not  be  in 
vain  if  the  eyes  of  the  great  Methodist  Churches  are  opened  more 
widely  to  the  dreadful  evils  arising  from  the  practice  of  betting  and 
gambling,  alas !  so  terribly  prevalent  in  the  United  Kingdom  in  all 
classes  of  society,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  from  the  Stock  Ex- 
change to  the  gutter,  a  practice  which  never  brings  a  blessing  with 
it,  but  always  a  curse. 

I  should  like  to  ask  whether,  as  Methodist  Churches,  we  have  done 
what  we  might  to  educate  and  influence  our  people  in  regard  to  this 
gigantic  evil?  I  sadly  fear  we  have  not.  In  the  prayers  of  our  minis- 
ter? we  continually  hear  this  evil  classed  with  drunkenness  and  im- 
purity, but  I  have  very  seldom  heard  it  fully  exposed  and  denounced, 
or  our  people,  old  and  young,  warned  of  its  terrible  influence,  either 
from  the  pulpits  or  the  Sunday  School  desks. 

We  are  here  to  take  counsel  together  as  to  how  best  to  extend  the 
Kingdom  of  Christ.  When  the  question  has  been  asked  what  hinders 
its  progress,  we  have  been  accustomed,  perhaps  first  of  all,  to  think  of 
the  drink  traffic  as  being  the  greatest  hindrance  in  our  country,  what- 
ever may  be  the  obstacles  elsewhere.  Now,  however,  great  authorities 
are  beginning  to  question  whether  the  gambling  spirit  should  not  be 
placed  first.  The  Bishop  of  Manchester  says  that  no  habitual  drun- 
kard is  more  the  slave  of  his  depraved  appetite  than  is  the  habitual 
gambler  of  his  feverish  desire  to  possess  himself  of  money  which  he  haa 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  THOMAS  R.  FERENS.  429 

not  earned.  The  late  Bishop  Westcott  said  :  "  The  experience  of  those 
most  competent  to  speak  told  them  that  the  effects  of  gambling  were 
fa--  more  disastrous  than  the  effects  of  drunkenness."  I  quote  these 
views  without  committing  myself  to  them,  as  I  hold  strong  views  in 
regard  to  the  evil  and  extent  and  influence  of  intemperance. 

It  has  been  said  that  we  require  a  new  Lord's  Prayer  for  the  gamb- 
ler, that  instead  of  saying,  "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,"  it  should 
read,  "Give  us  this  day  our  brothers'  daily  bread."  It  is  futile  for 
men.  who  play  for  money  to  say  that  it  is  not  the  money  they  want, 
but  that  the  stake  is  to  give  zest  and  interest  to  the  game.  A  gentle- 
man in  one  of  our  cities  had  a  billiard  table,  and  his  young  men  friends 
often  played.  They  wished  to  play  for  small  sums  just  to  give  interest 
'  to  their  play.  He  objected^  but  to  meet  them  he  provided  a  box  into 
which  all  the  winnings  were  to  be  put  to  be  distributed  among  local 
charities.  The  sight  of  the  box  ever  afterwards  was  quite  sufficient  to 
lend  all  the  necessary  interest,  without  any  money  whatever  exchang- 
ing hands. 

The  practice  of  gambling  has  very  much  increased  in  recent  years. 
Formerly  it  was  very  largely  confined  to  the  upper  classes  ;  now  it 
permeates  all  sections  of  society.  It  is  to  be  deplored  that  from  a 
variety  of  causes  the  gambling  mania  has  spread  among  the  working- 
classes  to  such  an  alarming  extent.  "Very  largely  the  Press  is  respon- 
sible for  this.  It  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  that  so  large  a  portion  of 
tho  daily  paper  is  devoted  to  sporting  news,  I  noticed  the  other  day 
that  one  of  the  provincial  papers,  enjoying  a  very  wide  circulation, 
gave  to  this  Conference  half  a  column,  while  it  gave  to  sporting  news 
five  columns,  or  ten  times  the  space.  This  is  true  also  of  the  London 
Press.  Towns  of  about  200,000  are  maintaining  daily  local  sporting 
papers.  The  leading  English  paper,  "The  Times,"  admits  sporting 
news,  and  yet  it  says,  "  Horse-racing  is  an  amusement  to  which  is 
directly  traceable  more  misery,  more  ruin,  more  demoralisation  than 
to  any  other  pastime.  It  is  unnecessary  to  insist  upon  the  manifold 
evils  of  the  gambling  spirit,  the  ruined  homes,  the  broken  hearts,  the 
blackened  characters  for  which  it  is  responsible  ;  and  the  demoralising 
effect  upon  the  intelligence  and  the  sympathies  of  the  people  of  this 
arid  and  absorbing  passion  for  swift  and  unearned  gains.  The  curse 
of  gambling,  as  Burns  has  said  of  another  vice,  is  that '  It  hardens  all 
within  and  petrifies  the  feeling.' " 

Think  of  the  ruin  wrought  every  day,  and  all  the  world  over,  by 
gambling.  Have  we  not  all  examples  that  have  come  within  our  own 
observation,  if  not  in  our  own  families?  In  the  city  of  Hull,  in  which 
I  live,  it  is  quite  a  common  occurrence  for  boys  to  be  prosecuted  for 
playing  cards  for  money  and  pitch-and-toss  in  the  streets.  Recently 
a  batch  of  these  boys  were  caught  by  a  policeman  at  three  o'clock  in 
the  morning  playing  cards  for  money,  so  strongly  had  the  passion 
seized  them.  Not  long  ago  a  newspaper  boy  in  Hull  began  gambling, 
and  stole  his  employer's  money  to  pay  his  debts.  He  was  detected  ; 
a  policeman  called  at  his  house  ;  the  little  fellow  was  so  terrified  when 
he  saw  him  that  he  rushed  out  of  the  house  at  the  back,  wandered 


430  GAMBLING. 

about  all  night,  and  the  next  morning  threw  himself  under  a  loco- 
motive engine,  and  was  cut  to  pieces.  A  friend  of  mine  has  known  a 
mother,  not  worthy  of  the  name,  take  the  boots  off  her  little  boy's  feet  to 
pawn  for  one  shilling  to  put  on  a  horse,  so  great  is  the  infatuation  when 
once  the  gambling  spirit  gets  possession  of  the  individual. 

Misery  and  ruin  follow  in  the  train  of  this  vice  all  the  world  over. 
I  remember,  when  I  was  on  a  trip  in  Ceylon,  having  a  young  man 
pointed  out  to  me  in  a  state  of  intoxication  who  had  gambled  away 
£25,000  in  a  few  months.  Within  a  day  or  two  a  young  naval  officer, 
whose  ship  was  in  a  Ceylon  harboin-,  blew  out  his  brains,  as  he  had 
ruined  himself  by  gambling.  A  few  years  ago  a  young  f()ol  got  through 
£250,000  on  the  English  Turf  in  one  season,  and  was  then  posted  for 
£1,400.  Another  Prodigal  Son  case  ;  he  had  wasted  all  "  his  substance 
with  riotous  living,"  and  when  he  was  in  need  "  no  man  gave  unto  him.' 

It  is  deplorable  that  betting  should  have  become  so  prevalent  in  con- 
nection with  our  national  and  manly  sports  of  football,  cricket,  and 
boat-racing.  Many  a  young  man  has  gone  wrong  wlio  began  by 
betting  small  sums  on  his  games.  It  is  scarcely  credible  to  what  an 
extent  gambling  has  taken  hold  of  young  fellows  in  large  business 
houses.  For  my  part — and  I  am  not  singular  in  this — I  would  never 
place  in  a  position  of  trust  any  young  man  known  to  be  addicted  to 
this  vice. 

To  combat  this  growing  evil  I  fear  little  can  be  done  for  the  hardened 
sinners,  but  is  it  not  the  duty  of  Christian  parents  to  warn  their  boys 
of  the  danger  of  dabbling  in  gambling  in  the  least  degree  ?  Is  it  not 
possible  that  in  all  schools,  whether  elementary  or  of  higher  class,  and, 
of  course,  in  Sunday  Schools,  the  scholars  should  be  taught  how  im- 
moral betting  is?  The  Bradford  School  Board  gives  special  instruc- 
tion on  the  subject,  and  probably  many  other  Boards  do  so  Would 
that  it  were  universal !  One  of  the  best  things  which  I  know  to  put 
into  the  hands  of  a  youth  is  Charles  Kingsley's  letter  addressed  to  a 
public  schoolboy  on  hearing  of  his  first  bet. 

Then,  surely  all  Christian  Churches  should  set  a  good  example  by 
absolutely  prohibiting  raffling  at  bazaars.  This  practice  in  the  Church 
in  England  is  much  less  indulged  in  than  twenty-five  years  ago,  and  in 
this  country  it  is  quite  illegal,  and  ought  to  be  entirely  abolished.  It 
is  necessary  that  we  should  create  a  healthy  public  opinion  as  a  pre- 
liminary to  legislation.  If  what  is  known  as  the  Nonconformist  con- 
science be  aroused  it  can  make  itself  felt.  When  the  attempt  was 
made  about  two  years  ago  to  foist  upon  us  a  Sunday  newspaper,  this 
Nonconformist  conscience  was  profoundly  stirred,  and  the  attempt  was 
completely  frustrated.  Let  me  appeal  to  the  families  of  our  people  to 
discountenance  in  every  form  the  gambling  spirit.  Is  it  true  that  there 
are  among  Christian  people  whist-drives  for  prizes?  Can  anyone  be- 
lieve that  young  people  thus  trained  will  not  elsewhere,  and  very 
shortly,  play  at  cards  for  money?  Who  can  predict  what  the  end  will 
be? 

A  Bill  has  been  drawn  with  a  view  of  putting  down  gambling,  and 
it  is  to  come  before  the  House  of  Commons.     Its  provisions,  briefly 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  43 1 

stated,  are: — 1.  Persons  sending  documents  to  any  person  inciting  to 
betting,  guilty  of  a  misdemeanour.  2.  Persons  publishing  betting  in- 
formation, guilty  of  a  misdemeanour.  3.  Advertising  foreign  betting 
houses,  illegal.  4.  Power  to  arrest  and  search  street  betting  men,  and 
on  second  offence  to  imprison.  5.  Use  of  public-houses  for  paying 
debts,  a  misdemeanour.  6.  Persons  offering  for  profit  large  rewards 
upon  contingencies,  guilty  of  a  misdemeanour.  When  this  Bill  comes 
forward,  as  it  is  in  no  sense  a  party  measure,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that 
those  on  both  sides  of  the  House  who  have  the  happiness  and  pros- 
perity of  the  country  at  heart,  and  who  believe  that  "  righteousness 
exalteth  a  nation,"  will  give  the  measure  their  hearty  support. 

The  Rev.  T.  Parr,  M.A.  (Primitive  Methodist  Church),  commenced 
the  general  discussion  on  the  topic,  by  saying : 

We  are  all  agreed  that  the  evil  is  an  evil,  but  the  extent  of  it,  I  am 
perfectly  sure,  is  not  clear  to  a  large  number  of  our  ministers  and 
people.  In  this  regard  we  have  been  very  much  like  the  ostrich — 'bury- 
ing our  head  in  the  sand.  It  may  be  that  my  brother  ministers  on 
Sunday  morning  may  be  addressing  a  number  of  young  men  who  on  the 
Saturday  afternoon,  at  the  football  match,  were  betting.  Painful  facts 
come  under  my  notice  occasionally.  A  man  was  fined  £5  and  costs 
who,  it  was  said,  was  in  our  Sunday  Schools  so  many  years  ago. 
These  things  troubled  me,  as  I  thought  of  the  imperfect  instruction  that 
must  have  been  given. 

I  wish  specially  to  call  the  attention  of  the  Churches  to  the  possi- 
bility of  putting  the  present  law  more  thoroughly  in  motion  than  is 
done.  When  I  was  in  Australia  it  was  the  same  thing  there.  The 
racehorse  has  been  pictured  in  caricature  as  the  deity  of  Australia. 
This  thing  was  growing  at  an  enormous  rate,  and  the  totalisator  shops, 
which  are  practically  lottery  shops,  were  multiplying  in  the  city  to  an 
enormous  extent,  and  producing  serious  miscliief.  We  began  to  talk 
about  it  in  the  Council  of  the  Churches.  We  have  not  to  say  there 
the  Free  Churches,  because  they  are  all  free,  and  the  Anglican  Church 
is  with  us.  We  began  to  talk  of  what  could  be  done.  We  said  we 
must  get  some  facts  first.  Get  your  facts !  Wholesale  declamation  is 
of  no  avail.  We  called  a  conference,  and  to  that  conference  we  in- 
vited converted  gamblers,  and  they  came.  Bless  the  Lord !  there  are 
converted  gamblers  and  converted  bookmakers'  clerks.  We  obtained 
our  facts  from  the  police  in  the  street,  and  from  the  conference  we 
went  as  a  deputation  to  the  Government,  with  the  result  that  within 
forty-eight  hours  of  our  going  between  twenty-five  and  thirty  of  these 
lottery  shops  were  closed  peremptorily  by  the  police.  We  had  abuse 
from  the  newspapers.  I  have  a  newspaper  article  at  home,  with  my 
name  mentioned  in  every  line,  and  a  threatening  compliment  in  every 
column  ;  abuse  which  was  libellous,  had  I  cared  to  take  it  up.  With 
tears  in  their  eyes  mothers  came  forward  to  thank  us  for  what  we  had 
done  to  try  and  save  their  boys.  We  had  not  put  down  the  lotteries 
altogether  ;  we  had  not  extinguished  gambling  ;  but  it  shows  what  can 
be  done  if  the  Churches  are  united.  When  I  did  what  I  could  to  put 
down  this  gambling  vice  in  Sydney  I  felt  I  was  as  much  doing  Christ's 
work  as  when  I  was  leading  sinners  to  the  penitent  form. 

We  ourselves  should  be  clear  of  it.     There  is  great  need  for  education 


432  GAMBLING. 

even  among  ultra-good  people.  There  are  many  of  our  people  who  do 
not  see  the  harm  in  the  bet  they  can  afford  to  pay  if  they  lose.  That 
is  the  crux  of  the  whole  matter.  Everyljody  can  see  the  harm  in  a  bet 
which  you  cannot  afford  to  lose,  but  they  do  not  see  it  in  a  bet  they 
can  afford  to  lose.  I  should  be  thankful  if  the  paper  of  this  afternoon 
should  be  published  and  scattered  broadcast.  The  ethics  of  the  matter 
need  to  be  impressed  on  the  minds  of  our  people. 

Lastly,  there  should  be  in  the  pulpit  and  everywhere  perfect  fear- 
lessness. If  it  is  wrong  for  an  artisan  to  bet  his  wages,  it  is  wrong 
for  a  prince  to  bet  his  sovereign.  It  is  as  wrong  in  one  as  it  is  in 
the  other.  The  fact  of  a  man  being  able  to  afford  it  does  not  alter  the 
ethics  of  the  question  at  all.  It  is  wrong,  and  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  we  should  speak  against  it,  whether  it  is  in  the  rich 
or  the  poor. 

The  Rev.  R.  H.  Gilbert,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  was 
the  next  speaker.     He  said : 

Very  few  questions  have  challenged  our  consideration  during  this 
Conference  more  involved  with  diflSculty  than  this.  The  vice  of  gambling 
may  be  considered  a  gilt-edged  vice.  We  shall  waste  a  good  deal  of 
time,  and  a  good  deal  of  breath,  if  we  consider  the  circumference  of  this 
subject  to  apprehend  only  those  who  are  guilty  of  gambling  in  its 
more  vulgar  forms.  With  this  aspect  of  the  question  I  have  nothing 
to  do  this  afternoon  The  great  trouble  that  almost  paralyses  my  hope 
of  a  beautiful  development  of  the  young  people  over  whom  I  am  now  the 
pastor  is  to  get  them  to  understand  that  it  is  really  gambling  when, 
in  a  beautiful  parlour,  they  engage  in  a  game  of  progressive  euchre  or 
progressive  whist,  with  a  feather-tipped  fan,  a  dainty  bit  of  Japanese 
bric-a-brac,  or,  where  the  circumstances  of  the  people  will  allow,  a 
diamond  pin,  as  a  prize.  I  insist  upon  it  that  whatever  may  be  pleaded 
in  defence  of  games  of  amusement  or  chance  so-called  as  recreation 
pure  and  simple,  just  as  soon  as  an  objective  is  furnished — call  it  a 
prize,  if  you  wiU,  first,  aecoad,  or  third — that  becomes  really  the  stake, 
and  what  before  might  have  been  recreation,  ceases  to  be  such,  and 
really  becomes  gambling. 

We  are  very  largely  the  victims  of  words,  and  if  we  can  palliate  the 
offence  of  a  man  high  in  society,  who  has  been  drinking,  by 
saying  he  is  just  tippling,  we  have,  somehow  or  other,  lessened  the 
sensibility  of  the  person,  in  so  far  as  the  pernicious  effects  of  alcoholics 
is  concerned.  If  we  were  to  say  he  was  drunk  we  should  create  a 
revulsion.  So  in  this  matter,  if,  instead  of  allowing  that  men  and 
women  may  be  communicants  in  good  standing,  and  maintain  social 
leadership,  while  constantly  giving  card  parties  at  which  prizes  are 
distributed  "  as  an  impulse  to  skill,"  and  all  the  rest  of  it,  we  were  to 
say  that  they  are  gamblers,  and  put  a  premium  on  gambling,  we  should 
strike  a  keynote  that  would  have  a  very  wholesome  effect. 

We  must  stop  allowing  ourselves  to  be  hoodwinked  in  that  fashion. 
The  same  relation  that  exists  between  tippling  and  drunkenness  exists 
between  progressive  euchre  for  a  prize  and  the  more  vulgar  forms  of 
gambling  outside.  I  have  yet  to  find  in  my  pastorate  of  nearly  twenty- 
three  years  anybody  who  is  expert  or  dexterous  in  the  dealing  of  cards 
who  is  equally  deft  in  the  manipulation  of  the  pages  of  the  iJivine 
Book  in  order  to  find  a  passage  that  may  comfort  a  soul.  I  have  found 
that  those  who  are  skilful  on  the  waxed  floor  in  tripping  the  light  fan- 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  433 

tastio  toe  are  never  successful  in  treading  tlie  beaten  path  to  the  closet 
of  prayer.  Those  who  are  prone  to  bend  the  elbow  in  raising  to  the 
lips  the  ruby  wine  seldom  have  a  taste  for  draining  the  cup  of  salvation. 
We  want  to  insist  upon  it  that  whatever  be  the  prize  won  in  a  contest 
of  cards  or  other  games  of  chance,  it  is  a  direct  and  flagrant  violation  of 
the  eighth  commandment,  which  declares,  "  Thou  shalt  not  steal.  If 
we  can  brand  gamijling  in  all  its  forms  with  a  stigma  of  dishonesty,  we 
shall  get  to  where  there  will  be  daybreak,  and  quicken  the  moral 
sensibihties  of  our  young  people.  We  hope  to  see  them  saved  from 
this  growing  vice. 

Mr.  John  White  (Bible  Christian  Church)  spoke  as  follows : 

I  feel  that  I  should  be  comlemned  in  my  mind  if  I  went  away  from 
this  (Ecumenical  Conference  without  raising  my  voice  in  warning 
against  this  great  evil.  Fifteen  years  ago  God  saved  me  from  this  vice 
of  gambling,  and  because  of  that  I  feel  now  is  my  opportunity  to 
speak.  I  know  somewhat  of  the  fascination  of  the  evil.  I  have  been 
brought  in  touch  with  it  in  such  a  way  as,  perhaps,  very  few  in  this 
assembly  have,  and  I  can  speak  of  that  side  of  it  which  I  am  thankful 
to  God  you  know  very  little  of,  and  I  am  sorry  that  I  know  too  much 
of.  Nevertheless,  I  can  praise  Him  because  He  has  delivered  me  from 
this  vice  of  gambling. 

I  will  give  you  an  illustration,  the  truth  of  which  I  will  vouch  for. 
A  young  man  in  Exeter  visited  a  racecourse  and  gambled  every  shilling 
he  had.  He  borrowed  three  shillings  of  his  companions  on  his  home- 
ward journey.  Then  he  went  playing  cards,  lost  the  three  shillings  he 
borrowed,  gambled  his  clothes,  and  was  kept  in  bed.  You  cannot  quite 
understand  that— the  fascination,  the  power  of  the  evil— that  a  man 
should  so  forget  himself  and  should  so  lose  all  self-respect  that  he 
gambled  away  his  very  clothes.  Here  is  another  instance,  which  will 
be  very  forcible,  i  am  sure,  to  any  of  you  who  understand  this  question 
in  the  slightest  degree.  A  young  man  travelling  from  Exeter  to  Hols- 
worthy  Market,  where  there  was  a  big  race  day,  confessed  to  me  that  he 
had  already  put  £5  on  a  horse.  At  Okehampton,  the  junction  on  the 
journey,  he  was  desirous  of  putting  another  £5  on  the  horse.  I  pressed 
him  not  io  do  so,  and  so  far  I  kept  him.  At  Holsworthy  he  had  to  go 
on  his  way  and  attend  to  his  business,  and  I  had  to  attend  to  mine. 
I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  fascination  was  so  great  that  the  young  man 
before  he  came  back  had  put  another  £5  on  the  horse.  When  I  met 
him  the  next  day,  I  said,  "Jack,  your  money  went."  "Oh,  yes,"  he 
said,  "it  went.  That  is  about  £100  I  have  done  this  year."  I  pressed 
that  man  to  give  up  gambling,  and  he  did  so  for  about  six  months, 
and  saved  £50.  Then  someone  induced  him  to  have  a  shilling — "  only 
a  shilling  "—on  a  horse,  which  he  did,  as  he  said,  for  the  fun  of  the 
thing,  and  then  he  told  me  that  the  £50,  which  he  had  put  by  and  saved, 
soon  went,  and  he  was  stranded  again. 

To  every  father  in  this  Conference  I  would  say,  "Beware  of  the 
letters  which  come  into  yoin-  house."  I  had  a  letter  come  into  my 
house  the  other  day,  a  gold-tipped  card.  I  looked  at  that  card.  I 
eaw  that  through  it  my  lad  would  be  approached,  and  fifty  to  one  offered 
to  him— a  temptation  to  my  boy  if  it  had  reached  his  hands.  Perhaps 
you  can  prevent  these  cards  getting  into  the  hands  of  young  men.  Look 
at  the  chances  which  fascinate  them— fifiy  to  one  and  one  hundred  to 
one.  Wliat  has  made  betting  still  more  rampant  in  the  city  from  which 
29 


434  GAMBLING. 

I  come  is  this  fact,  that  a  boy  near  where  I  live  had  put  five  shfllings 
on  the  Derby,  the  year  before  last,  I  think,  when  the  chances  were 
forty  to  one.  He  so  gambled  that  his  winnings  should  go  on  a  certain 
horse  in  the  next  race,  and  by  that  five  shillings  the  boy  won  £90. 
That  fact  itself  corrupted  scores  of  boys  in  that  city. 

I  endorse  the  very  strong  remark  that  has  been  made,  that  we  must 
speak  out  through  our  pulpits,  and  at  every  opportunity  make  it  our 
business  whenever  there  is  a  chance  of  endeavouring  to  cope  with 
this  evil.  When  I  see  a  young  man  with  a  sporting  paper,  I  say  to 
him,  "My  friend,  the  odds  are  very  great  against  you,  and  the  evil 
is  great.  Give  it  up."  If  a  young  man  that  I  know  who  has  religious 
parents  mentions  anything  to  me  about  horse-racing,  I  not  only  speak 
to  him,  but  I  feel  in  duty  bound  to  bring  that  young  man  before  God, 
because  I  know  the  evil  is  so  ruinous  in  its  character.  The  man  that 
takes  up  betting  forgets  his  business.  He  loses  the  love  of  friends  ; 
he  loses  self-respect.  One  of  the  greatest  enemies,  I  venture  to  express 
here  to-day.  that  the  Christian  Church  in  this  country  has  to  contend 
with  is  this  awful  power  of  gambling.  I  thank  Mr.  Wiseman  for 
his  excellent  paper,  and  I  feel  sure  the  outcome  of  it  will  be 
that  our  Churches  will  be  more  alive  to  this  danger,  will  speak  out 
agaiftst  it,  and  try  by  the  help  of  God  to  save  our  young  men  from  going 
to  ruin. 

Mr.  W.  B.  Luke,  J.P.  (Bible  Christian  Church),  made  the  following 
remarks : 

I  wish  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  those  who  opened  this 
discussion,  but  I  think  we  might  well  investigate  for  a  moment  the 
causes  of  this  fascination  which  we  all  know  to  exist.  I  take  it  that 
we  ourselves,  as  a  body,  whatever  other  infirmities  we  may  plead 
guilty  of,  are  free  from  the  gambling  habit.  It  may  be  that  some 
caustic  critic  will  be  disposed  to  charge  us  with  practising  what  a 
poet  once  said : 

"  Compound  for  sins  he  was  inclined  to. 
By  damning  those  he  had  no  mind  to." 

We  have  no  mind,  I  am  sure,  to  bet  or  gamble,  but  we  are  well  aware 
that  it  is  one  of  the  growing  and  gravest  curses  of  our  country.  Em- 
ployers tell  us  that  at  present  it  is  doing  traceably  more  devastation 
even  than  drink.  We  know  that  by  the  operation  of  our  halfpenny 
evening  papers,  which  are  becoming  more  and  more  exclusively  sport- 
ing journals,  and  by  which  betting  is  enormously  facilitated  among 
every  class  of  the  population.     What  does  it  arise  from  ? 

I  attribute  the  growth  of  this  evil,  in  the  first  place,  to  the  unutter- 
able dreariness  of  the  lives  which  many  people  have  .to  live.  I  am 
afraid  that  is  an  argument  that  does  not  appeal  to  us  very  much,  as 
members  of  this  Conference,  as  most  of  us,  I  presume,  have  a  fairly 
varied  life  and  probably  pleasant  occupations  and  frequent  changes  of 
scene.  I  really  thinlc  that  we  find  it  difficillt  or  impossible  to  enter 
into  the  frame  of  mind,  the  hungry,  eager  craving,  of  those  whose 
life  is  composed  of  eight  or  nine  hours  of  sleep  and  ten  or  eleven  hours 
of  dreary  toil,  with  just  an  hour  or  two  for  rest,  recreation,  and  meals. 
Those  people,  with  all  their  faculties  dwarfed  and  keptunder  restraint 
by  the  hard,  monotonous,  and  wearisome  nature  of  their  vocations  day 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  435 

by  day,  and  year  by  year,  eagerly  fly  to  the  relaxation  and  the  ecstasy 
of  sport.  That,  I  believe,  is  one  great  cause  for  the  prevalence  of 
betting  at  this  day,  and  I  thinli  we  must  look  for  a  change  in  that  par- 
ticular. We  must  look  for  it  in  what  was  once  called  "  the  expulsive 
power  of  a  new  affection."  We  cannot  hope  that  these  people  will 
be  delivered  from  the  hands  of  the  bookmaker  until  they  have  some 
new  interests  created  in  their  minds,  which  will  rise  superior  to  those 
that  now  attract  them  to  the  bookmaker. 

There  is  one  other  point,  namely,  the  influence  of  the  universal  greed 
of  gain.  That  subject  is  coming  on  to-morrow,  and  I  hope  I  am  not 
anticipating  it  ;  but  we  know  very  well  in  the  present  day  that  almost 
everybody  really  wants  to  get  rich.  We  have  that  put  before  us  most 
forcibly  in  the  New  York  papers,  perhaps,  more  than  by  anybody 
else,  so  far  as  my  experience  goes,  the  wonderful  glory  of  those  who  are 
rich.  It  is  preached  from  day  to  day  in  the  'New  York  Journal" 
and  the  "  New  York  World,"  and  in  many  of  the  English  papers  as 
well.  This  passion  for  wealth,  this  glorification  of  "  £  s.  d.,"  is  in  some 
measure  cultivated  by  the  Church.  I  think  the  Church,  by  its  in- 
fluence, by  its  acts,  by  the  predominance  and  the  eminence  and  the 
dignity  it  constantly  gives  to  its  men  of  wealth,  by  the  priority  and 
the  adulation  which  it  offers  unblenchingly  to  almost  any  man  who 
will  come  forward  and  place  a  £100  bank-note  on  a  foundation-stone, 
by  the  precedence  which  it  gives  to  the  men  of  wealth,  and  by  the  pro- 
minence "  £  s.  d."  has  in  all  our  Church  operations — I  think  the  Church 
is  doing  something,  perhaps  not  a  little,  to  foster  that  exaggerated 
idea  of  the  benefits  which  wealth  can  offer,  which  has  something  to 
do  with  the  development  of  the  betting  habit. 

The  Rev.  G.  Armstrong  Bennetts,  B.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  said : 

The  work  which  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  has  given  me  to 
do  has  brought  me  very  much  into  contact  with  this  question  of 
gambling.  Whatever  may  be  said  about  the  relative  extent  and  aggra- 
vation of  the  evils  of  drunkenness  and  of  gambling  I  know  one  thing 
— ^that  gambling  and  the  pubHc-house  are  continually  in  close  league, 
and  that  among  certain  circles  of  gamblers  it  is  a  code  of  morality,  if 
you  can  call  it  a  code  of  morality,  that  when  a  bet  is  won  the  man 
who  wins  the  bet  shall  "stand  treat."  I  think  the  greatest  book  that 
has  yet  been  written  on  the  question  of  gambling  is  that  wonderful 
book  of  James  Runciman's,  which  ought  to  be  in  all  our  Sunday  School 
libraries  and  read  throughout  the  world,  "Some  Joints  in  our  Social 
Armour."  Anyone  who  has  read  that  wonderful  and  awful  book,  by 
a  man  who  was  ruined  by  drink  and  gambling,  will  know  that  the 
public-house  and  the  gambling  hell  hunt  in  pairs,  and  that  if  we 
are  to  strike  a  blow  at  the  root  of  gambling  we  shall  also  have  to 
strike  a  blow  at  the  root  of  the  liquor  traffic  in  this  country. 

I  know,  as  perhaps  few  know,  because  of  the  work  into  which  I  am 
thrown,  the  terrible  extent  of  this  gambling  evil  in  our  midst.  Not 
long  ago  there  was  a  youth  who  gave  himself  to  Christ  at  one  of  my 
meetings.  A  day  or  two  after  he  said  to  me,  "  That  night,  after  I  went 
home,  I  threw  into  my  mother's  lap  the  last  £7  of  my  gambling 
money,  and  said,  '  No  more  gambling  for  me,  mother.'  I  have  been 
very  lucky  in  gambling,  and  I  have  never  lost  till  the  last  five  weeks, 
but  during  the  last  five  weeks  I  have  lost  £17."    I  said,  "  £17 1    How 


436  GAMBLING. 

much  do  you  earn  a  week?"  "Eighteen  shillings,"  he  said.  "And 
you  have  lost  £17  during  the  last  five  weeks  1 "  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  and 
if  I  had  had  my  usual  luck  I  should  have  won  £84."  I  said  :  "  Tell  me, 
what  was  the  biggest  sum  you  ever  won  at  a  stroke."  "  £101  15s."  If 
a  collier  lad  in  our  midst  can  win  £101  15s.  at  a  stroke,  the  evil  is  one 
that  we  ought  to  rouse  ourselves  to  grapple  with,  -with  our  utmost 
enthusiasm  and  determination. 

I  will  tell  this  Conference  facts  which  I  know  concerning  gamb- 
ling, not  in  the  circles  that  are  supposed  to  indulge  in  this  thing,  but 
in  circles  that  are  supposed  to  be  sacred.  Not  long  ago  a  friend  of 
mine  in  Lancashire  said  to  me,  "On  the  day  of  our  Sunday  School 
anniversary,  as  I  came  down  from  the  gallery,  I  heard  two  of  the 
scholars  betting  on  the  amount  of  the  Sunday  School  collections  for 
the  day."  If  we  have  in  our  congregations  on  Sunday  the  minds  of 
young  people  filled  with  the  passionate  fever  and  excitement  of 
gambling,  they  will  not  listen  to  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

I  will  give  you  one  more  fact.  Two  or  three  years  ago  a  newspaper 
reporter  in  Cardiff  put  himself  on  a  Sunday  night  under  a  lamp  where 
the  roads  from  some  of  the  principal  places  of  worship  in  Cardiff  con- 
verged, that  he  might  jot  down  in  his  notebook  all  the  conversation 
that  he  heard  from  the  lips  of  the  worshippers  coming  from  those 
places  of  worship  as  they  passed  home.  On  two  successive  weeks  he 
published  the  notes  of  those  conversations,  and  the  conversation  of 
the  worshippers  coming  from  those  places  of  worship  on  those  Sunday 
nights  was  four-fifths  of  it — football.  If  we  are  to  have  a  nation  that 
is  to  be  brought  up  on  the  enthusiasm  of  sport,  we  shall  have  no  great 
enthusiasm  in  our  midst  for  the  salvation  of  mankind  and  for  the  up- 
lifting of  nations.  The  Churches  of  God  throughout  the  world  ought  to 
bend  their  whole  strength  for  the  overthrow  of  these  twin  evils  of 
drink  and  gambling,  and  we  ought  to  frown  most,  not  upon  the 
paltry  gambling  hells  upon  which  the  police  make  their  raids,  but  upon 
the  great,  magnificent,  highly  sanctioned,  and  highly  patronised 
gambling  institutions  in  our  midst,  such  as  the  gambling  side  of  the 
Stock  Exchange  and  the  Turf. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  KiNa,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  con- 
tinuing the  discussion,  said : 

In  the  earlier  history  of  that  part  of  America  that  is  contained  within 
the  United  States,  gambling  in  the  form  of  lotteries  was  considered 
perfectly  legitimate,  and  one  of  the  strong  Colleges  in  America  to-day 
was  built,  and  its  professorships  endowed,  as  the  result  of  lottery 
speculation.  Attention  has  been  aroused  upon  the  subject,  and  every 
American  remembers  witlx  gratitude  how  the  common  concensus  of 
opinion  turned  towards  the  crushing  out,  at  least,  so  far  as  national 
legislation  could  do  it,  of  the  famous  Louisiana  Lottery. 

The  last  development  that  I  have  personally  witnesse'd  of  the  lottery 
or  gambling  craze  in  America  resulted  in  that  big  State  of  the  forty- 
five  called  Nevada,  where  they  hardly  have  population  enough  to  send 
one  member  of  Congress  to  Washington,  but  according  to  our  constitu- 
tion they  have  a  right  to  send  two  Senators,  who  stood  in  the  United 
States  Senate  a  few  years  ago,  and,  like  highway  robbers,  held  up  the 
legislation  of  the  nation  when  its  finance  was  at  stake.  I  was  out  in 
Nevada  last  summer.  I  missed  a  train,  and  was  obliged  to  stop  at  a 
town  near  where  there  were  mining  interests.     At  the  hotel  where  I 


GENERAL  REMARKS.  4.'^'? 

stopped  Iliad  this  "nerve  tonic"  just  as  T  was  reiiring  for  tlie  night. 
1  passed  three  gamhhng  rooms  in  whioli  there  was  very  boisterous  and 
profane  language  going  on,  but  this  sign  was  over  eaeh  do(jr :  "  Boys 
under  fifteen  years  of  age  not  permitted  to  gamble  in  this  room  without 
the  consent  of  their  parents." 

The  one  thing  I  want  to  emphasise  is  the  terrific  political  power  of 
the  gambling  instinct.  You  can  hardly,  in  any  land,  get  any  severe 
regulations  passed  restricting,  or  seeking  to  repress  the  gambling  habit, 
because  there  are  too  many  men  who  stand  in  the  position  of  those 
who  own  fast  horses,  upon  which  they  want  every  person  to  bet. 
When  I  was  passing  the  Saratoga  Springs  some  years  ago  there  was 
a  combination  of  the  decent  citizens  of  that  place  to  blot  out  gambling. 
The  notorious  John  Morison  had  his  gilded  palace  of  gambling,  the 
most  remarkable  one,  perhaps,  on  the  continent.  We  succeeded  in 
driving  every  gambler  out  of  the  town,  and  the  result  was  that  the 
racing  that  had  come  to  be  such  a  seat  of  gambling  was  driven  away. 
But  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  sensibilities  of  the  people,  because  of 
the  question  of  the  profits  which  the  racing  brought,  is  such  that  a 
consensus  of  opinion  in  Saratoga  Springs  has  restored  the  gambling 
haunts  and  the  xacing. 

One  word  more.  We,  who  come  from  America,  are  all  of  us 
ashamed  for  the  terrible  degradation  of  the  attempt  to  experiment  on 
political  civil  government  on  a  Republican  basis  in  the  great  metro- 
polis of  the  nation,  and  I  want  to  say,  after  a  residence  of  twenty-five 
years  connected  with  almost  every  movement  that  had  for  its  purpose 
the  uplifting  of  our  humanity,  and  the  reform  of  our  politics,  that  it 
is  not  the  rum  power  in  the  city  of  New  York  that  makes  our  civil 
government  so  doubtful — it  is  the  gambling  power.  An  investigating 
Commission,  under  an  astute  officer  of  the  law,  during  my  absence  from 
the  country,  has  discovered  a  connecting  link  between  the  gambling 
houses  and  the  office  of  the  Chief  of  Police,  and  whenever  a  raid  was 
purposed  by  the  police  upon  the  gambling  houses  they  were  warned 
by  the  Chief  of  Police  that  the  raid  was  to  be  made.  It  is  hopeless 
that  we  should  have  reform  until  this  power  can  be  broken. 

Mr.  J.  Calvert  Coates  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  spoke  as 
follows : 

On  my  way  to  the  CEcumenical  Methodist  Conference  at  Washington, 
ten  years  ago,  on  board  the  ship  was  one  of  the  distinguished  American 
professors,  and  before  leaving  the  ship  he  said  how  much  he  had 
enjoyed  the  voyage,  and  how  much  he  had  enjoyed  many  of  my  stories. 
I  do  not  want  to  lose  my  reputation,  and  therefore  I.  want  to  tell 
you  a  story. 

A  few  years  ago,  in  the  City  of  London,  in  Wood  Street,  a  gentleman 
went  into  one  of  the  warehouses  to  a  friend  of  mine,  and  said  to  him, 
"  I  want  two  shillings  from  you.  You  know  a  buyer  in  a  certain  house 
in  the  West-end.  He  is  '  out  of  collar,'  and  we  want  to  raffle  a 
clock  for  him,  and  want  you  to  help  us.  The  clock  is  worth  £7,  and 
is  to  be  raffled  for  £10."  My  friend  said,  "  I  do  not  raffle  ;  I  do  not 
patronise  gambling  in  any  shape  or  form  whatever."  He  replied, 
"  You  do  not  call  that  gambling !  Why,  do  not  they  do  this  in  all 
the  bazaars  in  the  Church  of  England,  in  the  Wesleyan  Church,  in  the 
Baptist  Church,  in  the  Independent  Church?  It  is  constantly  prac- 
tised.   Give  me  your  two  shillings."     My  friend  said,  "I  will  give  you 


43^  GAMBLING. 

two  shillings  for  your  friend,  but  on  no  consideration  will  I  give  you 
two  shillings  to  go  into  this  lottery."  He  replied,  "I  will  not  take 
it."  "Very  well,  if  your  friend  will  not  accept  two  shilhngs  from  me 
he  is  not  in  need  ;  and  if  you  will  not  accept  two  shillings  for  him  you 
are  not  your  friend's  friend."  "Well,'  he  replied,  "I  am  not  going 
to  let  you  out  of  it  ;  give  me  two  shillings."  Without  his  consent,  he 
put  his  name  down,  and  a  few  days  afterwards  he  sent  to  his  office  to 
ask  whether  'he  was  in,  as  two  gentlemen  were  coming  to  see  him. 
Presently  two  gentlemen  arrived,  and  the  one  who  had  called  upon 
him  previously  said  :  "I  congratulate  you  upon  having  won  the  clock." 
He  said,  "  What  clock  ? "  "  Why,  you  know  I  came  and  got  two 
shillings  from  you."  "  Yes,"  he  said,  "  but  on  the  distinct  condition 
it  was  not  to  go  into  that  gambling  scheme."  "  Well,"  he  replied,  "I 
put  it  in — I  thought  you  would  not  mind — and  you  have  won  the  clock. 
How  much  are  you  going  to  stand  for  drinks  ? "  He  said,  "  If othing, 
and  not  only  that,  I  will  not  accept  the  clock.  It  is  not  mine." 
"  Why,"  he  said,  "  will  you  be  such  a  fool  as  to  refuse  a  clock  worth 
£7,  which  you  have  got  for  two  shillings?"  "Certainly,"  he  said, 
"if  it  were  worth  £1,000  I  would  refuse  it.  If  that  clock  were  a  solid 
diamond  I  would  not  have  it."  The  man  then  asked,  "What  am  I 
to  do  with  it?  "  to  which  my  friend  replied,  "The  clock  is  not  mine  ; 
do  what  you  like  with  it."  When  the  raffle  had  taken  place  the  gentle- 
man who  had  got  the  clock  burst  out  laughing  and  said  to  the  one 
who  now  accompanied  him,  "  The  man  who  has  won  it  will  not  have  it." 
The  other  said,  "  I  will  bet  you  there  is  not  a  man  in  London  who  will 
not  accept  a  clock  worth  £7  for  two  shillings."  He  said,  "I  will 
take  you  ;  I  am  sure  he  will  not."  After  he  had  pressed  him  very 
strongly  to  accept  the  clock,  and  had  been  refused,  turning  to  his 
friend,  he  said.  "Are  you  satisfied?"  His  friend  replied,  "Perfectly 
satisfied.  I  am  an  infidel,  but  I  had  a  praying  mother,  and  I  am  very 
thankful  to  find  in  the  City  of  London  a  man  who  can  be  true  to  his 
principles  and  convictions.  And,"  he  added,  "I  tell  you  this:  if  only 
professing  Christians  in  the  City  of  London  would  be  true  to  their 
principles  there  would  not  be  an  infidel  in  it." 

The  Rev.  Edwin  Dalton  (Primitive  Methodist  Church)  said : 

There  are  two  subjects  in  the  programme  upon  whicli  I  feel  pro- 
foundly, and  I  made  up  my  mind  if  opportunity  came  to  say  a  few 
words  thereupon.     The  one  is  drink  ;  the  other  is  gambling. 

With  regard  to  the  existence  of  the  gambling  evil  I  am  not  going 
to  say  a  word.  What  are  we  going  to  do  with  it  ?  I  want  to  emphasise 
the  value  of  conversation  upon  the  subject  on  the  hearthstone,  and 
the  exercise  of  parental  authority  with  regard  to  games.  I  think,  as 
Methodists,  we  need  a  revival  of  the  Puritanic  spirit  in  our  home  life. 
I  will  give  an  illustration.  Some  months  ago  I  stepped' into  the  train 
at  a  certain  station  in  Yorkshire.  A  young  man  said  at  once,  "  Good 
evening,  Mr.  Dalton."  I  said,  "I  am  delighted  that  a  young  man  will 
recognise  a  minister  in  a  railway  train."  In  the  course  of  conversation 
I  told  him  I  had  been  addressing  a  meeting  in  behalf  of  the  Anti- 
Gambling  League.  He  said,  "  I  am  delighted  to  hear  that.  Do  you 
know  I  once  gambled.  I  was  working  in  a  hole  (that  is  the  collier's 
term),  and  an  old  man  in  the  next  hole  said,  'Lad,  put  2s.  on  a  certain 
horse  and  you  will  get  something.'  I  trembled  from  head  to  foot. 
My  mother's  prayers  and  my  mother's  conversation  on   this   subject 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  '439 

came  before  my  vision,  and  in  my  ear,  and  into  my  heart ;  hut,"  he 
added,  "I  was  t<Mii])lcd,  and  I  put  two  shillings  on.  At  the  end  of 
the  week  this  man  said,  '  You  are  to  call  at  the  office  ;  there  is  some- 
thing for  you.'  I  wonl.  There  was  twelve  shillings,  in  addition  to  my 
own  two  shillings.  When  I  got  the  twelve  shillings  in  my  hand,"  lie 
continued,  "  I  was  trembling  from  head  to  foot — my  mother  was  there  " 
— she  was  not  in  her  person  there,  but  visible  before  him — "and  I 
heard  a  voice  say  to  me,  '  It  is  not  thine.'  "  I  asked  him  what  he  did 
with  it,  and  he  replied,  "I  kept  it  in  my  hand',  and  kept  my  hand  in 
my  pocket.  I  had  a  little  account  at  the  Savings  Bank,  and  I  went  to 
the  Savings  Bank  and  took  out  a  new  book,  and  put  the  12s.  down 
in  the  new  book  to  a  new  account.  There  it  will  remain  for  ever,  so 
far  as  I  am  concerned."  He  did  not  know  to  whom  to  give  it.  1 
think  he  did  wisely  to  deposit  it  so,  but  what  I  want  to  emphasise 
is  the  mother's  influence  on  that  lad  at  that  moment. 

I  want,  further,  to  emphasise  the  latter  statement  in  Mr.  Feren's 
address.  We  have  a  measure  coming  before  the  country  by  which  we 
may  really  tackle  the  subject.  Those  who  know  anything  about  it 
know  how  authorities  in  cities  and  towns,  with  their  policemen,  are 
hedged  in  on  every  hand  by  the  law  of  the  land  as  it  now  stands. 
One  of  those  dressed-up  gentlemen  came  into  one  of  the  streets  of 
the  town  where  I  live.  I  went  to  the  police-station  and  said,  "  Cannot 
you  help  me?  Here  is  a  bookmaker  come  into  the  street,  and'  my 
boys  have  to  go  past  that  man  to  their  school."  They  said,  "  You 
know,  Mr.  Dalton,  our  difficulties."  I  said,  "  I  will  help  you.  I  have 
a  garden  to  my  house,  with  a  good  high  wall  round  it.  Will  you  put 
two  fleet-footed  men  behind  my  wall,  and  I  will  be  the  watchman. 
I  will  count  the  number  of  persons  on  either  side  of  the  street,  and  I 
will  watch  how  many  have  to^step  off  the  footpath  on  to  the  public  road 
to  get  round  the  group  of  men,  and  you  sliall  have  every  fact  that  is 
necessary  for  the  twenty-five  minutes  you  have  to  wait,  and  I  will 
give  the  signal  to  your  men."  This  was  arranged,  and  when  the  signal 
was  given  tlie  two  fleet-footed  men  rushed  out.  As  soon  as  they  saw 
them  they  ran,  but  I  was  glad  the  policemen  were  fleeter  than  they, 
and  the  next  day  I  went  to  the  Town  Hall  as  a  witness  against  them, 
and  I  never  went  to  a  prayer  meeting  more  sincerely  than  I  went  to 
that  Town  Hall  as  a  witness.  What  are  you  going  to  do,  in  God's 
name,  to  support  the  measure  ?  Do  not  be  afraid  of  talking  of  it  in 
your  pulpits  and  on  your  platforms. 

The  Rev.  F.  M.  Jacobs,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion 
Church),  concluded  the  discussion,  as  follows : 

I  do  not  feel  that  I  am  prepared  because  of  any  extended  experience 
I  have  had  with  gamblers  or  acquaintance  with  them  to  make  any  de- 
liverance upon  the  subject,  but  I  wish  simply  to  declare  myself,  and 
in  doing  so  to  declare  the  attitude  of  my  Church  upon  this  awful  de- 
moralising thing,  gambling. 

The  picture  of  the  conditions  which  obtain  in  the  city  in  which  I 
live,  that  of  New  York,  was  not  overdrawn  by  the  gentleman  who  spoke 
this  afternoon.  The  conditions  are  such  as  we  are  intensely  sorry  for. 
This  question  of  gambling  is  an  international  question.  There  are 
representatives  of  our  American  gamblers  on  this  side  of  the  water 
in  the  person  of  one  of  our  ex-Secretaries  of  the  Government  of  the 


440  GAMBLING. 

United  States,  anrl  tlien  one  of  the  political  Icarlers.  the  most  powerful 
political  leader  to  my  mind  we  have  in  the  United  States,  up(jn  the 
turf — a  representative  of  the  United  States  on  the  turf  in  England. 
I  speak  of  Richard  Cruker,  of  the  city  of  New  York.  Bearing  out  the 
idea  that  this  is  an  international  question,  we  have  your  Sir  Thomas 
Lipton,  who  has  carried  across  the  waters  a  contender  for  the  America 
Cup.  These  gentlemen  may  not  be  in  themselves  gamblers — I  do  not 
make  the  charge,  and  yet  I  could  very  reasonably  and  truthfully  do  so — 
but  they  make  gambling  possible.  I  want  to  make  that  statement 
with  all  the  strength  I  possibly  can.  While  a  man  himself  may  not 
be  a  gambler,  while  he  may  be  pursuing  what  he  considers  to  be  sport 
and  pleasure,  yet,  at  the  same  time,  he  makes  it  possible  through  the 
enjoyment  of  the  pastime  in  which  he  is  pleased  to  engage  himself 
for  others  to  gamble. 

This  question  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  question  with  which 
white  men  in  particular  have  to  deal.  As  a  race,  we  are  not  gamblers, 
because  we  have  not  very  much  with  which  to  gamble,  I  suppose. 
I  wish,  however,  to  state  that  while  you  are  dealing  with  your  Stock 
Exchange  gambler,  your  turf  gambler,  your  boat-racing  gambler,  and 
your  football  gambler,  and  all  else,  you  must  not  forget  that  there 
is  another  class  of  gambler  which  should  not  be  overlooked — that  is 
the  gambler  who  spends  all  he  makes  during  the  week.  When  the 
Saturday  evening  comes  he  is  expected  to  return  to  his  humble  cabin, 
there  to  deposit  that  which,  under  the  Providence  of  God  and  the 
opportunities  afforded  unto  him,  he  has  earned  for  himself  as  a  liveli- 
hood for  his  family,  giving  them  the  humble  comforts  that  may  be 
theirs,  and  for  which  children  and  wife  may  be  pining,  and  yet  plod- 
ding on  his  way  to  that  humble  cabin  he  turns  over  the  result  of  his 
week's  toil  into  the  hands  of  him,  or  the  hands  of  those,  who  have 
no  right  to  it,  while  his  wife  and  children  are  starving  at  home. 
Unlike  the  man  upon  the  Stock  Exchange  or  the  turf,  who  can  gamble 
his  thousands  of  pounds  or  dollars,  and  then  have  a  balance  to  his  ac- 
count in  the  great  banks  of  the  city,  this  poor  man,  after  he  has  laboured 
for  that  week,  goes  to  his  home  empty-handed,  to  almost  naked 
children,  starving  children,  and  starving  wife  perhaps,  with  no  balance 
to  his  account  in  the  banks.  There  are  tears  in  their  eyes,  sorrow  in 
their  hearts,  and  starvation  staring  them  in  the  face  as  they  plead  for 
that  which  may  sustain  their  natural  life. 

I  call  upon  you  in  your  expressions  of  opinion  to-day,  and  as  you 
go  out  from  here,  not  to  forget  that  humble  man,  not  to  forget  the 
focus  of  your  mental  powers  by  centring  all  your  mental  powers 
upon  the  rich  gambler.  Not  only  that,  but  you  must  plead  that 
under  the  Providence  of  God,  and  the  plain  preaching  of  a  pure  Gospel, 
the  souls  of  men  shall  be  so  warmed  with  the  fire  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  that  the  lives  of  those  who  suffer  penury  and  want,  because  of 
these  inroads  made  on  their  small  earnings,  shall  feel  -the  same  spirit 
of  your  spiritual  protection. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  read  the 
recommendations  of  the  Business  Committee,  which  were  adopted 
by  the  Conference.     They  were  as  follow  : 

A  Committee  to  draft  replies  to  the  Addresses  of  the  National 
Council  of  the  Evangelical  Free  Churches  of  England  and  Wales, 


BUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS.  44 1 

the  United  Free  Cluinh  of  Scotland,  the  Moravian  Church,  and  the 
Huguenot  Congregation  of  Canterbuiy,  was  elected,  consisting  of 
the  Rev.  J.  E.  Radclifi'e  (Methodist  New  Connexion),  Mr.  Hanford 
Crawford  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  the  Rev.  W.  J.  C'rothers, 
D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada),  the  Rev.  G.  Packer  (Methodist 
New  Connexion),  Mr.  E.  S.  Snell  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches),. 
th3  Rev.  E.  J.  Watkin,  D.D.  (Australasian  Methodist  Church),  the 
Rev.  R.  Abercronibie,  M.A.  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches),  the 
Rev.  F.  Mason  North,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  the  Rev. 
Wesley  Guard  (Irish  Methodist  Church),  Mr.  Hanford  Crawford  to 
be  Convener. 

The  following  resolution  was  carried  with  regard  to  the  Opium 
Traffic : 

"  That  this  CEcumenical  Methodist  Conference  desires  to  put  on 
record  its. sense  of  the  incalculable  evils,  physical,  moral,  and  social, 
which  continue  to  be  wrought  in  China  through  the  Opium  Trade,  a 
trade  which  in  its  source,  history,  and  results  has  strongly  prejudiced 
the  people  of  China  against  missionary  eflfort,  and  which  is  believed 
by  many  well  able  to  judge  to  be  the  largest  single  cause  of  the  anti- 
foreign  feeling  so  common  in  China. 

"  That  accordingly,  in  the  opinion  of  this  Conference,  nothing  short 
of  the  entire  suppression  of  the  Opium  Trade  can  meet  the  exigencies 
of  the  case." 

On  the  question  of  the  Ecumenical  Conference  of  1911,  a  recom- 
mendation "That  a  fourth  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference  be 
held  within  the  limits  of  the  Western  Section  in  the  year  1911," 
signed  by  Bishop  J.  F.  Hurst,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  Bishop  C.  B.  Galloway,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South),  the  Rev.  John  Potts,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of 
Canada),  Bishop  C.  S.  Smith,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  the  Rev.  W.  Briggs,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada), 
the  Hon.  Peter  V.  D.  Conway  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South), 
and  Prof.  J.  M.  Van  Vleck,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
was  unanimously  agreed  to,  but  a  recommendation  of  the  Business 
Committee  reducing  the  delegation  from  500  to  400  was  postponed 
for  discussion  on  the  following  morning. 

Mr.  R.  Francis,  President  of  the  World's  Fair  Directory,  tele- 
graphed through  Mr.  Hanford  Crawford  :  "  The  World's  Fair  Direc- 
tory invites  universal  Methodism  to  celebrate,  in  St.  Louis  in  1903, 
the  200th  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Wesley."  It  was  agreed  that 
the  various  sections  of  the  Church  should  be  left  to  decide  in  their 
own  way  the  manner  in  -which  they  would  celebrate  the  bicentenary 


442  BUSINESS   PROCEEDINGS. 

of  Wesley's  death.  Mr.  Thomas  Snapb,  J.P.  (United  Methodist 
Free  Churches),  made  the  further  suggestion  that  the  friends  of  the 
Western  Section,  when  they  located  the  district  in  which  the  Con- 
ference of  1911  was  to  meet,  should  not  locate  it  in  any  place 
where  a  World's  Fair  was  being  held. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  then  announced  that,  as  it  was  impos- 
sible for  the  Rev.  W.  T.  Davison,  M.A.,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  to  be  present  on  Tuesday,  the  Business  Committee  had  ap- 
pointed the  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D,  (Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church),  to  preside  in  his  place. 

The  Benediction  was  then  pronounced  by  the  President. 


THE    DEATH    OF    PRESIDENT   McKINLEY.  443 


TENTH  DAY,   Sot  unlay,  Sepfemher  14,   I'JOL 


TOPIC : 
THE    PERILS    OF    WEALTH. 


The  Conference  resumed  its  session  at  10  a.m.,  with  the  dreadful 
news — which,  although  anticipated,  was  none  the  less  keenly  felt — 
of  President  McKinley's  death  weighing  heavily  upon  every  heart. 
There  was  an  excepLionally  large  attendance  when  Bishop  J.  C. 
Hartzbll,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  took  his  seat 
in  the  Presidential  chair,  and  it  was  evident,  from  the  sad  faces — 
many  of  them  tear-stained — that  the  grief  caused  by  the  brief  but 
pregnant  message,  flashed  from  West  to  East,  was  very  deeply  felt. 

The  Rev.  Manley  S.  Hard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
conducted  a  short  devotional  service,  which  included  the  first  twelve 
verses  of  Psalm  xc,  and  the  hymn  "Rock  of  Ages,"  was  sung. 
Prayer  was  offered  by  the  Rev,  Manley  S.  Hard,  D.D.,  and  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Allen,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church).  The  hymn, 
"  Jesu,  Lover  of  my  soul,"  was  then  sung. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  said  : 
The  Business  Committee  has  just  met,  and  Dr.  Stephenson,  Chair- 
man of  the  Committee,  will  present  the  resolution,  to  which  we 
have  unanimously  agreed. 

The  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyah  Methodist 
Church) :  1  need  only  say,  Mr.  President,  that  this  resolution  refers 
to  the  one  fact  that  is  in  everybody's  mind  and  heart  at  this 
moment.     It  is  as  follows  : 

"  This  Conference,  representing  the  Methodist  Ohurclies  of  the  world, 
has  heard  with  profound  grief  of  the  death  of  President  McKinley  by 
the  hand  of  an  assassin.  As  the  chosen  representative  of  the  people 
of  the  great  Englisli-speaking  Rei)nblic,  he  was  honoured  liy  the  whoh^ 
Cliristiau  world. 

"As  a  high-minded  and  lioinnaaldc  statesman   and   ruler  he  com- 


444  THE  DEATH  OF  PRESIDENT  McKINLEY. 

inanded  universal  regard,  and  as  a  Christian  and  a  Methodist  he  had 
special  claims  on  the  affection  and  respect  of  the  Church  represented 
by  this  Conference. 

'•'  The  Conference  declares  its  horror  at  the  dreadful  deed  which  has 
bereaved  a  great  nation,  and  expresses  its  profound  sympathy  with  the 
American  people  in  their  irreparable  loss.  It  rejoices  that  the  con- 
solations of  faith  so  richly  abounded  to  tKe  President  in  his  last 
moments,  and  earnestly  prays  that  the  Divine  comfort  may  be  richly 
given  to  his  noble  and  devoted  wife  in  her  loneliness  and  sorrow." 

Bishop  Charles  B.  Galloway,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Chm-ch,  South),  said  :  As  a  representative  of  our  Methodism  on  the 
other  side  of  the  sea,  and  especially  in  the  Southern  Section  of  our 
great  country,  and  with  a  silence  that  more  befits  this  sorrowful 
occasion  than  any  words  that  could  be  uttered,  I  desire  to  move 
the  resolution  which  has  just  been  read  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Stephenson. 

Mr.  R.  W.  Perks,  M.P.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  said  :  As 
representing  British  Methodism,  and  also,  I  may  say,  as  a  member 
of  the  British  Legislature,  I  second  this  resolution.  We  remember 
on  this  solemn  occasion  the  old  Methodist  phrase,  that,  while  God 
buries  His  workmen,  He  carries  on  His  work.  I  second  this 
resolution. 

The  Rev.  Frank  M.  Bristol,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
of  whose  Church  at  Washington,  President  McKinley  was  a  member, 
supported  the  resolution.  He  said  :  On  behalf  of  the  Church  of 
which  President  McKinley  was  a  lifelong  member,  on  behalf  of 
the  Church  in  Washington,  of  which  I  have  the  honour  to  be  the 
pastor,  and  in  which  for  the  past  four  years  I  have  had  the  privi- 
lege of  preaching  to  one  of  the  most  devout  and  earnest  listeners 
to  the  Gospel  I  ever  preached  to,  on  behalf  of  myself  and  the 
millions  of  loved  ones  beyond  the  sea,  I  wish  to  support  this  beau- 
tiful resolution.  I  have  lost  a  great  friend ;  you  have  lost  a  great 
friend  ;  every  man  has  lost  a  great  friend. 

Bishop  J.  C.  Hartzbll,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (President),  said :  Before 
I  put  the  motion  for  the  adoption  of  this  resolution  I  want  to  say 
just  two  or  three  words.  I  will  not  undertake  to  say  anything 
concerning  the  illustrious  dead,  with  whom  I  enjoyed  for  a  number 
of  years  a  close  and  intimate  friendship.  I  want  to  say  a  word  for 
President  Roosevelt.  Those  of  us  who  know  him  personally  have 
faith  in  him,  and  you,  representing  this  great  Empire,  may  rest 
assured  that  m  him  there  will  be  a  true  and  loyal  friend  to  inter- 
national friendship  and  co-operation.  He  has  a  magnificent  his- 
tory, as  a  brave  soldier,  as  a  civic  reformer,  as  an  author  of  repute, 
and  as  a  dignified  and  successful  Governor  of  the  great  State  of 


BUSINESS   PROCEEDINGS.  445 

New  York.  God  bless  him  to-day!  You  will  permit  me,  and  for- 
give me,  perhaps,  if  I  add  a  Avord  that  came  to  my  lips  as  I  read 
the  personal  lelegrams  from  King  Edward  YII.  to  Pjcsident  MuKin- 
ley.  I  said  to  myself  hereafter  King  Edward  of  England  to  me 
will  not  only  be  King,  but  man  and  brother.  God  bless  the  King 
to-day  !  I  will  no^v  ask  all  who  adopt  the  resolution  which  has  been 
offered  to  signify  it  by  rising  to  their  feet. 

The  resolution  was  carried  in  silence,  the  whole  of  the  delegates 
standing,  as  well  as  nearly  all  the  visitors  in  the  gallery.  The 
President  said :  I  need  not  put  the  negative.  This  unanimity 
expresses  the  heart  of  universal  Christendom  in  this  hour  of  a 
great  sorrow. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  Kino,  D.D.  (Secretary),  then  read  the  Daily 
Record  for  Friday,  which  was  confirmed. 

The  Rev.  Manley  S.  Hard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
said  :  Last  Sabbath  I  had  the  honour  to  serve  the  Woodben-y  Down 
Baptist  Chapel,  and,  to  my  great  svu-prise,  just  as  I  rose  in  the 
evening,  the  senior  deacon  preseited  some  very  beautiful,  although 
brief,  resolutions  concerning  the  late  President  McKinley,  and, 
kindly  introducing  me  as  an  American,  asked  that  I  should  bear 
them  to  my  people.  As  they  have  come  from  a  sister  Denomina- 
tion of  high  rank  in  this  city,  I  ask  that  the  matter  be  mentioned  in 
the  published  proceedings.     The  Conference  agreed. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Chm-oh)  read 
the  minutes  of  the  Business  Committee.     Continuing,  he  said : 

It  was  resolved  yesterday  that  we  should  consider  another  recommen- 
dation of  the  Business  Committee  in  connection  with  the  next  CEcu- 
menical  Conference.  We  recommend  that  the  number  of  delegates  at 
the  next  Conference  number  400  instead  of  500.  This  suggestion  did 
not  originate  with  the  members  of  the  Western  Churches  present  at 
"the  Business  Committee.  I  suppose  that  the  representatives  of  the 
Western  Churches  would  be  glad  to  see  500,  or  as  many  more  repre- 
sentatives as  the  Churches  might  desire  to  send.  No  lack  of  hospitality 
in  any  form  led  to  this  resolution.  The  Business  Committee  heard 
from  representatives  of  the  Eastern  Churches  such  reasons  as  led  them 
to  adopt  this  modified  suggestion.  The  fact  is,  it  is  felt  by  our 
CJhurches,  especially  in  England,  that  it  is  a  matter  of  serious  import 
that  such  a  number  of  ministers  and  laymen  of  a  type  which  naturally 
would  be  selected  by  the  Churches  to  represent  them  at  the  (Ecumenical 
Conference  should  be  absent  from  their  duties  for  such  a  long  period 
in  a  year's  life,  and  we  felt  that  in  the  economy  of  .strength  and  of 
labour,  and  in  the  interests  of  -our  Churches,  it  would  be  well  for  us 
to  limit  the  number  of  delegates  in  the  forthcoming  Conference  to  400. 
The  proportion  would  be  240  members  for  the  Western  Section,  and 
160  for  the  Eastern  Section.  On  behalf  of  the  Committee,  I  move  that 
the  resolution  be  adopted. 


44^  BUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS. 

Bishop  C.  B.  Galloway,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  seconded  the  resolutioiij  and 
a  conversation  followed  in  reference  to  the  reduction,  in  which  the 
Revs.  W.  H.  Cory  Harris  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches),  Albert 
Clayton  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  John  Bond  (Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church),  and  Mr.  William  Marsden  (Wesleyan  Reform 
Union)  took  part. 

The  Rev.  D.  J.  Waller,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  said : 

I  do  not  think  that  500  is  too  large  a  number.  The  Wesleyan  Con- 
ference has  just  been  enlarged  from  480  to  600.  In  ten  years'  time 
I  hope  that  Methodism  will  have  grown,  and  that  we  shall  be  a  very 
much  larger  body  than  we  are  at  the  present  time.  When  we  consider 
the  number  of  Methodists  there  are  all  over  the  world,  I  think  it  would 
be  a  great  mistake  for  us  to  write  ourselves  down.  I  think  we  are 
in  danger  of  committing  a  mistake  that  will  cause  heart-burning.  I 
propose  as  an  amendment  that  the  num'ber  of  delegates  to  tiie  next 
(Ecumenical  Conference  be  500. 

The  amendment  was  seconded  by  Mr,  William  Marsden  (Wes- 
leyan Reform  Union),  and  supported  by  the  Rev.  Wesley  Guard 
(Irish  Methodist  Church),  and  Mr.  Joseph  Gibson  (Methodist  Church 
of  Canada).  The  Rev.  Frederick  Brown  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church.)  from  China  also  supported  tbe  amendment,  and  said  he 
hoped  that  by  the  time  the  next  Conference  is  held  there  would  be 
a  Chinaman  as  a  representative  in  this  great  Conference.  There  are 
30,000  Methodists  in  China,  and  there  is  not  a  single  Chinese  repre- 
sentative at  this  Conference.  A  Coloured  Delegate  said  he  hoped 
there  would  also  be  some  genuine  Africans  from  Africa  in  the  next 
Conference.  The  Rev.  J.  P.  Brushingham,  D.D.  (Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church),  and  Mr.  George  Lidgett,  B.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church)  having  spoken,  the  amendment  to  substitute  500  instead 
of  400  in  the  report  of  the  Business  Committee  was  then  put,  and 
declared  by  the  President  to  be  carried  with  practical  imanimity. 
The  Report  of  the  Business  Committee,  as  amended,  was  then 
adopted. 

The  Rev.  Albbrf  Clayton  moved  the  following  resolution :  "That 
the  Business  Committee  be  directed  tO'  submit  a  plan  embodying 
the  requisite  preliminary  arrangements  for  such  a  Conference,"  to 
which  the  Conference  agreed. 

The  Rev.  J.  Bond  (Secretary)  presented  a  memorial  signed  by  a 
number  of  ladies,  including  Miss  Belle  Bennett  and  others,  whoi  had 
spoken  at  the  special  public  meeting  on  "Women's  Work"  held  on 
Friday  evening  at  Wesley's  Chapel.     The  memoi-ial  asked  that  in 


ESSAY   OF   SIR   GEORGE   SMITH.  447 

the  an\an<;oments  for  the  next  G^cuinenical  Conference  consideration 
should  bc"'  given  to  the  provision  of  a  meeting  for  hidies.  Tho 
matter  was  referred  to  the  Business*  Committee. 

The  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  (Secretary),  said :  The  first  appointed 
address  to-day  on  "  The  Pervo-sion  of  Wealth  "  was  to  have  been  deli- 
vered by  Bishop  R.  Dubs,  D.D.  (United  Evangelical  Church).  He  lias 
not  been  present  at  the  Conference,  and  the  Committee  suggested  that 
the  Rev.  F.  M.  Bristol,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  should 
take  his  place.  Dr.  Bristol  asks  me  to  request  the  Conference  to 
excuse  him,  owing  to  the  lamented  death  of  President  McKinley, 
who  was  a  member  of  his  Church  at  Washington.  The  Conference 
agreed. 

Bishop  0.  B.  Gallowat,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  proposed,  the  Rev.  John  Bond  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church)  seconded,  and  the  Conference  agreed  that  after  the  essay 
had  been  read  and  the  invited  address  given,  the  Conference  should 
adjourn  as  a  tribute  of  respect  to  the  great  loss  sustained  by  the 
American  people. 

Sir  George  Smith  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  then  gave  an 
essay  on  "  The  Perils  of  Increasing  Wealth  and  Luxury."     He  said  : 

The  title  chosen  for  the  subject  of  our  consideration  this  morning 
implies  a  proposition  which,  it  is  presumed,  this  Conference  accepts. 
I  need  not,  therefore,  devote  any  time  to  prove  that  increase  of  riches 
does  generally  involve  danger  to  its  possessors,  whether  individuals  or 
communities. 

Poets  before  and  after  Goldsmith  have  seen  reason  to  associate 
wealth's  accumulation  with  men's  decay.  Historians  have  recorded  the 
decline  and  fall  of  cities  like  Babylon,  Rome,  and  Byzantium,  smitten 
more  frequently  and  more  fatally  by  the  enervating  influences  of  pros- 
perity than  by  famine  or  sword.  And  our  observation  has  probably 
convinced  us  that  the  same  temptations  and  dangers  assail  the  indi- 
vidual or  the  State  as  powerfully  now,  under  the  conditions  of  our 
twentieth  century  civihsation,  as  in  any  period  of  the  world's  history. 

I  think,  further,  that  we  may  not  only  accept  this  as  fact,  but  that 
we  shall  find  no  great  enigma  if  we  seek  to  trace  the  chain  cd  causation 
which  so  frequently  connects  deterioration  of  human  character  with 
large  increase  of  material  possessions.  I  do  not  refer  chiefly  to  the 
palpable  temptation  to  physical  indulgence  which  wealth  often  brings, 
or  to  the  baser  impulses  of  those  to  whom  money  is  but  "  the  sight  of 
means  to  do  ill  deeds.''  For,  many  a  man,  far  removed  from  these 
coarser  dangers  "  Avhich  war  against  the  soul,"  has  found  that  great 
wealth,  especially  when  rapidly  acquired,  has  insensibly  diminished 
his  sense  of  nearness  to  God  and  spoiled  his  brotherly  sympathy  with 
man. 

When  the  prayer  for  daily  bread,,  or  for  the  means  to  earn  it  by  hand 


448  THE   PERILS   OF   WEALTH. 

or  brain,  represent-s  a  real  and  heartfelt  petition,  then  the  sense  of  filial 
dependence  which  accompanies  it  is  often  the  most  priceless  asset  of  the 
human  heart.  And  we  get  a  further  insight  into  the  great  Teacher's 
warning  against  the  "  deceitfulness  of  riches  "  if  we  find  that  its  pos- 
session, produces  some  delusive  sense  of  independence,  independence  of 
God  and  a  loosened  filial  tie ;  independence  of  man,  and  hence  les- 
sened human  sympathy — the  loss  of  two  treasures  beyond  all  possible 
material  compensation. 

The  process  thus  briefly  and  imperfectly  described  is  generally  gradual 
and  always  subtle,  but  I  think  that,  in  varying  degree,  the  experience 
is  sufficiently  common  to  account  largely  for  individual  declension  01 
national  decay  supervening  on  great  material  prosperity. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  even  Christian  Churches  have  always 
been  exempt  from  this  snare.  It  was  to  a  jjrimitive  Church  that  the 
terrible  words  were  spoken  :  "Because  thou  sayest,  I  am  rich  and  in- 
creased with  goods,  and  have  need  of  nothing,  and  knowest  not  that 
thou  art  wretched,  and  miserable,  and  poor,  and  blind,  and  naked :  I 
counsel  thee  to  buy  of  Me  gold  tried  in  the  fire,  that  thou  mayest  be 
rich."  The  acquisition  of  material  substance,  even  by  an  Apostolic 
Church,  seems  thus  to  have  induced  the  loss  of  spiritual  wealth  and 
power.  And  often  since  then  have  Peter's  successors  amassed  their 
abundance  of  silver  and  gold,  but  found  themselves  shorn  of  the  power 
to  say,  like  Peter,  to  crippled  humanity,  "  Arise  and  walk." 

If  our  diagnosis  of  the  origin  and  nature  of  the  disease  be  correct^ 
this  perilous  satisfaction  of  the  human  heart,  its  diminished  sense  of 
dependence  on  God,  with  loss  of  filial  confidence — then  we  shall  not  be 
unprepared  for  the  painful  symptoms  which  so  often  follow.  Man 
cannot  long  exist  with  an  absent  or  far  distant  God.  He  will  fashion 
for  himself  another,  if  it  be  but  a  golden  calf.  Hence  the  love  of 
money — the  parent  root  of  countless  other  evils — the  greed  which  grows 
with  possession,  creating  a  thirst  that  refuses  to  be  slaked,  dulling  the 
conscience  and  blinding  the  eyes ;  the  spirit  of  luxury,  ever  nursing 
self  in  more  and  more  enervating  "softness  and  self-indulgence,"  and 
creating  numberless  artificial  needs,  which^  in  their  turn,  make  the 
rich  man  poor  ;  the  spirit  of  ostentation,  lashed  by  generations  of 
satirists,  but  which,  nevertheless,  survives  to  disgust  society  with  the 
vulgarisms  of  spurious  magnificence  ;  the  hardness  of  nature  and  the 
drying-up  of  sympathies  which  frequently  supervene — these  are  among 
the  more  patent  evidences  of  that  man's  backsliding,  who  once  allows 
the  shadow  of  mammon,  "the  least  exalted  spirit  which  feU  from 
heaven,"  to  pass  between  him  and  the  Throne  of  God.' 

It  would  be  an  easy  task  to  enumerate  other  perils  observed  to 
follow  the  acquisition,  most  frequently  the  sudden  acquisition,  of 
wealth.  But  I  shall  now  assume  that  this  Conference,  being  Metho- 
dist— that  is  to  say,  practical — ^will  expect  me  not  to  exhaust  my  time 
without  adding  a  few  plain  words  suggesting  a  remedy  for  the  disease. 

I  will  not  dwell  on  the  ancient  Ebionite  specific — based  on  the  con- 
ception that  wealth  is  inherently  evil,  and  its  possession  a  sin.  His- 
tory and  observation  confute  the  theory,  and  teach  us  that  what  is 


ESSAY   OF    SIR    GEORGE    SMITH.  449 

"filthy  lucre,"  when  pmstituted  to  seltisli  puqiose,  may  justly  bear  the 
King's  superscription  when  consecrated  to  His  use  or  administered  as 
in  His  sight.  Nor  will  we  spend  time  on  more  modern  proposals  for 
the  practical  annihilation  of  property  by  its  universal  partition  and 
distribution — a  process  in  which  mucli  else  besides  the  perils  of  wealth 
would  be  destroyed. 

I  think  a  prescription  worthier  of  our  attention  will  be  found  in  the 
advice  to  return  to  a  greater  simplicity  of  manners,  and  I  venture  to 
press  this  timely  counsel  on  all  who  are  affected  by  our  subject  of 
to-day.  But  I  must  add  that  we  may  find  this  advice  more  excellent  in 
principle  than  easy  of  application  as  a  working  formula.  For,  what 
we  may  choose  to  term  "  Simplicity  of  Life "  will  persistently  vary  in 
its  standards  in  different  lands  and  localities  ;  and  imperious  Fashion, 
with  her  attendant  conventionalities^  will  ever  construe  the  word 
liberally  in  her  own  dialect,  and  will  see  that  its  interpretation  is  a 
progressive  one.  We  shall  avoid  much  danger  by  aiming  at  true  and 
natural  simplicity^  but  we  shall  find  it  difficult  to  form  an  ideal  or  to 
keep  our  ideal  permanent. 

There  exists  in  some  favoured  climes  to-day  an  absolute  simplicity, 
well  satisfied  with  a  yard  of  cloth  at  a  time  and  a  cocoanut  per  day. 
But  observe  that  such  absolute  simplicity  departs  with  the  awakening 
mind.  Educate  that  simple  savage,  and  he  will  know  of  higher  needs, 
and  will  develop  better  powers  as  those  higher  needs  are  supplied.  And 
it  may  be  that  we  here  get  a  suggestion  that  the  Church,  in  dealing 
with  this  question,  should  aim  at  something  more  radical  than  the 
simplification  of  manners — namely,   the  education   of  the  soul. 

Thousands  of  us  require  to  be  educated  to  appreciate  needs,  not 
additional  needs  of  our  own,  artificial,  conventional,  imaginary ;  but 
to  obtain  a  vicarious  sense  of  the  other  man's  needs — the  man  in  the 
slums,  the  man  in  the  mission  fields,  the  forgotten  man  at  our  doors ; 
education  in  a  richer  luxury  than  pampering  ourselves  and  our 
families ;  in  the  highest  luxury  of  relieving  distress,  enlightening 
darkness,  and  of  helping  to  build  the  City  of  our  God. 

You  remember  the  story  of  the  starving  travellers  in'  the  desert 
rushing  to  the  bundle  found  in  the  sands,  hoping  for  dates  or  rice, 
and  their  despair  on  finding  nothing  but  pearls.  Let  us  learn  so  to 
distinguish  between  the  real  estate  of  consecrated  substance  and  the 
mere  personality  devoted  to  self,  that  we  may  find  something  more 
satisfying  than  acres  and  bank  balances  in  the  hour  of  our  soul's 
hunger  and  thirst. 

The  great  desideratum,  then,  is  a  keener  sense  of  the  fact  that 
wealth  comes  to  those  entrusted  with  it,  not  by  happy  accident,  or 
only  as  the  result  of  their  own  or  others'  toil  and  skill,  but  with 
design — a  design  higher  than  personal  gratification,  or  even  culture  and 
improvement — that  it  comes  as  an  endowment  on  trust,  a  glorious  and 
onerous,  and,  it  may  be,  a  perilous,  endowment. 

And  as  this  becomes  plainer  to  us,  we  shall  for  ourselves  seek  how 
best  to  avoid  the  danger  and  discharge  the  responsibility.  How  best? 
The  old,  familiar  voice  which  we  just  now  heard  would  answer,  by  ascetic 
30 


450  THE    PERILS    OF    WEALTH. 

reniiuciatinn  and  voluntar,y  poverty,  Mother  Church  or  her  chosen 
ahnnners  relieving  us  of  all  such  anxious  cares.  But  I  do  not  think 
the  solution  for  most  of  us  is  as  simple  as  that.  It  wmild  seem  to  me 
an  evasion,  rather  than  fulfilment,  of  responsibility,  which  should  be 
barred  by  our  old  law  maxim  forbidding  the  re-delegation  of  a  dele- 
gated matter.  I  should  like  here  to  have  quoted  and  applied  Eussell 
Lowell's  beautiful  parable  teaching  us  to  "give  ourselves  with  qui 
gift "  in  opposition  to  many  of  the  proxy  systems  of  beneficence  current 
to-day. 

I  cannot  doubl  that  the  Great  Physician  still  prescribes  differentially 
as  each  man  hath  need.  To  this  man,  "  Sell  all  that  thou  hast,  and 
distribute  unto  the  poor,"  To  another — I  think  the  greater  number — 
"  Occupy  till  I  come ;  "  at  first  sight  this  is  the  easier,  but  veritably 
the  more  responsible  task,  needing  grace  not  for  a  single  hour's 
heroism,  but  for  a  whole  life's  discipline.  "  Occupy,"  a  pregnant 
word,  fraught  with  its  own  doctrine  of  duty  and  privilege. 
"  Occupy,"  suEtgesting  to  some  of  us  lessons  from  the  word's  significance 
in  relation  t^  our  English  soil,  the  occupier  being  often  distinct  from 
tlia  owner,  having  an  interest  in  his  holding,  but  short  of  lordship.  Let 
our  moneyed  classes  realise  that  relationship  to  their  wealth,  that  sense 
of  responsibility  and  tenancy,  and  at  once  with  the  advent  of  their 
increasing  substance — for  later  it  is  hard  to  learn — and  our  problem 
would  largely  be  solved. 

The  Church  has  to  educate  us  more  completely  to  this  sense  of 
stewardship,  a  stewardship  of  the  wholcj.  not  of  a  tenth  or  other  frac- 
tion as  a  ransom  for  the  rest — a  fatal  misconception.  A  proportionate 
system  of  actual  disbursement  may,  and  I  think  should,  help  us  in 
practice,  but  it  should  spring  from  a  sense  of  responsibility  to  God 
for  all. 

At  such  time  as  our  men  of  substance  shall  have  learnt  this  full 
lesson,  we  shall  have  effected  not  only  the  deliverance  of  the  individual 
from  all  these  perils,  but  in  large  measure  the  purification  of  society, 
and  shall  find  the  Church  furnished  at  last  with  the  hiunan  and 
material  means  for  the  evangelisation  of  the  world. 

I  have  before  adverted  to  more  drastic  and  revolutionary  remedies 
for  the  wealth  danger,  beside  which  our  educational  process  and  its 
lesson  of  responsibility  and  stewardship  may  seem  dilatory  and  tame. 
But  our  old-fashioned  advice  has  at  least  the  advantage  of  being  Scrip- 
tural, and  hence,  to  this  audience,  intelligible  and  self-recommended  ; 
and  within  the  bounds  of  the  Christian  Church,  capable  of  prompt 
realisation,  with  a  sequel  of  world-wide  blessing  to  the  souls  and 
bodies  of  men. 

Beyond  that  doctrine  of  stewardship  to  a  Higher  Owner  I  cannot  go, 
and  I  reahse  it  in  a  theme  so  well  worn,  that  it  would  be  a  work  of 
supererogation  and  presumption  to  urge  its  application  upon  such  an 
assembly  as  this.  Yet,  perhaps,  I  may  be  allowed  another  word  re- 
specting an  extension  of  the  same  principle  in  a  direction  possibly  not 
so  familiar  to  all  our  minds.  I  have  known  Christian  men  who  would 
have  been  prompt  to  admit  their  accountability  to  God  for  their  ac- 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  L.  L.  MORSE.  45' 

cumulated  substance,  but  who  did  not  seem  equally  clear  with  respect 
to  their  responsibility  for  the  means  and  methods  by  which  it  is 
ubtained.  Yet,  in  an  age  when  our  processes  of  wealth  production 
require  more  circumspection  than  ever  before,  when  corporate  agencies 
and  complex  systems  threaten  to  supersede  or  dispense  with  the  opera- 
tions of  the  individual  conscience,  when  the  preponderating  class  of  the 
population  watches  all  this  with  jealous  eyes,  and  sometimes  endangers 
its  own  and  every  other  prosperity  by  hostile  action  and  madness  of 
ineffectual  protest,  it  seems  needful  to  insist  that  the  Christian's  duty 
of  stewardship  begins  not  with  his  accumulated  gains,  but  with  all  the 
methods  of  their  accumulation. 

Surely  this  province  is  not  to  be  left  to  the  unchecked  influence  of 
soulless  trusts,  conscienceless  rings  and  corners,  irresponsible  corpora- 
tions, and  hostile  camps  of  capital  and  labour!  That  way  peril  lies — 
for  State,  for  Church,  and  for  millions  of  souls.  Let  the  Church  pro- 
claim, and  let  us  all  vigilantly  exercise,  the  Christian  sense  of  steward- 
ship concerning  every  gift,  not  only  of  our  gains,  but  of  all  our  methods 
and  means  ;  a  stewardship  of  muscle,  eye,  and  brain,  of  the  ledger  and 
counting-house,  of  the  loom  and  of  the  forge,  of  the  produce  market, 
aye,  and  of  the  Stock  Exchange. 

For  unless  the  Christian  heart  and  conscience  do  awake  to  dominate 
our  economics  and  industrial  life,  unless  the  spirit  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  does  more  completely  leaven  the  kingdom  of  finance,  a 
destroyer  may  some  day  arise  to  solve  these  problems  for  us  in  such 
fashion  as  will  not  increase  the  peace,  welfare,  or  progress  of  mankind. 

Aaid  this  sense  of  stewardship  and  responsibility  to  the  Almighty 
Donor  must  be  with  us,  not  on  one  day  of  the  week,  or  in  one  com- 
partment of  our  life,  but  at  all  times  and  in  all  directions,  sweetening 
and  uplifting  all  our  industrial  and  commercial  methods  until,  verily, 
to  labour  shall  be  to  pray,  until  all  the  gold  and  silver  shall  bear  the 
King's  image,  and  "  Holiness  unto  the  Lord "  shall  be  not  only  upon 
the  "vessels  of  the  altar,"  but  upon  the  very  "bells  of  the  horses." 

Mr.  L.  L.  Morse,  J.P.  (Primitive  Methodist  Church),  gave  the 
invited  address  on  "  The  Consecration  of  Wealth,"  as  follows  : 

I  am  to  speak  to  you  on  the  Consecra,tion  of  Wealth.  We  have 
already  been  told  that  wealth  means  money,  riches,  goods,  possessions. 
Consecration  we  understand  to  be  setting  apart  these  things  for  sacred 
purposes.  Sacred  purposes,  what  are  they  ?  In  a  sense  all  things  are 
sacred — a  nxan's  life,  home,  family,  occupation,  ali  are  sacred.  The 
question  is,  what  are  we  here  to  understand  by  "sacred  purposes"? 
Our  answer  is,  the  setting  aside  for  God  a  fair  proportion  of  what  we 
receive,  to  be  used  exclusively  for  Him  and  the  extension  of  His 
Kingdom. 

From  the  earliest  times  men  have  been  moved  to  do  this.  The 
first  recorded  act  of  Cain  and  Abel  was  bringing  an  offering  unto  the 
Lord,  of  grain  from  their  fields  and  the  firstlings  of  their  flocks. 
Abraham,  called  from  a  lesser  position  by  degrees  to  a  very  high  one, 


452  THE    PERILS    OF    WEALTH. 

hondured  GchI  with  a  iontli  of  all  he  received.  Jacob  recmgiiised  God 
as  the  Giver  of  all  liis  possessions,  and  said :  "  I  will  surely  give  the 
tenth  unto  Thee."  When  God  gave  Moses  rules  and  regulations  for 
the  guidance  <oi  men,  this  principle  was  incorporated.  The  first  tenth 
of  all  their  increase  was  for  Hira.  If  any  portion  was  kept  back,  it 
had  not  only  to  be  made  up,  but  a  fifth  part  added  thereto.  Upon 
obedience  to  this  law,  blessings  and  prosperity  were  distinctly 
promised  and  most  strikingly  fulfilled.  When  it  was  disobeyed,  religion 
waned,  and  poverty  and  captivity  came  like  a  blight.  God  often 
reminded  them  of  their  neglect,  saying,  "  Ye  have  robbed  Me.  .  .  . 
Bring  ye  all  the  tithes  into  the  storehouse,  that  there  may  be  meat 
in  Mine  house,  and  prove  Me  now  herewith  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts, 
if  I  will  not  open  you  the  windows  of  heaven  and  pour  you  out  a 
blessing  that  there  shall  not  be  room  enough  to  receive  it." 

The  only  recorded  sin  of  the  rich  man  mentioned  by  Jesus  is  that 
of  making  a  fortune  for  himseM  without  any  thought  of  God's  require- 
ments. He  commits  no  crime  ;  in  honest  business  prosperity,  he  ask^ 
himself  what  he  shall  do  with  his  growing  wealth  ;  his  decision  is  to 
use  it  for  his  own  ease  and  comfort,  with  the  result  that,  living  for 
eelf,  he  lost  his  soul.  The  record  of  another  rich  man  w^s  that  he 
dressed  smartly  and  fared  sumptuously  every  day,  without  the  slightest 
regard  for  the  poor  man  sitting  hungry  at  his  gate.  If  these  men  had 
recognised  the  Divine  Law,  their  happiness  would  have  been  greater 
and  in  all  probability  their  future  assured.  Paul,  in  his  successful 
mission  through  Galatia,  on  this  subject  gave  most  definite  instruc- 
tions to  his  new  converts  :  "  Upon  the  first  day  of  the  week  let  every 
one  of  you  lay  by  him  in  store,  as  God  hath  prospered  him,"  and  in 
his  letter  to  the  Church  at  Corinth,  and  to  the  Christians  of  all  times, 
he  enjoins  them  to  do  the  same  as  in  Galatia. 

Here  we  have  for  our  guidance  two  underlying  principles — systematic 
and  proportionate  giving.  Systematic  giving  is  giving  by  method  or 
plan,  instead  of  from  impulse,  constantly  instead  of  occasionally.  Our 
circumstances  should  determine  whether  we  put  aside  the  money  on 
the  first  day  of  the  week,  or  month,  or  quarter,  or  whether  we  shall 
open  an  account  in  our  book.  Anyhow,  we  should  have  an  account  or 
fund  separated  for  God's  use,  and  administered  by  us  as  we  would 
administer  the  funds  of  another,  entrusted  to  us  for  a  specific  purpose. 
Proportionate  giving  is  giving  a  definite  portion  of  your  income,  instead 
of  a  chance  or  undefined  sum.  It  is  giving  according  to  the  measure 
of  your  ability,  rather  than  at  the  dictate  of  your  inclination. 

Many,  although  in  comparatively  humble  circumstances,  strictly  obey 
St.  Paul's  dictum  ;  regularly  and  proportionately  they  put  aside  for 
God.  A  local  preacher  living  near  me  gives  a  tenth  up  to  £100,  and 
half  'of  all  he  receives  over  that  siun.  Numbers  of  ministers  in  the 
Primitive  Methodist  and  other  Churches  religiously  g|ive  •&  tenth, 
although  their  incomes  have  never  exceeded  £30  a  quarter.  I  have 
heard  them  say  the  distribution  of  this  four  or  five  shillings  a  week 
is  one  of  the  greatest  joys  of  their  lives.  An  acquaintance  of  mine 
adopted  this  prrmciple  when  only  a  youth,   receiving  a  few  shillings  a 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  L.  L.  MORSE.  453 

weeli.  His  gifts  then  amounted  to  about  ninepence  a  week  ;  lie  is 
now  distributing  regularly  from  his  income  £1,000  a  year.  Another 
young  man,  brought  up  in  a  tiny  cottage,  regularly  of  his  small  wage 
gave  a  tenth  ;  to-day  his  annual  distribution  cannot  be  less  than 
£10,000  a  year. 

Some  persons  are  so  selfish  as  to  spend  practically  all  they  get  upon 
themselves.  If  asked  to  help  a  good  cause,  they  say  they  are  so  poor 
they  cannot  afford  it.  The  fact  is,  in  many  cases  they  have  adopted  a 
style  of  living  so  expensive  that,  although  comparatively  well  Dff, 
ar  their  money  goes  for  themselves. 

What  is  the  great  need  in  our  Church  to-day?  Is  it  opportunity? 
No  I  Opportunities  we  have  in  abundance.  Look  at  Africa,  with  one- 
eiglith  the  population  of  the  world.  In  the  heart  of  this  continent 
are  seventy-five  millions  without  a  church,  missionary,  or  Bible. 
Look  at  China,  with  a  population  five  times  as  great  as  that  of  the 
United  States,  with  a  thousand  cities  that  have  never  heard  the  Gospel. 
Look  at  India,  eighteen  times  as  large  as  Great  Britain,  nearly  c  ne- 
fifth  of  the  population  of  the  world  in  darkness,  and  a  large  portion 
suffering  untold  miseries.  Opportunity  is  not  the  great  need.  Is  it 
men  the  Church  requires?  Thousands  are  willing  at  the  present 
moment  to  give  themselves  absolutely,  risking  health,  life,  all,  if  they 
can  only  serve  their  Master.     It  is  not  men. 

What,  then,  is  the  great  need?  To  the  Church's  great  discredit, 
the  thing  which  it  stands  most  in  need  of  is  that  which  it  already 
has  in  abundance — money.  Mr.  Perks  startled  the  last  Wesleyan 
Conference  by  declaring  that  the  savings  of  Methodists  in  this  country 
for  the  last  four  years  were  not  less  than  forty  millions.  If  the  savings 
were  forty  millions,  what  must  the  total  income  have  been  ?  Judging 
from  the  Income  Tax  returns,  the  joint  incomes  of  the  people  of  this 
country  last  year  was  not  less  than  one  thousand  million  pounds.  If 
our  nation  had  learnt  to  give  as  God  had  prospered  them,  at  least  one 
hundred  millions  would  have  gone  into  the  Lord's  coffers. 

The  Church's  great  need  is  Consecrated  Wealth.  Opportunities  for 
service  are  multitudinous,  men  we  have  in  abundance,  but,  look  at 
whatever  departments  of  Christ's  work  you  will,  you  find  them  checked 
and  crippled  for  lack  of  funds.  Why?  Because  the  Church  has  not 
yet  learnt  to  give  the  Lord  regularly  His  portion.  Where  is  the 
remedy?  It  is  in  every  man  among  us  opening  directly  a  fund  for  Jesus 
Christ,  paying  regularly  to  that  fund  as  the  Lord  prospers  him.  The 
revenues  of  the  Church  would  then  increase  by  leaps  and  bounds, 
making  it  possible  for  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  soon  to  become  the 
Kingdoms  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

As  arranged,  the  Conference  then  adjourned.  The  Benediction 
was  pronounced  by  the  President. 


454  PULriT    EFFECTIVENESS. 


ELEVENTH  DAY,  Monday,  September  16,  1901 


TOPIC : 
PULPIT    EFFECTIVENESS. 


FIRST     SESSION. 


The  Conference  resumed  its  sessions  at  10  a.m.,  the  Rev.  F.  T. 
Tagg,  D.D.  (Methodist  Protestant  Church),  presiding.  The  Rev. 
M.  L.  Jennings,  D.D.  (Methodist  Protestant  Church),  read  a  portion 
of  Scripture  and  ofiered  prayer. 

The  Rev.  J.  Bond  (Secretary)  read  the  Daily  Record  for  Saturday, 
which  was  confirmed. 

The  Rev.  N.  Curnock  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  as  a  matter 
of  privilege,  said  he  desired  to  say,  on  behalf  of  the  "Conference 
Daily,"  that  a  letter  was  -written,  before  the  commencement  of  the 
Conference,  to  every  brother  taking  part,  asking  for  his  photo- 
graph ;  that  special  arrangements  were  made  with  Messrs.  Russell 
and  Sons  to  take  photographs  in  a  room  above  that  of  the  arrange- 
ments committee,  and  that,  so  far  as  possible,  every  man  was  also 
seen.  They  had  tried  to  produce  exactly  what  was  required,  and 
if  some  delegations  had  not  been  so  fully  represented  as  others,  it 
had  been,  he  presumed,  because  of  their  undue  modesty. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  aa- 
nounced  that  a  telegram  had  been  leceived  from  Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
stating  that  the  provincial  meeting  arranged  to  be  held  there  next 
Wednesday  had  to  be  abandoned. 

Bishop  B.  T.  Tanner,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
gave  an  essay  on  "  The  Elements  of  Pulpit  Effectiveness."     He  said : 

Would  we  know  the  elements  that  go  to  make  the  pulpit  effective, 
it  is  quite  necessary  that  we  know  that  for  which  the  pulpit  stands, 
in  itself  and  in  it.s  appointed  work.  By  the  pulpit  is  meant  the  pro- 
l>agation  of  the  Gospel ;  or,  what  is  called  in  the  Scriptures,  both  tlio 
Old  and  the  New  Testament,  preaching. 

As  it  relates  to  the  Old  Testament,  the  above  statement  holds  good, 


ESSAY   OF   BISHOP   B.   T.  TANNER.  455 

whether  we  accept  the  word  employed  by  Nehemiah  (vi.  7),  or  the 
word  of  Isaiah  (Ixi.  1),  both  of  which  are  rendered  "preach"  by  the 
Authorised  Version  and  by  the  Revised  Version.  As  it  relates  to  the 
New  Testament,  whether  we  accept  what  is  said  in  the  Gospels  by 
Matthew,  Mark,  or  Luke,  or  in  the  Epistles  by  Paul  or  Peter,  it  is 
the  same.  In  each  case  the  one  idea  is  the  oracular  propagation  of 
religious  truth.  But,  it  may  be  asked,  is  not  the  Gospel  propagated 
by  prayer?  Esiiecially,  is  it  not  propagated  by  song?  Quite  true  it  ia 
thai  these  are  oracular,  and  are  to  be  regarded  as  mighty  propagators 
of  the  Gospel  ;  but  in  no  sense  are  they  to  be  primarily  understood 
when  mention  is  made  of  the  pulpit.  On  the  contrary,  by  the  pulpit 
is  understood  what  is  universally  known  as  preaching,  or  pronouncing  a 
public  discourse  upon  a  religious  subject,  especially  when  such  subjects 
have  a  text  of  Scripture  for  their  foundation.  This  is  preaching,  and 
this  is  the  pulpit  of  our  subject. 

To  know  the  elements  of  success  in  such  a  work  as  this,  you  should 
be  acquainted  not  only  with  the  Gospel  itself,  but  should  know  some- 
what of  the  work  it  is  designed  to  do  ;  of  the  battle  in  which  its  pro- 
pagators are  engaged,  preaching  the  Gospel.  "  Go  ye  therefore,  and 
teach  all  nations,"  says  the  Authorised  Version  (Matthew  xxviii.  19)  ; 
"Go  ye  therefore,  and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,"  says  the 
Revised  Version.  The  elements  required  to  make  such  a  work  a.s  this 
effective  are  numerous — too  numerous  even  to  mention,  to  say  nothing 
of  treatment  in  detail.  Those,  however,  that  are  fundamental  may  be 
said  to  be  within  easy  range,  and  to  them  we  invite  attention. 

First  of  all  the  elements  necessary  to  the  effectiveness  of  the  pulpit  is 
the  element  of  the  Divine  Call.  If  full  success  is  to  come,  God  must 
fill  the  pulpit — God,  and  not  man,  whether  he  be  patriarch  or  pope,  a 
fond  father,  or  a  highly  respectable  and  rich  uncle.  Independent  of 
God,  each  must  keep  his  hands  off  in  so  far  as  filling  the  sacred  ros- 
trum is  concerned.  Paul's  chain  of  argument  cannot  be  broken  :  "  How 
then  shall  they  call  on  Him  in  whom  they  have  not  believed  ?  and  how 
shall  they  believe  in  Him  whom  they  have  not  heard?  and  how  shall 
they  hear  without  a  preacher  ?  and  how  shall  they  preach,  except  they 
be  sent  ?  "  (Romans  x.  14-15).  Burkett  argues  on  these  words  :  "  God 
has  by  the  prophets  promised  salvation  to  the  Gentiles  ;  but  without 
calling  on  Him  there  is  no  salvation  ;  and  without  faith  there  is  no 
calling  on  Him  by  prayer  ;  and  without  hearing  there  is  no  faith  ;  and 
without  a  preacher  there  is  no  hearing  ;  and  without  solemn  mission, 
or  sending  by  Christ  and  His  ministers,  there  can  be  no  preacher." 
Man  has  done  his  full  part  when  he  provides  for  the  sending  of  those 
whom  God  has  chosen. 

As  illustrative  of  this,  it  is  only  necessary  to  remember  the  pro- 
cedure in  the  inauguration  of  the  ministry,  both  of  the  Old  and  New 
Covenant.  As  to  the  ministry  of  the  Old,  the  word  to  Moses  is  :  "  And 
bring  thou  near  unto  thee  Aaron  thy  brother,  and  his  sons  with  him 
from  among  the  children  of  Israel,  that  he  may  minister  unto  me  in 
the  priest's  office,  even  Aaron,  Nadab  and  Abihu,  Eleazar  and  Ithamar, 
Aaron's  sons  "  (Exodus  xxviii.  1).     As  to  the  ministry  of  the  New, 


456  PULPIT    EFFECTIVENESS. 

the  record  is  :  "  And  He  called  unto  Him  His  twelve  disciples,  and 
gave  tliem  authority  over  unclean  spirits,  to  cast  them  out,  and  to 
heal  all  manner  of  disease  and  all  manner  of  sickness.  .  .  .  These 
twelve  Jesus  sent  forth "  (Matt.  x.  1  and  5).  God  Himself  makes 
choice  of  the  first;  Jesus  the  second.  And  if  not,  why  not?  Were 
not  Aaron  and  his  sons  to  represent  God?  Were  not  the  twelve  to 
represent  Jesus?  As  Malachi  declares  of  the  priests,  and  logically  of 
all  who  carry  the  Word,  were  they  not  messengers  of  the  Lord  of 
Hosts?  By  common  consent,  is  not  the  choice  of  a  messenger  always 
and  everywhere  left  with  the  party  of  the  first  parti 

If,  therefore,  the  pulpit  is  to  have  its  message  respected  and  be- 
lieved, if  it  is  to  be  broadly  effective,  it  must  demonstrate  by  proofs 
not  to  be  gainsaid  that  it  has  been  chosen  of  God.  Do  you  ask  the 
proof  of  such  calling  ?  I  answer :  Greater  things  than  giving  sight  to 
the  blind,  hearing  to  the  deaf,  and  speech  to  the  dumb  must  it  do — 
greater  things,  in  that  he  who  gives  sight  to  the  spiritually  blind,  and 
hearing  to  the  spiritually  deaf,  and  speech  to  the  spiritually  dumb,  and 
life  to  the  spiritually  dead,  on  the  accepted  principle  that  spirit  is 
more  than  matter,  has  done  the  greater  of  the  deeds.  "He  endowed 
them,"  says  Dr.  H.  R.  Reynolds,  "with  power  to  do  still  greater 
works,  in  Pentecostal  conversions,  which  were  of  a  far  more  exalted 
nature,  and  with  more  enduring  results  than  miracles  of  power."  The 
occupant  of  the  pulpit  must,  therefore,  not  only  be  chosen  of  God,  but 
have  the  witness  of  the  same. 

Next  to  this  element  of  Divine  Choice,  and  one,  too,  that  might 
almost  contend  for  first  honours,  is  the  element  that  requires  all 
preachers  to  know  the  Gospel ;  the  letter  of  which  is  of  their  heads, 
tho  spirit  of  which  is  of  their  hearts.  It  is  not  at  all  necessary  that 
we  proceed  to  tell  in  lengthened  paragraphs  what  constitutes  the 
Gospel  ;  what  is  the  knowledge  of  it  that  is  absolutely  necessary  to  be 
known  in  the  work  of  its  dissemination.  The  message  that  the  pulpit 
brings  to  man — what  is  it?  At  once  a  broad  field,  and,  in  a  sense, 
inviting,  presents  itself  for  studied  investigation  ;  but  I  prefer  to  de- 
cline its  pressing  invitation — prefer  to  speak  not  of  creeds,  Apostolic 
or  Athanasian — to  speak  not  of  the  overflow  of  the  councils,  either 
diocesan  or  provincial,  either  National  or  CEcumenical.  Sufiicient  is  it 
to  say,  that  to  us  the  facts  contained  in  the  Bible  generally,  and  in 
the  New  Testament  portion  of  it  especially,  faithfully  received  and 
rationally  interpreted,  constitute  the  basis  of  the  letter  of  the  Gospel ; 
and  to  him  who  would  have  the  pulpit  effective  comes  the  task  of 
acquainting  himself  with  them. 

The  word  of  the  Old  Testament  bearing  upon  this  element  of  pulpit 
effectiveness — the  one,  at  least,  I  select— is  the  word  of  the  prophet : 
"For  the  priest's  lips  should  keep  knowledge"  (Mai,  ii.  7).  The  word 
of  the  New  Testament  is  that  to  Timothy  (2  Tim.  ii.  15)  :  "  Study  to 
show  thyself  approved,"  or  "Give  diligence  to  present  thyself  approved." 
True  of  the  first  pulpiteers  of  Christ  and  His  Church  ;  true  now,  it 
must  ever  remain  true  ;  and  for  reasons,  both  general  and  special- 
general,  in  that,  that  it  is  altogether  impossible  for  anyone  to  teach 


ESSAY  OF   BISHOP   B.   T.  TANNER.  457 

what  ho  does  not  know — a  principle  quite  as  true  in  Christ iau  ethics 
as  in  any  of  the  pliysioal  sciences — special,  in  thai  Christianity  is  the 
one  unique  religious  system  of  the  world.  It  is,  therefore,  to  be 
affirmed  that  he  who  would  inform  the  world  of  its  transcending  facts 
and  the  significance  of  the  same — inform  the  world  of  the  Birth,  aye, 
of  the  Conception  itself,  of  the  Life,  of  the  Death,  of  the  Burial,  of 
the  Resurrection,  of  the  Ascension,  of  the  Enthronement  on  the  right 
hand  of  the  Majesty  on  High "'  (Heb.  i.  3),  must  first  know  these  facts 
himself,  and,  as  has  already  been  said,  know  also  the  lofty  significance 
of  the  same. 

As  to  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel  in  the  heart  of  those  who  preach 
it,  an  elemant  of  effectiveness  altogether  as  potential  as  the  letter 
in  the  head,  it  must  be  as  earnestly  striven  for  and  developed.  To 
the  end,  therefore,  that  such  knowledge  be  possessed,  it  is  primarily 
to  be  conceded  that  the  Theologicai  Seminary  in  which  all  these  things 
are  nsually  taught,  is  an  all-necessary  adjunct  to  that  fulness  of  pulpit 
effectiveness  necessary  to  the  subjugation  of  the  world  to  the  rule  of 
Him  whose  right  it  is  to  reign.  The  apostles'  notable  three  years' 
pupilage  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  must  never  be  forgotten.  Three  years  to 
unlearn  Judaism  !  Three  years  to  learn  the  letter  of  Christianity ! 
The  descent  of  the  Spirit  of  Power  to  fill  the  heart  with  His  Spirit — 
to  have  His  yoke  fit.  Theological  seminaries,  primarily,  but  schools 
of  all  grades  and  kinds  generally  ;  for  is  not  all  knowledge  related — 
and,  being  related,  is  not  the  pulpit  possessing  the  broadest  range, 
the  most  effective  ? 

The  Theological  Seminary  confines  itself  chiefly  to  the  theology  of 
the  Bible,  preparing,  as  it  does,  those  who  carry  to  the  world  "  the 
ministry  of  reconciliation,"  made  necessiary  by  the  Fall.  All  well, 
this,  in  itself.  But  what  of  the  theology  contained,  not  in  the  Book 
of  Revelation,  but  in  the  Book  of  Nature,  in  which  God  first  impressed 
His  character,  and  to  the  study  of  which  alone  the  sons  of  God,  from 
Adam  to  Moses,  or  more  than  two  thousand  years,  were  confined? 
Glorious  Book  of  Nature.  Ever  studied  by  the  world's  first  and 
greatest  intellects,  its  truths  are  all  necessary  to  the  fulness  of  know- 
ledge necessary  to  make  the  pulpit  all-conquering.  Referring  to  the 
remarkable  statement  of  David  (Psl.  xix.  1) :  "  The  heavens  declare 
the  glory  of  God  ;  and  the  firmament  sheweth  His  handiwork,"  Bishop 
George  Home  says :  "  Although  the  heavens  are  thus  apijointed  to 
teach,  yet  it  is  not  by  '  articulate  sounds '  that  they  do  it.  They  are 
not  endowed,  like  man,  with  the  faculty  of  speech  ;  but  they  address 
themselves  to  the  mind  of  the  intelligent  beholder  in  another  way, 
and  that,  when  understood,  a  no  less  forcible  way,  the  way  of  picture 
or  representation.  The  instruction  which  the  heavens  spread  abroad 
is  as  universal  as  their  substance,  which  extends  itself  in  lines  or  rays. 
By  this  means  their  words,  or  rather  their  significant  actions  or  opera- 
tions, are  everywhere  present,  and  thereby  they  preach  to  all  the 
nations  the  power  and  wisdom,  the  mercy  and  lovingkindness  of  the 
Lord." 

Give  the  average  preacher,  with  the  knowledge  he  is  supposed  to 


45  8  PULPIT   EFFECTIVENESS. 

have  of  Revelalion,  a  more  complete  knowledge  of  nature — of  the  stars, 
of  the  lanrl,  and  of  the  sea  ;  and  not  only  inature  inanimate,  but  nature 
animate,  and  liis  presentation  of  Christ  and  the  Grospel  will  be  infinitely 
more  forceful.  Then  will  pass  away  the  supposed  inliarmonies  and 
contradicftions  between  Nature  and  Revelation  ;  and  tTien,  too,  will 
largely  pass  away  the  generation  of  men  who  seem  only  to  exist  to  stir 
up  strife  between  them.  Man  the  pulpit  with  men  skilled  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  both  these  Books  of  God ;  and  the  "  Amens  "  which  each 
will  give  the  other  will  reverberate  from  pole  to  pole,  and  l)e  infi- 
nitely more  real  and  rhythmic  than  the  fabled  music  of  the  spheres ; 
and  all  to  the  praise  of  Him  in  whom  "were  all  things  created,  in  the 
heavens  and  upon  the  earth,  things  visible  and  things  invisible, 
whether  thrones  or  dominions  or  principalities  or  powers." 

A  phase  of  this  same  subject  also  presents  itself  in  the  fact  that 
at  the  present  moment — so  say  the  authorities — "  the  languages  of  the 
earth,  each  of  them  unintelligible  to  the  other,  are  very  numerous, 
rather  exceeding  than  falling  short  of  a  thousand."  A  thousand 
tongues !  Apt,  indeed,  if  not  prophetic,  is  the  wish  of  our  great 
Methodist  minstrel : 

"  0  for  ai  thousand  tongues  to  sing 
My  great  Redeemer's  praise." 

How  is  the  Gospel  to  be  preached  to  these  babbling  multitudes  1  We 
can  see  how  God  met  similar  necessity,  much  less  pressing  than  now, 
before  the  miracle-workiing  age  had  ceased,  if,  indeed,  it  has  ceased. 
The  record  is  given  in  Acts  ii.  5-11 :  "  Now,  there  were  dwelling  at 
Jerusalem  Jews,  devout  men,  from  every  nation  under  heaven.  And 
when  this  sound  was  heard  the  multitude  came  together,  and  were 
confoumded,  because  that  every  man  heard  them  speaking  in  his  own 
language.  And  they  were  all  amazed  and  marvelled,  saying,  Behold, 
are  not  all  these  which  speak  Galileans?  And  how  hear  we,  every 
mian  in  our  own  language,  wherein  we  were  horn?  Parthians  and 
Medes  and  Elamites,  and  the  dwellers  in  Mesopotamia,  in  .Judea 
and  Cappadocia,  in  Pontus  and  Asia,  in  Phrygia  and  Pamphylia,  in 
Egypt  and  the  parts  of  Libya  about  Gyrene,  and  sojourners  from  Rome, 
both  Jews  and  proselytes,  Cretians  and  Arabians,  we  do  hear  them 
speaking  in  our  tongues  the  mighty  works  of  God." 

What  we  are  here  told  needs  no  paraphrase  or  explanation.  A 
simpler  and  more  concise  statement  of  a  transaction  could  not  be  made. 
Yet  there  are  those  who  attempt  practically  to  break  the  force  of  it, 
in  that  they  say,  "  The  power  to  speak  with  other  tongues  was  (never 
afterward  used  as  a  means  by  which  to  make  the  Gospel  known  in  the 
world."  (Dr.  Curry,  Clarke's  Com.)  Aikin  is  such  a  statement  as  this 
to  the  words  of  those  who  argue  against  miracles  of  any  kind.  Sufficient 
is  it  to  say  that,  just  as  God  miraculously  came  to  the  help  of  the 
apostles  and  first  preachers,  when  men's  passion  held  the  Gospel  at 
bay,  even  so  was  it  when  the  difficulty  of  varied  speech  presented 
itself.  God  had  given  the  commaaid,  Go,  preach.  Nor  was  there  time 
to  have  His  hosts  halt  sufficiently  long  to  acquire  by  ordinary  means 


ESSAY  OF  BISHOP  B.  T.  TANNER.  459 

a  knowledge  of  the  strange  tongues  of  earth  ;  for  it,  had  beeai  eaid  they 
would  "  drink  of  the  brook  in  the  way  "  (Pel.  ox.  7).  Thereftore  the 
fact  given  in  the  Book  of  the  Acts  is  to  be  received  as  among  the  most 
veritable  and  credible  of  all  Scripture.  If  speech  must  need  be  given 
to  the  dumb,  hearing  to  the  deaf,  or  life  itself  to  the  dead,  and  all 
to  the  end  that  the  Gospel  should  get  a  foothold  in  the  world,  why 
not  the  gift  of  tongues,  to  the  end  that  that  foothold  might  be  extended 
into  all  lands  and  among  all  people  ?  But  all  the  ends  to  be  attained 
by  the  general  working  of  miracles  have  heen  supposedly  subserved  ; 
and  the  law  assumes  sway,  not  in  one  case,  but  in  all. 

As,  therefore,  it  is  no  longer  necessary  to  give  speech,  neither  is  it 
necessary  to  give  language.  Law,  we  say,  is  regal,  and  the  pulpit  must 
keep  time  to  the  requirement  of  the  hour.  He  who  would  have  it  most 
effective  in  its  work  must  accept  the  condition  of  things,  and  instead 
of  depending  upon  another  Pentecost,  go  to  work  and  master  the 
languages  wherever  the  pulpit  is  planted.  C^ina,  with  its  foiu:  hundred 
millions  of  people  and  its  dialects  many,  as  Africa,  with  its  similar 
millions  and  its  similar  dialects,  is  to  be  preached  to.  But  how?  By 
the  slow  method  witnessed  in  these  our  days?  By  no  means^not, 
indeed,  if  the  day  of  the  Lord  is  to  be  hastened.  On  the  contrary, 
there  should  be  at  this  moment  a  strong  Christian  University,  say,  at 
Pekin  itself,  supported  by  all  the  Christian  Powers,  civil  and  religious, 
and  through  which  should  pass  all  who  have  the  mission  work  at  heart 
—a  number  that  would  be  vastly  increased  if,  indeed,  tihe  Lord  of  the 
Harvest  was  not  only  sought  but  also  helped.  We  should  help  the 
Lord ;  help  Him  in  the  work  of  making  desolations  in  the  earth,  of 
breaking  the  bow  and  cutting  the  spear  in  sunder  ;  help  the  Son  of 
Man  in  the  sad  and  trying  regeneration  of  the  world. 

Eeferring  to  the  curse  pronounced  upon  Meroz  (Judges  v.  23),  for  not 
coming  to  the  help  of  the  Lord,  W.  F.  Adeney  says :  "  Meroz  had 
committed  no  offence,  but  is  solely  to  blame  for  faiUng  in  action. 
Iimocence  of  positive  guilt  is  not  enough  to  secure  us  from  condemnation 
in  the  judgment  of  God.  We  shall  be  judged  by  what  we  have  left 
undone,  as  well  as  by  what  we  have  done.  In  Christ's  vision  of 
judgment,  those  who  are  made  to  stand  on  the  left  of  the  throne,  and 
are  then  condemned  to  outer  darkness,  are  not  offenders  against  moral 
law,  but  simply  persons  who  have  neglected  the  active  duties  of 
charity  or  love  (Matt.  xxv.  45).  It  is  a  very  common  error  for  people 
to  suppose  that  they  are  blameless  so  long  as  they  keep  themselves 
from  the  world,  forgetting  that  the  first  duty  of  religion  is  the  ener- 
getic exercise  of  charity."  Let  this  fact  be  stamped  upon  the  heart 
of  the  Church  to-day. 

To  make  the  pulpit  effective  on  the  line  argued  is  to  multiply  its 
numerical  strength,  in  all  missions  especially,  by  a  hundred.  Mobilise 
the  whole  Church,  and  ovemm  heathendom  by  our  hosts.  If  neces- 
sity would  seem  to  require  it,  forget  not  the  declaration  (Psl.  Ixviii, 
11),  "The  Lord  giveth  the  word:  The  women  that  publish  the  tidings 
are  a  great  host."  To  the  broadest  possible  culture,  therefore,  and 
the  broadest  possible  means  leading  thereto,  let  all  betake  themselves 


460  PULPIT    EFFECTIVENESS. 

whose  work  or  whose  Avish  is  to  make  tlie  pulpit,  all-effective  in  bring- 
ing all  the  nations  to  Christ.  All  the  nations  of  the  earth?  Pre- 
cisely. Semitic  nations,  and  nations  both  Hamitic  and  Japhetic. 
This  is  the  work  given  the  pulpit.  Beginning  with  Semitic  preachers, 
and  of  the  most  ultra  stamp,  it  was  for  them  to  so  far  forget  the  past 
— forget  their  Abramic  blood,  their  history,  their  supposed  destiny  ; 
forget  their  kindred  of  the  Semitic  race,  Edom  especially  ;  forget  the 
race  of  Ham  that  enslaved  them,  and  the  race  of  Japheth  that  op- 
pressed them  ;  forget  and  forgive  to  the  point  of  giving  ready  obedi- 
ence to  the  word,  "Go  ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations." 

A  hard  task  this  to  these  radical  Jewish  pulpiteers,  as  any  will  see 
who  will  study  their  history,  especially  that  of  Paul  and  Peter.  Only 
after  the  most  stubborn  opposition  designed  of  God,  we  may  well  be- 
lieve, was  the  former  ready  and  willing  to  say,  ''  It  was  necessary 
that  the  Word  of  God  should  first  be  spoken  to  you.  Seeing  ye  thrust 
it  from  you,  and  judge  yourselves  unworthy  of  eternal  life,  lo !  we 
turn  to  the  Gentiles."  Equally  hard  and  more  was  it  for  Peter,  to 
convince  whom  of  the  common  equality  and  brotherhood  of  man  it 
was  necessary  that  a  great  sheet,  upon  which  were  four-footed  beasts, 
wild  beasts,  and  creeping  things,  and  fowls  of  the  heaven,  should  be 
let  down  with  the  word,  "  Rise,  Peter  ;  kill  and  eat " — let  down  not 
once,  nor  twice,  but  thrice  ;  and  twice  must  the  heavenly  voices  be 
heard,  "  AVhat  God  hath  cleansed  make  not  thou  common "  (Acts  ii. 
5-10).  But  hear  the  account  from  the  lips  of  Peter  himself:  "I  was 
in  the  city  of  Joppa  praying ;  and  in  a  trance  I  saw  a  vision,  a  cer- 
tain vessel  descending,  as  it  were  a  great  sheet  let  down  from  heaven 
by  four  corners ;  and  it  came  even  unto  me  ;  upon  the  which  when  I 
fastened  mine  eyes,  I  considered,  and  saw  the  four-footed  beasts  of 
the  earth,  and  wild  beasts,  and  creeping  things,  and  fowls  of  the 
heaven.  And  I  heard  a  voice  also  saying  unto  me,  Rise,  Peter,  kill 
and  eat.  But  I  said,  Not  so,  Lord  ;  for  nothing  common  or  unclean 
hath  ever  entered  into  my  mouth.  But  a  voice  answered  the  second 
time  out  of  heaven.  What  God  hath  cleansed,  make  not  thou  com- 
mon." The  mighty  truth  here  acknowledged,  proclaimed,  and  prac- 
tised by  Peter  to  a  man  of  Japhetic  blood,  "  Of  a  truth  I  perceive  that 
God  is  no  respecter  of  persons  ;  but  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth 
Him  and  worketh  righteousness  is  acceptable  to  Him." 

Christ  is  the  Truth  to  all,  upon  which  hinges  the  full  effectiveness  of 
the  pulpit  in  this  age  as  in  no  other  since  the  ages  began.  For  in  no 
other  has  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  made  such  an  exhibition  of  raee 
prejudice  in  face  of  the  fact  that  in  no  other  have  such  rays  of  light 
been  thrown  upon  this  phase  of  the  Gospel ;  for  in  no  other  have 
both  the  secularist  and  the  spiritualist  made  such  showing  on  the  jire 
of  a  common  humanity.  The  day  that  Macedonia  sent  out  the  appeal, 
"Come  over  and  help  us,"  witnessed  the  appointment  of  Japheth  to 
the  burden  of  leadership  in  the  Church  of  God.  Not  the  "  Burden " 
sung  by  Rudyard  Kipling,  with  his  hapless  word  : 

"Your  new-caught  sullen  peoples, 
Half  devil  and  half  child." 


ESSAY   OF  BISHOP   B.   T.  TANNER.  46 1 

On  the  contrary,  the  burden  of  a  leadership  significant  of  the  choice 
of  God  in  imposing  the  final  settlement  of  His  earthly  interests  upon 
the  most  worthy  son  of  the  family,  the  son  who,  by  valorous  doing, 
had  won  His  contidence  and  love.  Not  Rudyard  Kipling's  "  White 
Man's  Burden,"  then,  but  his  glorious  "Recessional,"  is  it  in  place 
for  the  white  man  not  only  to  sing,  but  to  remember : 

"  If,  drunk  with  sight  of  power,  we  loose 

Wild  tongues  that  have  not  Thee  in  awe  ; 
Such  boasting  as  the  Gentiles  use, 
Or  lesser  breeds  without  the  law. 
Lord  God  of  Hosts,  be  with  us  yet. 
Lest  we  forget — lest  we  forget !  " 

To  have  the  pulpit  fully  effective,  it  is  not  only  necessary  that  it 
have  knowledge  both  secular  and  revealed,  and  be  free  from  the  taint 
of  racial  prejudice,  but  that  it  concern  itself  about  the  physical  con- 
dition of  the  race,  another  element  that  makes  for  pulpit  effectiveness. 
On  general  principles  may  it  not  be  asked,  Is  nut  the  Ixjdy  the  Lord's, 
as  well  as  the  soul  and  the  spirit?  It  is  just  possible  that  there  is  no 
truth  more  generally  overlooked  than  the  truth  of  the  sanctity  of  the 
human  body  itself,  so  often  despised  and  maltreated  by  so-called  Chris- 
tian people.  Nut  of  those  only  to  whom  direct  reference  is  made  are 
its  words  true,  "Know  ye  that  ye  are  a  temple  of  God,  and  that  the 
Spirit  of  God  dwelleth  in  you?  If  any  man  destroyeth  the  temple 
of  God,  him  shall  God  destroy  ;  for  the  temple  of  God  is  holy,  which 
temple  ye  are  "  (I.  Corinthians  iii.  16-17).  Not  of  these  only,  but  of 
the  race  generally  and  universally  ;  and  if  for  no  other  reason  than 
that  which  tells  us  that  it  is  of  these  the  armies  of  the  saints  are  to 
ba  recruited.  Therefore,  on  general  principles,  the  pulpit  should  aim 
to  build  up  a  virile  race.  "Quit  you  like  men.  Be  strong.''  A 
reason,  however  especial,  is  that  those  to  whom  the  Gospel  is  to  go 
dwell  in  all  lands— the  Frigid  North  and  the  equally  Frigid  South,  the 
Temperate,  and  the  one  awful  Tropic.  Has  not  the  glorious  Heber 
taught  us  to  sing  : 

"From   Greenland's  icy  mountains, 
From  India's  coral  strand, 
Where  Afric's  sunny  fountains 

Roll  down  their  golden  sand  ; 
From  many  an  ancient  river, 
^  From  many  a  palmy  plain. 

They  call  us  to  deliver 

Their  land  from  error's  chain." 

To  all  these  is  the  message  of  the  pulpit  to  go.  But  how  can  it, 
with  a  race  of  physically  enfeebled  preachers,  lungless,  and  voiceless, 
and  spiritless?  Say  nothing  of  devotion,  say  nothing  of  zeal — brain 
goes  for  naught  in  such  work  as  this  without  the  brawn,  destitute  of 
which  oceans  cannot  be  crossed,  deserts  invaded.,  and  mountains 
climbed.     Brawn  must  balance  brain  if  the  pulpit  is  to  be  effective  in 


4^2  PULPIT  EFFECTIVENESS. 

tho  work  given  it  to  do.  Let,  therefore,  greater  attention  be  given 
this  matter  by  all  who  meditate  upon  the  world's  redemption  by 
means  of  the  cross.  If  Greek  polytheism  could  give  the  world  a  phy- 
sique that  has  commanded  the  admiration  of  the  ages,  can  Christian 
monotheism  do  less,  especially  when  is  remembered  the  work  it  has 
taken  in  hand?  Shall  it  be  said  that  the  Greek  esteemed  the  winning 
of  the  laurel  more  than  the  Christian  esteems  winning  the  crown,  and 
not  for  himself  only— the  crown  that  will  never  fade? 

Up,  then,  ye  assembled  pulpiteers,  ye  successors  of  him  who  claimed 
the  world  for  his  parish  ;  up,  and  see  to  it  that  the  generation  of  those 
who  are  to  succeed  you  shall  be  so  trained  in  the  work  of  developing 
a  body  which  for  endurance  will  put  to  shame  any  athlete  of  Greece— 
a  body  that  will  be  equal  to  the  task  of  undertaking  work  in  any  land, 
with  a  fair  possiuuiiy  of  living  long  to  carry  on  the  work  for  which 
preparation  has  been  made.  Physical  culture,  then,  is  to  be  ranked 
as  a  means  of  pulpit  effectiveness,  not  to  be  despised ;  and  whether, 
too,  the  work  is  at  home  or  abroad.  Old  men  for  counsel  is  the 
teaching  of  Scripture.  But  how  is  the  pulpit  to  be  enriched  by  such 
counsel  if  its  occupant  is  to  be  cut  off  long  before  he  reaches  his 
prime,  to  say  nothing  of  old  age?  Say  not  that  this  is  a  Divine 
matter— that  God  will  attend  to  it.  It  truly  is  a  Divine  matter,  and 
in  a  sense  not  intended  by  him  who  makes  reply.  Our  answer  is,  So 
Divine  is  it  that  it  is  presumptuous  in  any  to  meddle  with  that  side 
of  the  question.  To  every  such  question  there  are  two  sides — a  human 
and  a  Divine.  Only  God  can  calculate  upon  the  issues  of  both.  As 
for  man,  it  is  for  him  not  to  presume  upon  God,  whose  ways  are  in 
the  sea.  Bather  let  him  obey  the  laws  of  his  being,  in  all  their 
length  and  breadth,  height  and  depth.  Are  there  physical  laws? 
laws  of  life  and  health  ?  Let  him  obey  them ;  nor  dare  to  disregard, 
and  then  make  appeal  to  God  to  repair  the  breach  which  he  has  pre- 
sumptuously and  hard-headedly  made.  Brawn,  then,  is  to  be  ac- 
cepted as  an  element  of  pulpit  effectiveness. 

What,  then,  remains  for  us  to  say  on  the  score  of  the  "  Elements  of 
Pulpit  Effectiveness  ? "  Having  treated  the  question  of  Divine  Call, 
of  Knowledge,  of  Human  Fidelity  and  Virility,  what  ?  These  per- 
tain to  what  we  might  characterise  as  our  side  of  the  mighty  work  of 
making  effective  the  labour  of  the  pulpit.  What  of  the  Divine  side — 
the  side  without  which  all  knowledge,  all  respect  for  humanity,  all 
manliness,  go  for  naught  ?  This  all-essentiai.  Divine  element  God  not 
only  holds  at  our  command,  but  in  ways  and  words  has  disclosed  His 
purpose  to  exert.  What  more  gracious  than  the  Tifords  of  Isaiah 
(Iv.  10),  "For  as  the  rain  cometh  down  and  the  snow  from  heaven, 
and  returneth  not  thither,  but  watereth  the  earth,  and  maketh  it 
bring  forth  and  bud,  and  giveth  seed  to  the  sower  and  bread  to  the 
eater,  so  shall  My  Word  be  that  goeth  forth  out  of  My  mouth ;  it  shall 
not  return  unto  Me  void,  but  it  shall  accomplish  that  which  I  please, 
and  it  shall  prosper  in  the  thing  whereto  I  sent  it." 

We  have  already  alluded  to  the  excellence  of  liaving  a  knowledge  of 
nature,  and  how  effective  such  knowledge  becomes  to  him  who  would 


ESSAY  OF  BISHOP  B.  T.  TANNER.  463 

acquaint  men  with  the  ways  of  God.  Possibly  in  all  Scripture  no 
selection  more  pertinently  showing  this  truth  could  be  found  than 
the  one  above  ;  and  happy  is  he  whose  understanding  of  nature  enables 
hira  to  use  it  for  all  it  is  worth.  Honiilising  upon  it,  the  Rev.  W. 
Clarkson  says :  "  It  may  be  said  that  the  rain  and  the  snow  do,  in 
fact,  return  to  heaven,  whence  they  came,  drawn  up  by  the  sun  as  it 
shines  on  sea  and  lake,  on  stream  and  river  everywhere.  But  not 
until  they  have  done  the  work  for  which  they  came,  not  until  they 
have  accomplished  that  which  God  pleases,  until  they  have  prospered 
in  the  purpose  for  which  He  sent  them  ;  not  until  they  have  fertilised 
the  soil,  and  made  it  bring  forth  its  precious  fruits.  The  vast  amount 
of  rainfall  which  the  earth  receives  during  the  year  renders  incalcul- 
able service  before  it  returns  to  the  skies.  So  also  does  all  the  out- 
pouring of  Divine  truth  on  the  mind  and  heart  of  men.  There  may 
be  times  when  the  human  spokesman  may  question  this— when  he  may 
have  grave  misgivings  as  to  its  utility,  when  it  may  seem  unprofit- 
able and  vain.  But  we  have  the  strong  assurance  that  God's  Word 
"shall  not  return  unto  Him  'void'— that  the  issue  shall  be  one  in 
which  all  surrounding  nature  may  take  its  part  with  jubilant  acclaim." 
This  purpose,  then,  of  God  is  the  chief  element  of  all  to  be  desired 
in  making  most  effective  the  effort  of  the  pulpit.  But  how  have  it 
exerted  ?^  Manifestly  by  the  preacher  allying  himself,  body  and  soul 
and  spirit,  to  God.  Do  this  without  a  single  reservation,  and  the 
glorious  effect  of  preaching  is  reached.  Let  only  due  preparation  be 
made,  and  self  and  family,  nation  and  race,  laid  upon  the  altar,  and 
God  will  accept  the  sacrifice.  Refuse,  and  every  other  element  that 
might  promise  to  be  effective  goes  for  naught.  We  may  plant ;  we 
may  water — elements  of  effectiveness,  all  must  admit — but  without 
God  gives  the  increase  there  will  be  no  harvest.  There  stands  a 
locomotive — one  of  Baldwin's  best.  The  very  picture  of  power  and 
strength  ;  the  verjr  picture  of  efiiciency.  A  hundred  well-loaded  cars, 
or  a  score  of  Pullmans,  are  to  be  pulled  around  the  mighty  Horse 
Shoe  Bend  of  our  American  AUeghanies.  We  can  hear  our  typical 
engine  say,  "  Hitch  me  to  them."  But  no  ;  beautiful  and  powerful  as 
is  our  engine,  it  is  helpless  for  the  task  until  steam  be  generated. 
Even  so,  as  it  pertains  to  the  pulpit,  be  it  chapel,  or  church,  or 
cathedral— be  it  St.  Peter's,  or  St.  Paul's,  or  St.  Mark's.  All  and 
everything,  in  general  and  in  particular — robed  priests,  chanted  ser- 
vice, learned  homily — all  go  for  naught  without  the  presence  of  the 
all-effective  Spirit.  '"  Beautiful  in  their  speech,"  says  A'Kempis  ; 
"but  if  Thou  be  silent,  they  kindle  not  the  heart."  We  are  God's 
fellow-workers,  says  Paul.  In  the  presence  of  such  fellowship  as  this 
every  element  necessary  to  send  the  Gospel  sweeping  through  the 
world  is  found.  "  And  I  saw,  and  behold,  a  white  horse,  and  He  that 
sat  thereon  had  a  bow ;  and  there  was  given  unto  Him  a  crown,  and 
He  went  forth  conquering  and  to  conquer."  "  Christ  rode  on  with  a 
bow  in  His  hand,''  says  William  Burkett,  "  and  with  a  crown  on  His 
head,  conquering  and  to  conquer,  until  His  arrows  were  sharp  in  rhe 
hearts  of  His  crucifiers ;  and  will  thus  ride  on  until  the  people  fall 
under  Him^  and  all  His  enemies  become  His  footstool." 


4^4  PULPIT   EFFECTIVENESS. 

Mr.  R.  G.  Rows,  J.P.  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches),  gave 
the  first  invited  address  on  the  topic.     He  said  : 

I  will  confine  myself  to  one  element  of  pulpit  effectiveness,  without 
which,  in  my  opinion,  all  others  are  greatly  neutralised,  and  which 
during  part  of  the  last  generation  has  not  been  strongly  pronounced. 
It  is  that  the  preacher  has  a  distinct  message  of  salvation  to  his  con- 
gregation. If  an  intelligent  outsider  had  gone,  during  part  of  the  last 
twenty-five  years,  into  the  chapels,  week  by  week,  in  this  country, 
with  a  view  of  ascertaining  what  our  fundamental  beliefs  were,  I  am 
not  sure  that  he  could  have  given  a  clear  report.  He  would  have  found 
them  clear  enough  in  our  catechisms  and  foundation  deeds,  but  if,  as 
Sabatier  says,  he  caught  them  flying,  that  is,  in  our  prayers  and 
sermons,  then  I  am  not  sure  that  he  could  have  presented  a  definite 
statement.  I  need  hardly  say  that  the  soul  of  that  outsider  would  not 
have  been  greatly  gripped  l)y  the  preaching.  Congregations  are  gripped 
by  a  preacher  when  they  feel  he  has  come  from  God  with  a  message 
to  them  ;  and  that  has  been  the  characteristic  of  preachers  in  all  times 
of  great  sjDiritual  awakening. 

I  do  not  insinuate  for  a  moment  that  in  order  to  secure  definiteness 
we  should  simply  furbish  up  old  presentations  of  belief.  I  do  not 
think  we  should  find  them  fresh  and  effective.  But,  surely,  if  we 
cannot  accept  the  definitions,  say,  of  Luther  or  of  the  Puritans  or  of 
the  men  of  the  eighteenth  century,  or  of  the  Evangelicals  or  Tractarians 
of  the  last  century,  God  and  man  have  a  right  to  ask  us,  "What  is 
your  presentation  of  the  Gospel?  What  is  your  message  of  life  and 
death  to  this  people?"  I  do  not  forget  that  there  is  in  the  minds  of  a 
number  of  thinking  people  an  indisposition  to  receive  doctrinal  state- 
ments. They  point  us  to  the  strife  and  bitterness  which  they  have 
created  from  the  time  of  the  old  Arian  controversy  to  a  recent  contro- 
versy designated  "The  Down  Grade,"  and  they  say,  "  Seeing  the  bitter- 
ness and  division  arising  out  of  doctrinal  statements,  why  have  them 
at  all  ?  Why  not  confine  yourself  to  the  simple  statement  of  the 
Gospels"?  (as  they  call  them.)  All  that  sounds  most  captivating,  but 
having  regard  to  men's  intellectual  and  spiritual  constitution,  it  indi- 
cates an  impossible  state  of  things.  In  my  opinion,  you  cannot  have 
an  earnest  Church  without  doctrine — ^I  mean  without  an  intellectual 
presentation  of  doctrine. 

Do  not  mistake  me :  I  do  not  aflirm  that  doctrines  create  religion, 
although  they  react  upon  it  and  strengthen  it  ;  but  an  Earnest  religion 
will  express  itself  in  objective  statement.  I  may  be  told  that  there  is 
very  little  of  formulated  doctrine  in  the  New  Testament.  Yes  ;  and 
there  is  very  little  of  prepared  food  and  clothing  in  nature.  The  raw 
material  is  there  ;  the  constituent  elements  are  there  ;  but  a  process 
has  to  be  gone  through  in  order  to  make  those  raw  materials  ready 
for  assimilation.  So  in  the  higher  region  of  spirit.  Thank  God,  we 
have  the  raw  material  here,  not  only  in  the  Book,  but  in  Christian 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.   R.  G.   ROWS.  465 

experience.  The  realisation  of  God,  the  consciousness  of  sin,  of  for- 
giveness, of  commuiiiun,  human  and  Divine,  constitute  an  experience 
which  is  a  continuous  revelation,  and  Avliicli,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
men  will  translate  into  mental  equivalents.  These  translations  will  vary 
even  in  fundamentals.  The  idea  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God  will  be  dif- 
ferent in  the  mind  of  a  child  or  a  rustic  from  what  it  will  be  in  the 
mind  of  a  philosopher,  although  the  three  will  rejoice  in  it.  The  doc- 
trines of  the  Incarnation,  of  the  Atonement,  of  Rewards  and  Punish- 
ments, in  different  generations,  and  by  different  men,  will  have  dif- 
ferent presentations  ;  and  I  would  not  restrict  the  healthy  variation  of 
them  by  a  hair's-breadth.  We  cannot  perpetrate,  in  my  judgment,  a 
greater  piece  of  folly  than  when  we  come  to  the  conclusion  that,  because 
two  men  differ  in  their  presentation  of  a  great  belief,  one  of  them  must 
be  wrong.  It  does  not  follow  at  all.  They  both  may  be  broken  lights 
of  God,  and  complements  of  each  other.  If  I  read  history  aright,  God 
adapts  them  both  to-  His  purposes.  In  the  building  up  of  what  Milton 
calls  :  "  This  mighty  and  puissant  nation,"  He  has  used  Papist  and 
Protestant,  Anglican  and  Puritan,  Presbyterian,  Baptist,  Methodist, 
and  Quaker,  and  I  hold  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  would  be  poorer  to- 
day if  any  contribution  had  been  withheld. 

We  must  gather  that  earnestness  is  absolutely  essential.  We  boast 
that  our  Methodist  doctrmes  and  polity  are  superior  to  almost  any- 
thing in  the  world.  They  are,  and  therein  we  possess  an  advantage, 
but  motive  power  is  everything.  We  have  an  illustration  in  my  time 
in  this  city.  Men  as  diverse  as  Charles  Lowder  and  Charles  Spurgeon 
were  crowned  kings  in  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  to-day  are  sitting  on 
thrones  judging  this  city,  while  churches  now  stranded,  wrecked,  and 
well-nigh  deserted  were  led  by  leaders  transparent  in  their  orthodoxy  ; 
but,  as  our  great  poet  has  said :  "  Men  with  the  unlit  lamp  and  the 
ungirt  loins,"  or,  as  a  greater  than  Browning  has  said,  "  neither  cold  nor 
hot." 

It  would  be  impertinent  in  me  to  indicate  dogmatically  what  the 
message  of  the  Methodist  Churches  shall  be,  but  I  shall  carry  this 
Conference  with  me  when  I  say  that  the  people  are  waiting  for  a  defi- 
nite, clear  message  as  to  their  relationship  to  God,  and  to  one  another. 
The  reaction  even  in  the  field  of  science  from  the  gross  materialism 
of  forty  years  ago  has  given  the  Churches  a  fine  opportunity  to  declare 
that  God  is  a  Spirit  and  the  Father  of  human  spirits,  and  that  men 
want  not  the  monism  of  Haeckel,  but  that  of  Paul  and  Christ.  I 
admit,  as  a  great  philosopher  has  said,  that  by  the  intellect  alone 
universal  presence  and  personality  can  hardly  be  conceived.  God  does 
not  ask  you  and  me  to  do  that  by  the  intellect.  He  does  not  ask 
us  to  search  that  way.  The  great  cry  of  God,  the  most  pathetic  ever 
put  in  language,  is,  "  My  son,  give  Me  thine  heart."  When  I  say 
heart,  that  the  heart  is  the  point  of  least  resistance  to  God,  I  do  not 
mean  a  passing  spasm  of  the  emotion  issuing  in  hysterics.  I  mean  all 
those  deep-searching  intuitions  which  the  two  great  apostles  tell  us 
find  God — that  which  Coleridge  indicated  when  he  said,  "  My  head  waa 

31 


466  PULPIT   EFFECTIVENESS. 

with  Spinoza,  but  my  heart  was  with  Paul  and  John.'  Let  the  heart 
speak,  and  we  shall  know 

"  That  the  All-great  is  the  All-loving  too  ; 

That  through  the  thunder  comes  a  human  voice," 

"  Saying,  Oh,  heart  I  made,  a  heart  beats  here  ; 
Face  my  hands  fashioned — see  it  in  Myself. 
Thou  hast  no  power,  nor  mayest  conceive  of  Mine, 
But  love  I  gave  thee  with  Myself  to  love." 

We  want  also  definite  pronouncement  as  to  Christ.  The  old  blatant, 
coarse  opposition  has  gone.  The  same  men  now  come  to  us  and  say 
"Christ  is  the  ideal  of  humanity."  Christ  is  "The  greatest  moral  up- 
lifting force  in  the  world."  Christ  is  "The  greatest  factor  in  moral 
civilisation."  These  are  agnostic  expressions.  I  rejoice  in  all  that, 
but  we  want  more  than  that.  The  message  of  the  pulpit  that  will 
satisfy  toiling,  sinning,  suffering,  sorrowing  men  and  women  is  a 
Christ  who  is  a  comfort  to  the  mourner,  rest  to  the  weary,  life  to  the 
dead,  salvation  to  the  lost.     All  this  Christ  is  as  the  Son  of  God. 

We  want  an  equally  distinct  message  as  to  the  relations  of  men 
with  each  other.  If  God  be  the  Father  of  man,  and  Christ  is  the  Son 
of  God,  what  relationship  do  men  bear  to  Christ,  and  to  one  another '< 
This  is  the  question  that  has  to  be  driven  home  to  people  who  are 
not  unwilling  to  listen  to  it.  There  never  was  a  time  in  the  history 
of  our  race  when  men  so  fully  realised  that  they  were  members  one 
of  another.  In  spite  of  the  hardening  of  the  past  century  by  our 
industrial  expansion  and  idolatry  of  wealth,  never  was  there  such  a 
felt  sense  of  responsibility,  not  by  a  few  professionals  only,  but  by 
a  large  number  of  the  people  as  regards  the  suffering  and  helpless  of 
all  kinds.  Take  two  classes.  First,  take  the  lunatic.  I  remember 
when  they  were  looked  upon  as  creatures  cursed  by  God,  and  might, 
therefore,  be  tortured  by  men.  What  is  it  now?  All  that  science 
can  do,  all  that  wealth  can  do,  is  brought  to  ameliorate  their  condition. 
Take  the  criminal.  Time  was,  and  that  not  long  ago,  when  he  was  one 
to  be  conveniently  got  rid  of,  and  he  was  dumped  on  Botany  Bay. 
Now,  if  a  man  ventures  to  suggest  any  form  of  punishment,  except  for 
a  capital  crime,  which  has  not  the  element  of  correction  in  it  he  is  the 
object  of  execration.  Look  at  the  cases  carefully.  We  have  in  the 
one  case  a  dethronement  of  the  reason,  we  have  in  the  other  a  partial 
dethronement,  at  least,  of  the  moral  sense.  Yet  we  feel  that  neither 
has  lost  his  kinship.  They  are  parts  of  us,  and  never  can  be  shaken 
oflf.     We  claim  this  to  be  a  modern  development  of  the  Gospel. 

The  same  idea  of  brotherhood  has  been  developed  in  the  abolition 
of  slavery.  There  is  not  now,  and  never  has  been,  a  religion  on  the 
face  of  the  earth  which  proclaimed  that  there  is  neither  Jew  noi 
Greek,  bondman  nor  freeman,  except  the  Gospel.  We  are  beginning 
to  learn  it,  and  the  time  is  coming,  and  is  near,  when  the  discovery 
and  application  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  shall  be  an  actual  fact. 

One  word  as  to  the  source  of  the  message  from  the  pulpit.  I  am 
looking  on  some  of  the  ablest  men  in  Methodism,   and,  indeed,  some 


ADDRESS  OF   REV.   G.   C.  RANKIN.  467 

of  the  ablest  men  in  all  Churches.  Yet  the  message  will  not  be 
evolved  out  of  your  brain.  In  olden  times  it  was  said  the  word  of  the 
Lord  came  to  men  and  they  spake  it.  Of  all  the  forms  of  scepticism 
which  at  present  are  afflicting  the  Church,  one  of  the  most  paralysing  to 
me  is  that  which  refuses  to  believe  that  the  word  of  the  Lord  comes  to 
men  now.  We  are  waking  up.  We  in  the  valleys  see  signs  of  it  going 
up  and  down  the  kingdom.  Everywhere  I  am  met  with  the  statement, 
"  We  are  on  the  eve  of  a  great  revival."  The  seers  on  the  hills,  whose 
dwelling  enables  them  to  see  the  gleams  of  the  dawn,  are  telling  us 
of  the  indications.  We  are  waiting  to  hear  their  message.  God  grant 
that  from  this  Conference  a  distinct  message  may  go  forth  to  the 
Churches  which  shall  hasten  the  breaking  of  the  day. 

The  Rev.  G.  C.  Rankin,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South),  also  gave  an  invited  addressi  on  this  topic.     He  said : 

The  Gospel  of  our  Methodism  is  the  Gospel  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. With  our  ministry  it  has  never  been  an  experiment,  but  a 
regenerating  and  constructive  force  in  the  aggressive  operations  of 
modern  Christianity.  Throughout  our  Providential  history  we  have 
persistently  magnified  the  importance  of  preaching  this  Gospel,  and 
God  has  wonderfully  blessed  our  efforts  in  the  salvation  of  the  multi- 
tudes and  in  the  transformation  of  society.  While  we  have  made  haste 
to  use  all  helpful  agencies  in  the  furtherance  of  the  Gospel,  neverthe- 
less the  pulpit  has  been,  and  is,  and  will  ever  continue  to  be,  out 
throne  of  power.  With  the  Apostle  Paul,  we  stiU  hold  that  it  is  the 
pleasure  di  God,  "By  the  foolishness  of  preaching  to  save  them  that 
believe." 

In  proportion  as  our  preaching  has  been  true  to  the  fulness  of  the 
Gospel,  has  our  Methodism  been  fruitful  of  large  spiritual  results. 
Therefore,  the  elements  of  pulpit  effectiveness  are  not  difficult  of  dis- 
covery. They  are  in  the  preacher  himself — ^he  embodies  them  in  hia 
personal  experience. 

1.  In  the  unqualified  certainty  of  his  Divine  call  to  the  work  of  the 
ministry.  This  call  is  fundamental,  and  it  is  his  conscious  know- 
ledge of  this  fact  that  differentiates  his  true  work  from  that  of  other 
men.  They  choose  their  own  vocations  according  to  their  tastes, 
talents,  and  aptitudes  ;  but  not  so  with  the  man  called  of  God  to  preach 
the  Gospel.  God  makes  this  choice  for  him,  and  he  has  neither  will 
nor  voice  in  the  matter.  "  Ye  have  not  chosen  Me,  but  I  have  chosen 
you,"  said  the  Master  to  His  disciples.  So  it  has  ever  been  with  the 
true  disciple  of  Christ.  His  call  is  not  from  the  militant  Church, 
but  from  the  Eternal  Throne,  and  he  has  no  alternative  but  to  render 
prompt  obedience  and  enter  the  ministry.  Under  the  terms  of  his 
Divine  call  he  is  not  permitted  to  confer  with  flesh  and  blood,  but, 
like  the  great  Apostle,  he  cries  out,  "Woe  is  unto  me  if  I  preach 
not  the  Gospel."  A  preacher  thus  called  of  God  is  heaven's  ordained 
ambassador,   and  with  his  Divine  Lord  he  says,  "My  meat  is  to  do 


^68  PULPIT    EFFECTIVENESS. 

the  will  of  Him  that  sent  Me,  and  to  finish  His  work."     His  authority 
to  preach  the  Gospel  is  from  God. 

2.  In  his  thorough  mental  equipment  for  the  work  of  the  ministry. 
A  call  to  the  office  of  the  ministry  carries  with  it  a  call  to  make  all 
possible  mental  preparation  for  the  duties  of  his  high  office.  He  must 
have  special  training  and  instruction.  Christ  gave  his  early  disciples 
a  three  years'  course  in  this  sort  of  preparation,  before  He  sent  them 
forth  as  permanent  preachers  of  the  Gospel.  Paul  not  only  had 
the  benefit  of  tuition  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel,  but  after  his  conversion 
he  was  sent  into  retirement  near  Damascus  for  further  training,  before 
going  forth  as  a  burning  and  shining  light  to  the  Gentile  world.  John 
Wesley,  our  spiritual  progenitor,  went  through  long  years  of  mental 
preparation  before  God  committed  to  him  his  world-wide  mission  to 
men.  To-day  we  have  our  institutions  of  learning  on  both  sides  of 
the  water  for  the  intellectual  equipment  of  our  young  men  called  of 
God  to  the  work  of  the  ministry.  The  reason  for  this  is  self-evident. 
We  stand  face  to  face  with  problems  of  which  our  fathers  in  the 
Gospel  never  dreamed  ;  and  it  is  vastly  more  important  now  than 
at  any  previous  period  in  our  history  to  have  trained  men  for  the 
work  of  the  ministry.  They  must  know  how  to  think,  how  to  investi- 
gate, and  how  to  express  the  results  of  their  inquiries  in  lucid  and 
forceful  speech.  They  must  understand  the  history,  the  literature, 
and  the  contents  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  and  their  minds  must  be 
stored  with  useful  knowledge  from  all  legitimate  sources.  Such  know- 
ledge is  power,  and  the  skill  to  use  it  wisely  is  a  necessary  acquire- 
ment. A  man  thus  trained  is  in  a  position  to  speak  with  authority, 
and  to  command  the  respect  of  those  who  attend  upon  his  ministry. 

3.  In  his  enduement  with  power  by  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
This  is  indispensable  ;  and  no  natural  gift,  however  brilliant,  and  no 
human  learning,  however  profound,  can  take  the  place  of  it.  Like 
thv3  early  disciples,  he  must  tarry  in  some  upper  chamber  in  prayer 
and  supplication  until  there  appear  to  him  cloven  tongues  like  as  of 
fire  to  rest  upon  him,  and  he  is  filled  with  the  presence  and  power  of 
thy  Holy  Ghost.  Under  the  spell  of  this  Divine  anointing  he  is  pre- 
pared to  speak  with  other  tongues,  as  the  Spirit  gives  him  utterance. 
Thus  he  becomes  God's  messenger,  and  with  his  Master  he  can  say, 
"The 'Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me  ;  because  He  hath  anointed  me  to 
preach  the  Gospel  to  the  poor ;  He  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken- 
hearted, to  preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight 
to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to  preach  the 
acceptable  year  of  the  Lord."  Under  the  ministry  of  .such  a  preacher 
signs  and  wonders  will  be  made  manifest,  and  the  Gospel  will  be 
glorified  in  the  conversion  of  the  multitudes. 

4.  In  his  consecration  and  fidelity  as  a  minister  to  the  letter  and  the 
spirit  of  the  Gospel.  With  the  Apostle,  he  must  be  able  to  say,  "  I 
am  crucified  with  Christ,  nevertheless  I  live  ;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ 
liveth  in  me  ;  and  the  life  which  I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  by  the 
faith  of  the  Son  of  God,   who  loved  me  and  gave   Himself  for  me." 

,  Following  this  consecration  is  the  duty  of  faithfulness  to  the  Gospel. 


GENERAT,    REMARKS.  469 

Ik  is  not  his  province  fo  ainend  it,  or  <o  abridge  it,  or  apologise  for 
it  in  the  slightest  particular;  but  to  accept  it  in  its  fulness,  and  to 
preach  it  in  the  demonstration  and  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Paul, 
Luther,  and  Wesley  followed  this  course,  and  their  preaching  pro- 
duced historical  epochs  in  the  spiritual  progress  of  Christendom. 
They  did  not  tamper  with  the  Gospel,  but  they  believed  it,  and 
preached  it  with  such  efficiency  as  to  make  it  "  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth."  The  spiritual  needs  of 
humanity  still  cry  out  for  preachers  of  like  faith  and  utterance,  and 
the  pulpit  is  calling  in  thunder  tones  for  their  presence  and  ministry. 

5.  In  his  unfailing  love  for,  and  abounding  sympathy  with,  men. 
This  was  the  secret  of  Christ's  success  in  the  days  of  His  earthly 
ministry.  His  great  heart  was  ever  touched  with  sympathy  toward 
men.  "When  He  saw  the  multitudes  He  was  moved  with  compassion 
on  them,  because  they  fainted,  and  were  scattered  abroad  as  sheep 
having  no  shepherd."  The  true  preacher  cannot  improve  upon  the 
spirit,  and  life,  and  ministry  of  his  Lord.  Like  Him,  he  must  love 
men,  and  be  willing  to  spend,  and  be  spent,  in  seeking  their  salvation. 
Ho  must  feel  their  sorrows,  bear  their  burdens,  experience  their 
griefs,  enter  into  their  struggles,  and  voice  their  spiritual  thirst  and 
heart  hunger.  This  brings  him  into  kinship  with  men,  and  when  he 
expounds  to  them  the  truths  of  the  Gospel  they  are  ready  to  give 
him  a  responsive  hearing.  They  take  knowledge  of  him  that  he  has 
been  with  Jesus. 

Therefore,  an  unmistakable  call  to  preach  the  Gospel,  a  thorough 
mental  equipment  necessary  to  the  duties  of  this  call  ;  the  enduement 
of  power  by  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  consecration  and  fidelity 
to  the  spirit  and  letter  of  the  Gospel  ;  and  unfailing  sympathy,  with 
an  abounding  love  for  men,  make  up  the  elements  of  pulpit  effective- 
ness, whose  potency  and  influence  are  well-nigh  omnipotent.  Where 
they  exist  in  the  mind  and  the  heart  of  the  preacher,  the  pulpit  be- 
comes a  spiritual  dynamo,  from  which  there  issues  a  power  that  will 
save  and  sanctify  the  souls  of  the  children  of  men,  and  accelerate 
the  spread  of  the  Gospel  from  the  rivers  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth. 

The  Hon.  Thomas  H.  Murray  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church) 
opened  the  general  discussion,  by  saying  : 

From  a  layman's  standpoint  I  venture  to  emphasise  two  qualities 
of  the  effective  preacher.  First,  his  preaching  should  be  up-to-date. 
He  must,  therefore,  be  a  student.  Preaching  now  more  than  ever 
should  be  expository  of  the  Word.  There  is  at  the  same  time  more 
study  of  the  Bible  by  the  people,  and  more  desire  to  know  its  deeper 
truths  than  ever  before.  The  sidelight  thrown  upon  its  pages  has 
attracted  the  world  to  its  examination  as  never  before. 

This  condition  makes  greater  demands  upon  the  pulpit  in  one  direc- 
tion and  lightens  its  labour  in  another.  No  other  help  is  a  substitute 
for  the  pulpit.  Its  work  remains.  That  work  is  especially  to  show 
forth  the  natural  light,  which  is  of  the  Word  itself,  as  distinguished . 


47 O  PULPIT    EFFECTR'ENESS- 

from  the  artificial  light  from  elsewhere.  This  peculiar  worli  is  now 
more  imperative  because  of  the  growing  tendency  to  rely  upon  outside 
helps  to  the  exclusion  of  a  close  study  of  the  text  of  the  Scripture. 
Much  explanatory  and  introductory  matter,  formerly  requisite,  is  now 
unnecessary,  and  more  time  and  room  is  thereby  given  for  study  of  the 
text  itself.  The  preacher  of  to-day,  therefore,  ought  to  get  farther— 
and  c^rry  his  congregation  farther — into  his  text  than  was  possible 
under  former  conditions.  His  facilities  for  better  study,  and  his 
congregation's  capacity  for  better  appreciation,  are  greater  than 
formerly. 

The  importance  of  this  deeper  work  is  found  also  in  the  fact  that 
the  attacks  made  to-day  are  directed,  not  so  much  against  the  peculiar 
doctrines  of  any  Church,  as  against  those  fundamental  truths  of 
Scripture,  upon  which  all  Evangelical  Churches  are  rooted  and  grounded. 
The  preacher,  however,  must  have  a  congregation.  To  have  and  hold 
a  large  congregation  a  different  style  of  discourse  from  that  which 
formerly  succeeded  has  now  become  necessary.  The  railroad  and 
telegraph  and  telephone  and  printing  press  have  taught  people  to 
work  faster  and  think  quicker,  and  speak  more  tersely  than  in  the 
olden  time.  This  is  true  even  in  England,  as  we  have  all  found  out. 
The  result  is  they  soon  grow  impatient  of  those  who  have  not  caught 
this  inspiration. 

The  preacher,  too,  is  expected  to  join  this  to  his  other  inspiration 
if  he  would  be  widely  useful.  He  is  not  given  any  exemption  because 
of  his  calling,  but  must  adapt  his  speech  to  the  necessity  of  changed 
conditions,  and  must  so  speak  that  earnest,  but  busy,  active  men 
will  hear  him.  In  all  other  kinds  of  public  speaking  the  man  who 
succeeds  is  one  whose  vocabulary  is,  so  far  as  practicable,  that  used 
and  understood  by  the  masses.  It  is  not  a  time,  however,  and  never 
will  be,  when  slang  of  any  kind,  or  in  any  degree,  can  rightfully  or 
successfully  be  used  in  the  pulpit.  The  place,  the  subject,  the  cause 
are  all  too  sacred  for  that.  So  also  there  is  no  time  nor  authority 
in  the  pulpit  for  all  that  brood  of  evil,  commonly  designated  as  sensa- 
tional preaching.  The  pulpit  is  no  place  for  any  kind  of  preaching 
but  Gospel  preaching.  No  other  kind  is  authoritative,  and  no  other 
kind  will  evangelise  the  world  and  bring  men  to  Christ. 

Secondly,  the  preacher's  life  should  be  a  sermon.  There  is  only 
one  unanswerable  argument  which  Christianity  furnishes  the  world.  It 
)K  not  the  Bible.  Some  kind  of  answer  has  been  made,  and  will 
continue  to  be  made,  to  its  precepts  which  will  enlist  followers.  It 
is  not  the  analogy  between  Bible  truth  and  other  truth  which  men 
unhesitatingly  believe  and  act  upon.  The  simple  unanswerable  fact, 
before  which  the  world  stands  with  uncovered  head,  and  in  silence, 
is  a  consistent  Christian  life.  It  is  not  truth  in  the  I^ible,  nor  truth 
embodied  in  learned  treatises  on  the  Bible,  but  Bible  truth  embodied 
in  human  life  and  action  that  wins  the  world  to  Christ.  The  whole 
system  of  Divine  revelation  is  a  recognition  of  this  view.  To  us,  as  to 
our  fathers,  there  is  presented  for  our  guidance,  not  truth  in  the 
abstract,  but  truth  as  portrayed  and  represented  in  the  perfect  life 
of  Christ.  All  human  experience  accords  with  this.  Most  of  those 
who  have  lived  and  died  in  the  faith  have  been  brought  to  this  faith, 
not  so  much  by  study  of  the  Word,  as  by  the  illustrations  of  that 
Word  which  they  have  found  in  other  human  lives. 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  47 1 

The  pasinr,  as  the  special  representative  of  this  perfect  life  and  iliis 
faith  am(nig  men,  can  have  no  equipment  or  endowment  which  will 
count  for  so  much  as  his  personality.  That  will  be  constantly  im- 
pressing itself  on  the  Ohurch  and  the  community.  It  will  be  a  sermoii 
read  and  studied  by  the  people  who  will  never  hear  him  from  the 
pulpit.  It  will  enter  into  the  life  of  young  and  old,  and  will  be  to 
many  the  earliest  and  most  lasting  ideal  of  God's  prophet  that  will 
ever  come  to  them.  When  all  his  other  sermons  will  have  been  packed, 
away  for  the  last  time,  yes,  long  after  he  shall  have  been  gathered 
to  the  rest  of  his  fathers,  and,  still  later,  when  there  shall  not  be  found 
a  human  ear  anywhere  that  has  ever  heard  his  voice,  nor  a  human 
eye  that  has  ever  seen  his  form,  even  then  will  this  one  deathless 
sermon  of  his  life  be  alive  and  at  work  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
men,  lifting  them  up  to  the  higher  and  better  things  which  God  has 
prepared  for  His  people. 

The  hold  that  John  Wesley  has  at  this  day  upon  the  Church  and 
the  world  is  not  due  so  much  to  the  fact  of  his  capacity  as  a  writer  and 
preacher,  wonderful  as  that  was,  nor  to  his  power  for  organisation, 
tremendous  as  that  was,  as  to  the  fact  that  these  were  accompanied 
and  crowned  by  a  life  so  pure  and  unsullied  that  it  remains  to  his 
Ohurch  unmarked  by  the  bitter  persecution  and  fierce  misrepresenta- 
tions with  which  he  was  assailed.  With  such  a  progenitor  and  such 
an  opportunity,  may  the  life  of  the  MeChodist  preacher  of  to-day  be 
full  of  the  inspiration  which  these  afford,  and  may  it  be  crowned  with 
the  benefactions  which  belong  to  his  high  calling ! 

Tte  Rev.  A.  B.  Sanford,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
made  the  following  remarks : 

For  the  past  few  years,  until  last  spring,  under  an  order  of  my 
Church,  I  have  been  exempt  from  pastoral  work,  and  have  been  per- 
mitted to  lis^^en  to  preaching.  I  think  I  have  quite  a  definite  know- 
ledge of  pulpit  methods,  not  only  of  Methodism,  but  of  the  other  De- 
nominations in  the  city  of  New  York  and  its  immediate  vicinity. 
Sometimes  I  have  wondered  that  the  people  have  listened  so  kindly, 
and  have  felt  inclined  to  attribute  to  them  no  small  degree  of  grace 
in  the  patience  with  which  they  have  heard  the  message.  Yet  I 
have  the  conviction  that,  so  far  as  that  section  of  the  country  is 
concerned  of  which  I  speak,  the  Gospel  in  the  main  is  preached  with 
power  and  effectiveness. 

Let  me,  outside  the  recognition  of  the  necessity  of  a  Divine  call  and 
of  proper  intellectual  and  spiritual  endowment,  make  a  reference  to 
two  facts  which  seem  to  make  for  pulpit  success.  One  is  that  the 
minister  should  not  stray  far  from  the  message  of  the  Gospel.  We 
have  in  the  New  World — ^I  do  not  know  that  you  are  troubled  with  it 
in  England  or  elsewhere — what  we  have  denominated  "sensationalism." 
But  I  have  the  personal  conviction  that  with  us,  at  least,  sensational- 
ism is  not  on  the  increase.  I  think  of  that  stirring  injunction  which 
was  given  to  the  young  man  in  "The  Bonnie  Briar  Bush" — "Speak 
a  good  word  for  Jesus  Christ."  I  believe  the  people  are  hungry  for 
such  a  message  as  that.  Other  things  being  equal,  the  pastor  who 
does  not  wander  far  from  the  cross  of  his  Lord  will  have  a  listening, 
and  even  an  eager,  audience.  Humanity,  with  its  heart-ache  and  ita 
sin,  still  has  an  attentive  ear  for  the  old  Gospel. 


472  PULPIT    EFFECTIVENESS. 

Annther  fact  whicli  makes  for  success  is  what  I  may  call  liloncl- 
earnestnesK.  I  have  listened  to  the  preaching,  not  only  nf  Methodism, 
but  of  many  other  Denominations  in  the  metropolis  of  the  United 
States  and  its  near  vicinity,  and  I  have  found  that  the  other  Churches 
have  caught  the  Methodist  fervour.  You  know  the  old  story  about 
Father  Taylor,  the  sailor  preacher  of  Boston,  who  one  day,  in  one 
of  his  sermons,  involved  himself  in  a  sentence.  He  lost  the  nominative 
of  the  verb,  he  lost  the  verb,  and  in  his  hopeless  entanglement  ended 
like  this,  "  Brethren,  I  do  not  know  where  I  began,  and  am  certain 
I  do  not  know  where  I  shall  come  out  ;  but  one  thing  I  do  know, 
I  am  bound  for  the  Kingdom."  I  think  that  people  will  sometimes 
forgive  the  preacher  mistakes  in  grammar  if  he  not  only  talks  as 
one  that  is  bound  for  the  Kingdom,  but  shows  them  also  the  way  to 
the  Kingdom  in  downright  earnestness  of  soul.  For  such  zeal  there  is 
no  substitute.  What  a  spectacle  that  was  yesterday  afternoon  in 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral — Canon  Scott  Holland  preaching  with  the  fervour 
of  an  old  Methodist !  We  may  well  learn  a  lesson,  I  think,  from 
the  pulpit  utterances  of  that  canon,  although  he  is  surrounded  with 
a  paraphernalia  and  grandeur  none  of  us  may  hope  to  realise. 

It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  a  most  practical  topic,  and  that  beside  all 
else  we  have  discussed,  if  every  minister  of  Jesus  Christ  can  go  from 
this  (Ecumenical  Conference  determined,  as  not  before,  to  preach  the 
Gospel  of  the  Lord  in  the  endowment  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  this  gathering 
will  not  have  been  in  vain.  May  a  new  baptism  rest  upon  our  souls, 
that  we  may  go  out  with  the  fervour  of  Wesley,  and  with  the  spirit 
of  the  apostles,  to  fulfil  the  Divine  injunction  to  "  preach  the  Gospel 
to  every  creature." 

The  Rev.  Theophilus  Parr,  M.A.  (Primitive  Methodist  Chiirch), 
spoke  as  follows: 

I  would  rather  listen  to  the  brethren  who  have  had  longer  experi- 
ence, and,  indeed,  to  the  senior  laymen  ;  but  there  are  some  things 
in  my  heart,  and  I  should  be  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  caU  if  I 
hesitated  to  speak  them.  After  thirty-three  years'  ministry  in  the 
Primitive  Methodist  Church,  a  ministry  that  has  extended  to  Africa 
and  Australia,  as  well  as  in  our  large  cities  and  country  districts  at 
home,  one  has  had  some  little  opportunity  of  observation. 

First,  there  is  the  essential  preparation  of  heart  that  is  absolutely 
necessary  before  there  can  be  any  effectiveness  in  the  pulpit.  The 
questions  put  to  us  at  our  ordination  should  be  preseirt  to  our  minds 
as  we  ascend  the  jjulpit :  "  When  and  where  were  you  converted  to 
God?"  "Are  you  now  clear  in  your  acceptance  with  God?"  for 
unless  a  man  has  a  clear  vision  of  the  face  of  his  Lord  he  cannot 
impress  the  hearts  of  the  men  he  preaches  to.  Then  there  is  a  danger 
to-day  in  the  shifting  of  the  thought,  as  it  were,  and  in  the  alteration 
of  our  nomenclature  ;  there  is  a  danger  less  men  should  be  a  little 
uncertain  in  their  behef.  A  man  must  beheve  in  his  heart,  or  he 
cannot  effectively  preach. 

Another  point  that  I  have  been  trying  to  learn  is  that  a  preacher 
ehould  ask  himself,  "What  is  my  message  to-day?  I  have  to  preach 
next  Sunday,  and  I  think  that  as  a  faithful  minister  I  am  bound  to 
ask  myself  on  the  Monday  morning,  Lord,  what  dost  Thou  want  me 
to  tell"  the  people  next  Sunday?"  When  the  Lord  has  guided  us  to 
do  our  best  in  the  preparation  of  a  sermon,  we  must  make  our  people 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  473 

feel  that  it  is  not  the  product  merely  of  intellectual  reasoning  that  we 
are  giving  them  ;  it  is  not  something  we  have  picked  up  out  of  a  l)ook  ; 
but  _  it  is  something  we  have  received  from  God.  The  prophet's 
ministry  has  not  ceased — the  man  that  speaks  for  God  may  pray, 

"  Lord,  speak  to  me,   that  I  may  speak 
In  living  echoes  of  Thy  tone." 

The  other  point  I  wish  to  emphasise  is  that  we  should  be  in  down- 
right earnest.  I  have  sometimes  listened  to  brethren  and  felt  that  1 
could  shake  them  up.  I  am  sure  the  laymen  must  often  feel  so  too. 
I  have  said  to  myself  sometimes  when  I  have  heard  a  good  man, 
"  Would  to  God  he  would  let  himself  go  " — not  with  rant,  not  to  forget 
and  lose  himself,  and  lose  self-control,  but  "  in  the  name  of  God,  '  let 
go,'  and  make  people  feel  that  you  are  in  downright  earnest."  If 
eternal  things  are  real  to  us,  we  should  "  let  go  "  ;  but  if  they  are  not 
we  have  no  business  to  preach  at  all.  We  cannot  help  but  be  in 
earnest. 

Another  point  is  that  the  minister  must  keep  in  touch  with  the 
life  and  thought  of  his  day.  I  abhor  sensationalism,  but  a  minister 
must  make  the  people  believe  that  he  knows  what  is  going  on  round 
about  him.  I  strongly  contend  that  we  are  well  able  to  hold  our 
doctrines  in  the  face  of  the  most  recent  scientific  discoveries  and 
researches  that  are  certain.  Tliere  are  things  which  scientific  men  are 
agreed  upon,  but  the  truth  we  preach  is  able  to  hold  its  own  in  the 
courts  'of  the  philosophy  of  the  science  of  the  day. 

The  Rev.  John  A.  B.  Wilson,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
said : 

We  live  in  a  time  when  the  almost  universal  diffusion  of  Christian 
knowledge  has  greatly  simplified  the  work  of  the  pulpit.  Its  teaching 
function,  save  in  a  minor  degree,  bas  been  made  unnecessary.  It  is 
its  specific  mission  to-day  to  stimulate,  to  stir  into  action,  predicated 
upon  the  knowledge  already  possessed  ;  to  produce  vivid  conviction,  and 
arouse  to  action  the  consciences  and  the  conduct  of  those  who  hear  ; 
to  bring  the  soul  to  the  bar  of  its  own  conscience,  and  to  transfix 
it  with  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  immediate  action.  He  fails  in  the 
pulpit  who  fails  to  get  an  immediate  decision  for  his  issue,  if  we 
only  teach  in  the  pulpit  we  do  that  which  can  be  much  better  done  by 
our  literature.  It  is  ours  to  set  on  fire  the  fuel  of  knowledge  accumu- 
lated in  the  understanding. 

1.  Pulpit  effectiveness  demands  a  definite,  adequate  objgct  in  view 
in  every  discourse,  and  not  only  that  the  subject  be  well  in  hand. 
Indeed,  the  subject  needs  to  be  elaborated  with  special  and  single 
reference  to  the  paramount  aims.  A  sharp-pointed  purpose  is  essen- 
tial to  the  highest  pulpit  effectiveness,  and  the  purpose  needs  to  be 
adequate,  one  worthy  of  the  preacher's  high  calling.  He  who  aims 
at  nothing  hits  it  every  time. 

2.  Then,  also,  effectiveness  requires  a  fair  time  for  preaching  the 
Gospel.  It  is  dreadful  to  note  the  time  frittered  away  by  indifferent 
singing,  notices,  and  one  thing  and  another,  which  leaves  but  little 
time  for  the  sermon,  and  brings  the  preacher  to  a  wearied  people,  as 
though  his  Avork  were  of  secondary  importance.  There  may  be  some 
excuse  in  the  Ritualistic  Churchos,  for  their  service  is  somethintr  as  a 


474  PULPIT   EFFECTIVENESS. 

spectacle,   but  in  our  service  the  preacher  should  get  to  tlie  sermon 
within  thirty  minutes  of  the  opening. 

3.  Pulpit  effectiveness  demands  a  clean  record,  which  alone  can  give 
the  minister,  without  embarrassment,  the  right  of  way  across  the 
tracks  of  every  moral  evil.  This  is  the  secret  of  the  courage  of  con- 
viction. 

4.  The  power  to  command  sudden  and  powerful  emotion  is  also  very 
essential.  Himself  on  fire  with  the  import  of  his  messag.e,  the 
preacher  will  command  the  convictions  of  his  hearers.  Men  may  not 
agree  with,  but  they  cannot  be  indifferent  to  such  a  ministry.  A  red- 
hot  conviction  from  an  incandescent  heart  will  compel  attention  and 
arouse  conviction.  Some  Chinese  converts,  writing  to  the  Missionary 
Office  for  a  preacher,  said,  "We  want  a  man  with  a  hot  heart."  The 
want  of  the  Church  and  of  the  world  is  for  men  of  hot  hearts  to-day. 

Bisihop  Wesley  J.  Gaines,  D.D,  (Afrioan  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  said : 

The  pulpit  was  designed  to  be  a  throne  of  power  whence  the  highest 
forces,  human  and  Divine,  were  to  issue  for  the  moral  upl'ft  of  the 
race.  To  be  effective  in  the  fullest  sense,  the  human  elements  must 
be  perfectly  adjusted  to  the  Divine  which  operate  through  them. 

The  human  equipment  involves,  first,  natural  gifts  of  the  highest 
order.  No  man  can  make  a  great  preacher  without  great  native 
endowments.  I  would  not  affirm  that  ordinary  men  are  ineffective  in 
the  pulpit  ;  thousands  of  one-talent  men  have  achieved  great  and  last- 
ing success  in  the  pulpit.  These  men  have  their  place  in  the  ministry, 
just  as  they  have  their  place  in  the  ordinary  vocations  of  life.  But 
their  human  limitations  bar  them  from  the  highest  achievements. 
Paul  and  Chrysostom,  Barnabas  and  Apollos,  Luther  and  Melanchthon, 
Wesley  and  Whitefield,  Robert  Hall  and  Summerfield,  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards and  J.  D.  Campbell,  and  Henry  Ward  Beecher  were  all  men 
of  commanding  native  endowments,  and  could  not  have  been  so  signally 
effective  without  them. 

Secondly,  on  the  human  side,  the  pulpit  becomes  effective  as  the 
man  of  God  has  equipped  himself  for  the  work  through  educational 
processes  which  not  only  involve  the  mastery  of  the  Scriptures,  but 
acquaintance  with  the  culture  and  thought  of  his  age.  That  is  pitiful 
sarcasm  which  is  often  aimed  at  learning  in  the  pulpit,  just  as  if  the 
pulpit  were  not  the  place  for  the  use  and  application  of  all  knowledge. 
Blind  and  foolish  indeed  is  the  preacher  who  transmutes  the  pulpit 
into  a  mere  lecture  platform,  and  makes  it  a  vainglorious  display  of 
learning  to  secure  popular  applause  and  admiration.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  is  a  wise  interpreter  of  the  Word  of  God,  who  lays  tribute 
upon  all  knowledge,  whether  he  finds  it  in  the  book  of  nature  or  in 
the  literature  of  all  the  ages,  to  illustrate  and  enforce  the  great  and 
sublime  truths  of  Revelation.  When  the  great  Head  of  the  Church 
needed  a  man  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  Corinth  and  Athens,  and  Rome 
also,  He  sent  the  best-equipped  man  of  his  age  to  do  the  difficult  work. 
While,  therefore,  the  man  of  humble  gifts  and  attainments  is  not 
to  be  despised  or  his  work  minimised,  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
the  ideally  great  preacher  is  the  man  who  has  enriched  his  mind  from 
the  storehouse  of  all  knowledge.  More  and  more  the  demand  for 
educated  and  cultured  men  is  being  emphasised,  and  never  since  Paul 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  475 

Btood  on  Mars  Hill  and  astonished  the  Athenians,  not  only  with  his 
earnest  eloquence,  but  his  varied  learning,  has  the  world  been  more 
ready  to  listen  to  such  a  man. 

Thirdly,  perhaps  the  pulpit  discourse  depends  as  much  for  its 
effectiveness  upon  the  manner  of  delivery  as  upon  any  one  human 
element  of  power.  The  flash  of  the  eye,  the  musical  and  impassioned 
voice,  the  natural  and  graceful  movement  of  the  head  and  hands  and 
feet,  the  intense  nervous  action  of  the  whole  man  enter  into  the  pulpit 
discourse,  as  into  all  oral  discourse,  and  contribute  largely  to  its 
immediate  and  powerful  effect.  The  preacher  owes  it  to  himself,  and 
to  the  sacred  message  he  is  commissioned  to  deliver,  to  stress  with  all 
commendable  pride  these  human  accessories  which  add  so  much  to  the 
general  effectiveness  of  his  pulpit  deliverances.  Whitefield  understood 
the  force  of  attractive  speech,  and  brought  into  requisition  all  the 
power  of  dramatic  art  to  give  graphic  and  realistic  impression  to  his 
marvellous  sermons.  Why  not?  Oratory  is  never  so  sacred,  and, 
eloquence  is  never  so  divine,  as  when  put  forth  in  proclaiming  the 
Gospel  to  men. 

Fourthly,  effectiveness  in  the  pulpit,  on  the  human  side,  is  height- 
ened by  that  knowledge  of  the  human  heart  which  comes  from  associa- 
tion with  men.  As  a  rule,  the  hermit,  the  man  who  shuts  himself  up 
in  the  cloister,  or  in  the  privacy  of  his  own  reserve,  has  no  message 
for  toiling,  suffering,  dying  men.  Christ  walked  with  men,  talked 
with  men,  toiled  with  men,  suffered  with  men,  died  with  men.  His 
intimacy  with  humanity  revealed  to  Him  the  wants  of  humanity,  and 
shot  His  message  to  men  through  and  through  with  sympathy,  pity, 
and  helpfulness.  So  His  ministers  need  to  know  men,  not  at  a  dis- 
tance, not  in  the  stiffness  of  a  dignity  which  chills  the  timid  and  holds 
for  ever  at  a  distance  the  humble  and  the  lowly,  but  in  the  nearness 
of  a  Christian  charity  "which  vaunteth  not  itself  and  is  not  puffed 
up,"  and  in  the  sweetness  of  a  fellowship  which  claims  brotherhood, 
with  all  men.  If  such  a  course  be  pursued,  the  pulpit  wiU  find  in  the 
pew  interested  and  sympathetic  hearers,  drawn  hither  by  the  personal 
charm  of  the  Christ-life  as  manifested  in  Him.  The  drawing  power 
of  such  a  personality  is  indeed  wonderful,  and  those  who  hear  him 
give  him  the  more  earnest  heed  because  through  personal  contact 
with  him  they  know  that  he  is  indeed  a  man  of  God. 

Thus  far  the  human  elements  which  help  to  make  the  pulpit  effec- 
tive have  been  considered,  but  these  alone  are  insufficient.  It  requires 
a  Divine  force  to  give  its  real  spiritual  power.  First,  the  man  who 
stands  in  the  pulpit  must  himself  have  experienced  the  power  of  the 
Gospel  in  the  regeneration  of  his  own  heart  and  life.  Nothing  so 
nerved  Paul  in  the  perils  of  his  arduous  life,  and  stimulated  him  to  hia 
heroic  tasks,  as  the  memory  of  his  experience  on  the  road  to  Damascus, 
and  his  final  coming  to  the  light  in  the  house  of  Ananias.  Think  of 
a  man  lecturing  on  astronomy  who  has  never  studied  mathematics  or 
looked  through  a  telescope.  Think  of  a  man  passing  as  a  physician 
who  has  never  looked  at  a  book  on  physiology,  and  has  never  been 
by  the  bedside  of  a  patient.  Yet  such  men  as  these  are  not  a  whit 
more  incompetent  in  these  spheres  than  the  unregenerated  man  is  in 
the  pulpit.  The  pulpit,  to  be  effective,  must  have  in  it  a  man  whose 
lips  have  been  touched  with  a  live  coal  from  off  the  altar,  and  whose 
flaming  zeal  for  Christ,  and  unconquerable  love  for  men,  make  his 
message  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation. 


47 6  PULPIT    EFFECTIVENESS. 

Secondly,  this  man  has  faith,  and  nothing  is  more  necessary  in 
the  pulpit  than  faith.  Faith  gives  conviction,  and  conviction  earnest- 
ness, and  earnestness  power  to  reach  men.  A  sublime  faith,  unmixed 
with  doubt,  uneffeminated  by  vague  and  foolish  fears— which  sees 
eternal  things  so  vividly  that  the  present  seems  only  a  flash,  a  moment 
snatched  from  eternity— such  a  faith  is  irresistible,  and  men  will 
surrender  before  it. 

Thirdly,  to  all  these  elements  of  pulpit  power,  human  and  Divine, 
if  the  Holy  Spirit  be  added,  then  its  effectiveness  is  made  complete. 
Then  we  have  Peter  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  Wesley  at  Moortields, 
Whitefield  at  Philadelphia,  Spurgeon  in  London,  Chalmers  in  Edin- 
burgh, and  Moody  in  England  and  America.  With  such  a  pulpit  the 
Church  need  not  fear  the  daring  scepticism  which  is  assaulting  her 
foundations,  and  is  eager  to  tear  down  her  hoary  and  sacred  walls. 
The  pulpit  will  never  cease  to  be  the  seat  of  a  nation's  strength,  the 
guarantee  of  its  spiritual  life,  and  the  pledge  of  its  future  greatness 
and  glory. 

Mr.  Joseph  Gibson  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada)  spoke  as 
follows  : 

Someone  has  said  that  the  man  who  is  in  the  midst  of  the  conflict, 
whose  vision  might  be  obscured  by  the  smoke  of  battle,  is  possibly 
not  so  well  able  to  describe  the  scene,  not  from  want  of  ability,  but 
from  the  position  that  he  occupies,  as  the  man  who  stands  off  at  some 
little  distance.  I  shall  venture  to  hope  that  there  is  something  in 
that  illustration  which  will  enable  a  layman  sitting  in  the  pew,  and 
coming  into  contact  not  only  with  the  Gospel  that  he  hears  preached, 
but  on  Monday,  Tuesday,  and  Wednesday  with  the  people  who  hear 
the  Gospel,  which  will  enable  him  to  give  some  practical  idea  of  what 
is  best  adapted  to  reach  the  people. 

First,  there  is  tremendous  waste  of  energy  on  the  part  of  our  minis- 
ters, in  consequence  of  the  pulpit  twang  which  they  bring  with 
them  into  the  pulpit.  Do  you  think  for  a  moment,  if  you  reflect,  that 
is  the  effective  style  of  public  address?  I  do  not.  I  am  going  to 
illustrate  it  by  what  may  seem  in  the  first  place  a  little  pleasantry, 
but  do  not  smile  at  the  pleasantry,  and  lose  sight  of  the  thought  that 
lies  at  the  foundation  of  that  bit  of  pleasantry.  What  do  you  suppose 
is  the  tone  that  a  young  man  uses  when  he  proposes  to  a  young  woman  ? 
He  need  not  shout  at  the  top  of  his  voice.  He  need  not  get  up  in  a 
balloon  because  the  young  woman  is  down  here.  The  tones  that  lead 
men  are  not  the  tones  that  men  shout  out.  They  may  be  born  of  a 
whisper,  but  if  that  whisper  is  touched  with  the  love  of  God  it  will 
reach  a  human  heart,  possibly  as  nothing  else  will.  May  I  venture, 
before  I  leave  mv  little  domestic  simile,  to  take  another  thought  from 
it.  No  man  should  propose  to  a  woman  if  he  does  not  love  her,  and 
not  the  acres  that  she  owns  ;  and  no  man  should  preach  the  Gospel 
unless  he  feels  within  him  the  burning  desire  of  being  an  instrument 
in  the  hand  of  God  to  save  souls.  Will  you  pardon  a  personal  refer- 
ence. In  a  life  of  some  activity  for  thirty  years  I  have  adopted  this 
style  of  addness  in  the  pulpit,  sometimes  preaching  for  a  man  who 
telegraphs  me  to  come  and  give  him  a  lift,  or  addressing  my  country- 
men upon  some  subject,  and  I  can  say  that  I  never  saw  a  man  asleep 
in  any  congregation  that  I  addressed  in  my  life. 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  477 

My  set-niid  thiMiglit  is,  do  not  look  vaguely  over  .1  rongregalioii.  If 
yuii  do  you  will  not  make  your  thoughts  strike.  That,  at  least,  is  lay 
experience.  Already  I  have  picked  out  three  or  four  faces  here.  I 
am  not  talking  vaguely  to  all  of  you.  I  shall  lead  you  more  effectively 
by  this  style.  I  have  already  caught  an  eye,  and  in  that  eye  I  fancy 
that  I  see  the  spark  of  genius.  Many  a  time  I  have  found  that  I  have 
obtained  a  thought  from  some  upturned  face  all  aglow,  and,  as  the 
Saviour  said,  virtue  has  gone  out  of  me. 

I  have  another  idea.  I  do  not  discount  education.  In  my  own 
humble,  unlettered  life — I  was  born  in  a  tavern  and  was  cursed  with 
the  liquor  traffic,  and  I  hate  it,  and  will  keep  on  hating  it  until  I 
have  done  my  share  towards  banishing  it  from  my  beloved  country — 
I  have  felt  the  loss  of  education,  but  I  have  lived  long  enough  to  know 
that  there  is  an  education  which  you  do  not  get  in  the  schools.  Live 
among  your  people  as  much  as  you  can.  I  do  not  mean  visit  your 
people  to  indulge  in  the  mere  gossip  of  the  place  ;  but  live  among 
your  people  in  order  that  you  may  discover  the  life  of  your  people. 
Suppose  you  go  into  a  blacksmith's  shop  and  look  round.  If  there 
are  sermons  in  stones,  surely  there  are  sermons  in  that  place.  The 
furnace,  the  hammer,  and  so  on,  may  suggest  something.  Then  there 
is  the  iron.  It  is  necessary  to  have  it  hot  in  order  to  get  something 
good  out  of  it.  It  is  no  use  pounding  away  on  cold  iron.  Live  in 
the  life  of  your  people.  The  Saviour  did  it.  When  He  was  speaking 
to  fishermen  He  talked  about  fish.  Do  you  think  that  you  can  im- 
prove on  that  plan?     I  do  not. 

I  shall  never  forget  an  incident  connected  with  the  great  John  Bright. 
It  was  the  warmth  of  his  great  big  heart  th*at  thrilled  this  mighty 
nation.  John  Bright  was  on  his  way  to  the  House  of  Commons  for 
a  debate  on  the  Reform  Bill.  He  saw  a  procession  of  carpenters  and 
joiners  who  wei-e  making  their  way  to  the  House  of  Commons  to 
present  a  petition  in  favour  of  the  Bill,  When  John  Bright  got  up  in 
the  House,  he  said  he  h^ad  seen  a  scene  that  day  which  was  exceedingly 
suggestive.  Then  he  drew  attention  to  this  procession,  and  said  what 
impressed  him  most  were  the  words  emblazoned  upon  one  of  the 
banners,  "  Deal  with  us  on  the  square.  We  have  been  chiselled  long 
enough."  I  do  not  fear  the  Higher  Criticism.  I  can  tell  you,  moving 
as  I  do  in  the  humble  walks  of  life,  that  our  people  do  not  fear  it. 
We  have  faith  in  the  inner  consciousness  that  there  is  a  God.  We 
believe  that  the  sainted  lives  of  those  who  have  died  tell  us  beyond 
all  doubt  that  religion  is  a  reality.  I  do  not  think  so  much  of  those 
critics.  They  have  a  wonderful  idea  of  themselves.  They  remind  me 
of  a  coloured  man  I  heard  of  once  ;  he  was  no  acquaintance  of  any  of 
the  coloured  brethren  in  this  Conference.  This  fellow  thought  that 
he  was  the  cleverest  man  on  earth  ;  and  as  a  sample  of  his  cleverness 
he  undertook — and  he  was  nearly  blind — to  go,  by  the  aid  of  a  dark 
lantern,  on  a  dark  night,  down  into  a  dark  cellar  to  discover  a  black 
cat  that  was  not  there. 

The  Rev.  Jesse  B.  Youno,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Cburoh), 
continuing  the  discussion,  said  : 

I  have  been  much  interested  in  the  emphasis  that  has  been  laid 
on  the  necessity  for  a  modern  preacher  to  be  acquainted  with  the 
English  Bible.     The  man  who  knows  that  Book  possesses  one  of  the 


478  PULPIT   £FFECTIVENESS. 

greatest  elements  of  pulpit  power.  If  he  knows  the  structure  of  the 
Book,  if  he  is  acquainted  with  the  words  of  the  Book,  if  he  knows  the 
great  mission  of  the  Book,  if  the  great  vital  ideas  of  the  Book  are 
separated  in  his  thought  and  in  his  experience  from  the  other  parts  of 
the  Book,  so  that  he  knows  where  to  put  the  emphasis,  where  to  put 
the  stress,  in  preaching,  and  in  practical  study  of  the  Word^  he  has 
already  secured  one  of  the  great  elements  of  power. 

Then,  if  he  possesses,  in  addition  to  that,  the  remarkable  quality 
which  I>r.  Austin  Phelps  calls  the  gift  of  picturesque  exposition,  he 
has  added  another  quahty  of  pulpit  power.  The  man  who  can  see 
the  great  events  of  Scripture,  the  incidents  in  the  lives  of  the  patri- 
archs, and  the  incidents  in  the  life  of  the  Lord ;  who  has  cultivated 
his  historical  imagination,  who  has  studied  the  pictures  of  Bible 
geography,  topography,  history,  and  travels,  until  he  can  actually  see 
the  events  transpire  before  him,  and  then  can  picture  them  to  the 
people,  has  another  element  of  power  in  his  ministry.  Those  who  have 
heard  Spurgeon,  John  McNeill,  and  Dwight  L.  Moody  know  that 
element  was  a  distinctive  and  extraordinary  element  of  power  in  their 
ministries  to  the  people. 

Then,  the  man  who,  in  addition  to  this  quality,  jxjssesses  the  mes- 
sage element  in  his  sermons,  is  sure  to  reach  the  hearts  of  the  people. 
I  believe  that  element  is  more  largely  lacking  in  modern  preaching 
than  any  other  element  that  is  not  to  be  found  there.  The  man  who 
goes  into  the  pulpit  feeling  that  he  has  a  ministry  for  the  souls  of 
men  before  him,  who  singles  out  in  his  thought  here  and  there  in  his 
congregation  the  woman  with  the  broken  heart,  the  orphan  child 
growing  up  in  need,  the  business  man  puzzled  with  perplexities, 
anxieties,  and  financial  burdens,  whose  heart  undertakes  to  carry 
their  burdens  to  God,  and  who  feels  that  he  is  commissioned  to  bring 
them  some  consolation,  comfort,  help,  consideration,  or  inspiration, 
and  who  feels  before  he  undertakes  this  work  on  Sunday  morning 
or  Sunday  evening  that  he  has  a  message  for  somebody,  that  man  will 
not  throw  away  his  opportunity.  That  man  will  not  waste  (his  voice 
nor  his  sermon  upon  an  inert  congregation. 

The  Rev.  R.  H.  Gilbert,  D.D.  (Methodist  Epi^jopal  Church), 
spoke  as  follows: 

This  discussion  is  an  admirable  illustration  of  the  fact  that  many 
men  have  many  minds,  and  few  themes  are  more  suggestive  of 
di-versity  of  discussion  than  this.  Three  things  I  may  venture  to 
dwell  upon  within  the  brief  limit  allotted. 

First,  preaching,  to  be  effective,  must  be  plain.  You,  will  remember 
the  point  in  the  story  that  was  told  not  long  ago.  A  learned  divine 
lectured  for  a  college  friend  of  his,  and  at  the  close  of  the  lecture 
ventured  to  ask  his  friend  for  a  comment  on  it.  "  It  was  a  good  lec- 
ture," said  the  friend,  "  but  too  full  of  technical  terms.  A  great  many 
of  the  people  did  not  know  what  you  meant."  "Nonsense,"  said  the 
doctor ;  '"  you  mistake  the  situation  wholly.  I  did  not  use  a  word 
in  the  whole  discussion  which  even  an  ordinary  person  could  not 
comprehend."  "I  must  differ  with  you,"  said  his  friend,  "Take,  for 
instance,  the  word  'felicity.'  Over  and  over  again  you  used  it,  and 
yet  there  was  one-tenth  of  those  people  who  would  have  understood  the 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  479 

word  'happiness'  infinitely  better."  "Nonsense,"  said  the  doctor; 
"  prove  it  to  me."  Seeing  an  elder  near  the  door,  the  pastor  said  to 
him,  "How  did  you  like  the  address?"  "Very  well;  I  understood  it 
all  thoroughly."  "Well,  you  noticed  he  used  the  word  'felicity'  very 
frequently.  What  does  it  mean  ? "  "  Felicity  !  Why,  to  be  sure,  I 
know  what  that  is."  "Well,  let  us  hear  what  is  your  opinion  of  it. 
What  is  felicity?"  "Why,  to  be  sure.  I've  got  it.  It  is  something 
about  the  inside  of  a  pig."  What  he  meant  I  do  not  know.  That 
divine  would  dombtless  have  said,  "  Perspicacity  is  a  feature  of 
effective  pulpit  preaching,"  instead  of  plainness.  Let  us  remember 
that  Paul  embodied  the  whole  philosophy  of  homiletics  in  one  single 
sentence,  when  he  spoke  about  great  plainness  in  preaching. 

Secondly,  preaching  must  be  pointed.  In  New  York  one  day  a 
sailor  said  to  a  messmate  of  his,  "  Let  us  go  to  church."  "  I  don't 
feel  like  going,"  said  the  other  one.  "Then  I  will  go  by  myself," 
said  he.  He  went  to  church,  and  when  he  returned  his  messmate  said, 
"Well,  how  did  you  like  the  sermon?"  "Oh,  it  was  goodish-like," 
he  replied  ;  "but  there  was  no  harpoon  in  it."  If  preaching  is  to  be 
effective,  there  must  be  some  point  of  contact  between  the  sermon  and 
the  people  addressed.  It  must  be  definite  and  specific.  In  a  preach- 
ing experience  of  now  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  I  have  learnt 
that  if  preacliing  is  to  avail  ought  it  must  embody  a  shot  aimed  directly 
at  the  target  that  the  congregation  affords. 

Thirdly,  it  must  be  pertinent.  The  people  who  are  hit  will  likely 
pronounce  it  impertinent.  Let  them.  .John  the  Baptist  dared  to  be 
pertinent  and  it  cost  hiin  his  head,  but  cutting  John's  head  off  did 
not  decapitate  righteousness.  It  meant  a  good  deal  for  Nathan  to  be 
pertinent  in  the  declaration  to  David  that  he  was  the  man  at  whom 
the  adroitly-worded  parable  was  directed  ;  and  David  thanked  him 
afterwards,  and  in  penitence  made  possible  a  glorious  illustration  of 
the  redeeming  grace  of  God.  Plainness  and  pertinence  cost  Jesus 
Christ  His  life,  but  Christianity  was  not  crucified,  and  it  still  lives. 

I  believe  that  if  we  can  get  these  three  P's,  a  little  bit  of  a  pod, 
plainness  and  point  and  pertinence,  we  shall  find  that  the  pulpit  will 
realise  God's  objective  in  the  institution  of  it. 

Bishop  M.  B.  Salter,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
waa  the  next  speaker.     He  said  : 

I  was  thinking  a  good  deal  of  this  subject  this  morning.  First,  I 
have  thought  very  carefully  that  what  we  need  most  is  to  come  back 
to  the  old  landmark.  We  must  have  Christ  in  the  heart,  as  well  as 
education  in  the  head.  I  believe  that  Mr.  Wesley,  when  he  preached 
years  ago  from  the  pulpit  in  this  chapel,  had  an  educated  head,  a 
converted  heart,  and  a  pious  life.  What  the  Christian  minister  wants 
to-day  is  more  of  Christ  mixed  with  an  intelligent  head  and  a  pious  life. 
I  do  not  believe  in  apostolic  succession.  I  believe  in  Wesleyan  suc- 
cession. Mr.  Wesley  consecrated  Mr.  Asbury.  He  laid  his  hand  on 
the  Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Among  them  was 
Richard  Allen,  who  followed  Mr.  Asbury  and  caught  his  inspiration. 
He  may  not  have  had  all  the  education  required  then  ;  but  he  had  a 
converted  heart  and  a  pious  life.     From  him  our  Church  started. 

To-day,  as  negro  Methodists,  we  are  educating  the  head,  and  seeing 
that  the  heart  is  converted,  and  that  the  man's  life  is  pious,  before 
he  preaches  the  Gospel  of  the  Lord  .Jesus  Christ  among  us.    We  have 


480  PULPIT    EFFECTIVENESS. 

to-day  our  Wilberfurce  College,  which  is  preparing  men  to  preach  tho 
Gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  have  in  the  grand  and'  great 
"  lone  State  "  of  Texas  our  Paul  Quin  College,  which  is  polishing  and 
preparing  the  young  negro  to  preach  the  Gospel  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and,  at  the  same  time,  seeing  that  his  heart  is  converted  and 
that  his  life  is  a  pious  one.  We  have  in  the  greatest  State  in  the  world 
— there  is  no  State  to  surpass  it,  so  far  as  I  know — the  State  of  South 
Carolina,  our  Allen  University.  It  is  great,  because  it  gave  the 
Church  an  Andrews.  It  gave  to  the  Methodist  Church  a  Capers,  who 
first  sowed  the  seed  of  righteousness  among  the  negroes  of  that  State, 
and  lit  a  torch  o£  righteousness  in  that  State,  and  around  the  fire  the 
negro  to-day  is  warming  hiTiself  over  the  blaze  of  Methodism  an^d 
Christian  piety.  We  have  in  Georgia,  the  Empire  State  of  the  world, 
our  Morris  and  Brown  Colleges,  and  from  those  colleges  we  are  send- 
ing negro  men,  educated,  with  converted  hearts  and  of  pious  lives.  I 
am  glad,  as  a  member  of  that  race,  to  inform  you  that  we  are  preaching 
the  whole  Jesus,  a  living  Christ,  and  a  pure  Gospel. 

I  think,  again,  that  what  we  want,  as  Christian  ministers,  is  more 
piety.  We  want  our  pulpits  clean,  pure,  and  good.  We  want  our 
pulpits  filled  with  men  whose  lips  are  pure,  and  whose  lives  are 
lives  of  Christian  piety.  We  want  them,  when  they  go  into  the  pulpit, 
to  lift  up  the  cross  of  Christ  and  to  be  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
we  want  to  do,  like  John  Wesley  used  to  do — namely,  spend  hours 
preparing  to  unfold  the  sacred  mysteries  of  the  Lord  to  the  dying 
world.  My  prayer  is  that  we  may  all  go  from  this  OEcumenical  Con- 
ference full  of  God,  full  of  Christ,  and  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  I 
pray  that  the  Wesleyan  spirit  may  fall  on  us  all  this  morning,  and, 
as  we  look  back  with  faith  and  through  the  eye  of  imagination  and 
see  Wesley  there,  with  his  open  arms  pronouncing  the  Apostolic 
benediction,  that  the  Holy  Ghost  may  fall  on  all  of  us,  and  that  we 
may  go  to  our  homes  with  the  torch  burning  brightly  and  living  and' 
preaching  the  whole  Christ. 

Mr.  Geo.  Lidgett,  B.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  spoke  as 
follows  : 

I  have  been  so  depressed  with  the  sad  event  in  America,  that  I  did 
not  intend  to  speak  this  morning  ;  but  there  is  one  point  that  has 
been  on  my  mind  for  a  long  time,  which  I  think  it  is  perhaps  worth 
while  to  state,  and  it  is  this.  During  the  last  forty  years  we  have 
had  continual  assaults  made  on  the  punishment  of  sin.  Some  men 
think  that  they  have  got  rid  of  hell  altogether.  A  large  portion  of 
society  around  us  have  dismissed  the  idea,  and  are  living  in  entire 
disregard  of  it.  It  has  had  its  effect  on  the  pulpit.  We  know  that  the 
subject  is  distasteful  to  the  hearers,  and  it  has  induced  a  good  many 
greatly  to  limit  their  testimony.  St.  Paul  says  :  ' "  Christ  in  you, 
the  hope  of  glory  ;  whom  we  preach,  warning  every  man,  and  teaching 
every  man."  The  warning  voice  has  been  dismissed  to  a  large  extent. 
That  is  my  observation. 

What  is  the  effect?  We  have  to  lament  that  sinners  are  not  saved 
in  those  numbers  in  which  they  used  to  be,  and  that  many  a  service 
passes  away  without  any  sign  of  anything  being  accomplished.  There 
is  something  beyond  this.  It  is  having  its  effect  upon  our  own  people. 
Over  many  Methodist  homes  God's  flag  does  not  fly.     That  is  a  strong 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  48 1 

exprcssiiiii.  Wliat  I  mean  is  this,  if  you  are  to  induce  your  peopU'  (o 
exert  influence  on  society  around  them  aa  boldly  as  they  can,  you  must 
jiroduco  intonse  cnnviction  in  their  minds,  and  unless  there  is  such 
cunvicfiun,  you  will  not  get  that  witness  for  God  which  you  want 
from  all  your  people.  I  say,  therefore,  that  our  duty  is  to  maintain 
the  proportion  of  the  faith  by  warning  every  man  as  well  as  teaching. 

Mr.  N.  W.  RowELL  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada)  said : 

One  point  has  brought  me  to  the  platform  this  morning,  one  that 
has  not  been  touched  upon  in  this  discussion,  and  which,  I  am  afraid, 
is  not  too  much  emphasised  in  many  of  our  churches,  that  is  the  share 
which  the  pew  has  in  the  effectiveness  of  the  pulpit  preaching. 

We,  as  laymen,  are  very  apt  to  criticise  the  minister  sometimes,  if 
the  services  are  not  so  effective  as  we  think  they  should  be,  and  yet 
we  fail  t/O  appreciate  the  fact  that  if  the  minister  comes  into  the 
pulpit,  and  sees  before  him  an  unsympathetic,  or  a  thoughtless 
audience,  it  very  seriously  dampens  his  ardour  and  enthusiasm,  and 
perhaps  the  spirit  of  the  sermon  which  he  preaches.  If  we  call  upon 
our  preachers  to  prepare  that  they  may  preach  to  us  effectively  on 
the  Sabbath,  let  us  as  laymen  see  that  we  in  some  sense  prepare  ourselves 
for  the  service  on  the  Sabbath.  There  will  be  many  in  the  congrega- 
tion who  will  not  have  made  that  preparation.  It  behoves  the  (Jnris- 
tian  members  of  the  congregation,  by  prayer  for  the  pastor,  and  by 
the  sympathetic  attention  which  they  give  him  when  he  enters  the 
pulpit,  and  by  the  spirit  which  pervades  the  whole  Church,  to  so  help 
him  in  his  service  thai  he  may,  indeed,  preach  effectively. 

One  other  point.  It  has  been  touched  upon  before,  but  let  me 
emphasise  it.  What  we  need  now — I  speak  from  the  young  man's 
standpoint,  the  young  man  I  meet  with  in  the  street,  and  in  my  pro- 
fession— is  that  preachers  should  be  more  of  men,  and  less  of  preachers  ; 
men  before  they  are  preachers,  men  with  broad  human  sympathies. 
Most  people,  young  or  old — I  am  speaking  for  the  men  more  par- 
ticularly— come  to  the  church  on  the  Sabbath  desiring  to  be  helped. 
They  want  intellectual  help.  They  want  some  thought  in  the  service 
that  will  enable  them  to  think  of  the  truer,  better,  and  holier  things. 
They  want  something  in  the  service  which  will  help  them  to  do  better 
in  their  daUy  life,  to  fight  temptation  successfully,  and  really  to  be 
better  men,  something  that  will  send  them  out  into  life  with  a  better 
taste  for  the  good  things  of  life,  for  we  meet  with  enough  in  our  daily 
lives  io  contaminate  us  with  the  bad  things  of  life. 

If  the  man  who  goes  into  the  pulpit,  although  perhaps  not  "  in  all 
points  tempted  like  as  we  are,"  and  yet  a  man  who  has  been  tempted 
in  some  points  like  as  we  are,  and  whose  heart  goes  out  in  warm, 
human  sympathy,  endeavours  to  speak  a  word  of  helpfulness  to  the 
people  who  want  help,  I  believe  that  his  service  will  be  very  effective, 
particularly  if  he  lives  that  out  in  his  daily  life.  What  was  one  of 
the  great  secrets  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher's  success?  What  was  one 
of  the  great  secrets  of  Mr.  Spurgeon's  success?  I  am  assuming  they 
possessed  those  qualities  of  intellect  and  heart  which  are  the  very  basis 
of  successful  preacliing.  Was  it  not  the  intense  human  sympathy 
which  they  felt  for  every  human  being?  No  man  ever  went  to  hear 
either  of  those  men  preach  but  felt  that  he  was  in  the  presence  of  a 
lover  of  his  kind,  and  the  preacher,  being  a  lover  of  his  kind,  touched 
their  hearts,  and  helped  them. 

32 


452  PULPIT    EFFECTIVENESS. 

Mr.  William  McNeill,  J. P.  (Primitivo  Mfthodist  Church),  also 
spoke.     Ho  said  : 

I  have  been  as  guod  a  listener  as  any  who  have  been  in  this  Con- 
ference. Next  to  being  a  good  preacher,  a  good  preacher  should  always 
have  good  listeners.     One  or  two  things  only  I  have  to  say. 

In  the  tirst  place,  I  am  a  minister's  friend.  I  have  belonged  to  that 
Church  in  my  latter  days  which  is  called  the  Primitive  Methodist 
Church — the  Church  which  was  called  to  minister  to  the  poor,  the 
common  people,  and  we  like  the  common  people  to  hear  us  gladly.  I 
think  every  minister  who  is  called  to  preach  the  Gospel  should  never 
be  in  a  position  of  pecuniary  difficulty.  Every  minister  should  have 
a  stipend  that  will  keep  him  above  the  world  in  that  way.  I  heard 
a  story  a  few  days  ago,  when  I  was  in  Scotland,  of  a  minister  in  the 
Highlands.  Many  funny  stories  have  been  told  about  Highland  and 
Scottish  ministers.  This  minister  had  been  in  his  parish  for  more 
than  twenty  years,  and  the  parish,  like  a  good  many  other  rural  dis- 
tricts in  this  country  and  that,  was  declining  in  population.  He  ulti- 
mately received  a  call  from  the  Government  of  his  country  to  go  to 
Inverness  Prison  to  be  the  chaplain  there.  He  called  his  people 
together  and  told  them  this,  and  he  said,  "  On  the  next  Sunday  morn- 
ing I  shall  deliver  my  parting  message.  I  have  been  with  you  now  for 
twenty  years.  My  topic  to-day  shall  be  Love.  To  show  that  you 
do  not  love  one  another  very  well,  there  has  not  been  a  marriage 
in  this  parish  for  five  years.  To  show  that  God  does  not  think  very 
much  about  you,  there  has  not  been  a  funeral  for  ten  years.  To  show 
that  you  do  not  love  your  minister  very  much,  you  have  not  raised 
my  stipend  for  twenty  years.  I  am  now  called  to  be  chaplain  of 
Inverness  Prison,  and  I  shall  go  there  in  a  few  days,  and  our  topic 
to-night  will  be,  'I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you.'"  That  is  not 
the  kind  of  thing  that  will  succeed  either  in  the  pulpit  or  in  the  pew. 

I  have  been  listening  to  preachers  from  the  time  of  Dr.  Guthrie,  the 
great  Edinburgh  preacher,  whom  I  heard  when  I  was  a  boy.  It  was 
my  pleasure  yesterday  to  listen  to  the  Rev.  R.  J.  Campbell,  of 
Brighton.  I  am  enamoured  of  great  preachers,  but,  after  all,  the  man 
who  reaches  the  heart,  the  man  who  touches  the  hearts  of  the  people 
who  come  under  his  spell  on  the  Sabbath  morning,  coming  from 
the  toils  of  life,  the  anxieties  of  life,  and  the  bitterness  of  life — the 
preacher  who  loves  his  people  will  get  love  in  return.  He  must  come 
with  that  love  in  his  heart. 

Then  the  preacher  must  have  thoughtfulness,  and,  to  succeed,  he 
should  be  natural.  He  should  not  ajie  somebody  else.  Sometimes  I 
think  that  preachers  are  all  cast  in  the  one  mould.  Burns  to  his 
friend  said, 

■'  Aye,  the  preaching  can't  forbear, 
And  e'en  the  rigid  feature."       t 

Therefore,  let  preachers  come  into  the  pulpits  as  men,  natural  men 
talking  to  men,  and  not  merely  coming  with  a  kind  of  ring  that  we 
often  hear,  because  it  belongs  to  some  Churches  to  have  a  queer, 
pious  kind  of  ring  in  the  voice.  The  man  to  reach  the  heart  of  another 
must  be  natural  and  unaffected,  and  if  he  comes  in  that  way  and  talks 
to  people,  one  man  talking  to  another  man,  knowing  their  weaknesses 
or  difficulties,  that  preacher  will  succeed. 

I  am  liere  as  a  layman  belonging  to  that  Church  where  it  requires 


GENERAT.    REMARKS.  483 

Iwn  layiuoii  [n  kfcp  ime  niinister  in  mdor,  (ir  wliore  one  niiniHter  is 
quite  sufHcient  to  manage  two  laymen.  I  speak  for  (he  laymen.  I 
am  quite  sure  tlie  minister  will  succeed  best  who  makes  friends  of  the 
laymen,  and  who  gets  the  laymen's  help.  Get  all  the  laymen  to  help  in 
the  work.  Tlie  world  is  wide,  the  harvest  is  great,  and  the  labourers 
are  few.  Therefore  the  minister  who  is  successful  in  getting  others 
to  help  him  will  be  the  man  who  will  do  the  most  good. 

The  Rev.   John   Bond  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)   spoke   as 
follows : 

Let  me  bring  to  the  Conference  on  this  question  a  testimony  from 
one  of  the  great  leaders  of  thought  among  labouring  men  in  this 
country.  Mr.  Henry  Bi'oadhurst  said  to  me  on  one  occasion,  "  What 
We  want  as  preachers  are  men  who  will  come  to  us  as  men,  and  talk 
to  us  as  men.  Most  men  that  I  hear  are  parsons  and  priests.  They 
come  with  priestly  manners  and  with  a  parson's  tones.  If  they  would 
come  to  us  as  men,  and  talk  to  us  as  fellow-men,  the  working  men  of 
England,  at  any  rate,  would  listen  to  them."  Another  man 
that  •  I  have  in  mind,  speaking  of  the  qualifications  of  a  great 
preacher,  said,  "  He  is  a  worldly  man,"  by  which  it  was  not 
meant  that  he  was  a  man  given  to  the  spirit  of  the  world,  but 
that  he  knew  what  the  world  was.  He  moved,  among  men  ;  he 
listened  to  their  common  talk  ;  he  was  familiar  with  their  thought. 
He  adapted  himself  to  them,  not  in  slang,  but  nevertheless  getting 
alongside  of  them,  and  realising  what  it  was  that  they  wanted  ;  he 
was  a  worldly  man.  80  far  as  I  have  observed,  College  men  preaching 
in  College  chapels,  using  phraseology  of  a  theological  type,  have  not 
been  attractive  preachers  with  the  common  people.  On  the  otlier 
haij-d,  I  think  that  a  man  of  the  class  I  have  named,  speaking,  as  I 
have  suggested,  as  a  man  to  his  fellow-men,  dealing  honestly  with  men's 
difficulties,  will  obtain  a  congregation  in  any  part  of  the  country  with 
which  I  am  acquainted. 

Mr.  Percy  W.  Bunting,   M.A.    (Wesleyan    Methodist    Church), 

spoke  as  follows  : 

I  think  that  I  can  agree  with  everything  that  has  been  said  this 
morning,  because  I  think  that  the  province  of  preaching  is  as  wide 
and  varied  as  that  of  the  Gospel  ifeelf.  It  is  no  use  saying  that  a 
sermon  ought  to  be  this  or  ought  to  he  that.  It  depends  upon  the 
congregation,  the  circumstances,  and  the  time.  It  must  be  as  varied 
in  style  and  quality,  and  the  preacher  himself  must  be  of  as  varied 
a  character  as  it  is  possible  for  us  to  obtain,  because  we  have  to  deal 
with  the  Gospel,  and  not  merely  with  the  attempt  to  convert  from  sin 
a  vast  number  of  comparatively  ignorant  and  indifferent  persons  ;  but 
we  have  to  nourish  the  Church  which  we  have  gathered  together,  and 
to  instruct  in  the  Gospel  the  great  number  of  persons  who  are  fairly 
prepared  to  become  members  of  the  Church  and  are  under  process  of 
education. 

Our  ideal  conception,  which  is  so  familiar  to  us  as  Methodists,  and 
so  near  our  hearts,  of  getting  together  a  great  crowd  of  comparatively 
uneducated  and  uninstructed  people,  and,  by  a  very  warm  address, 
addressed  to  their  hearts,  getting  them  there  and  then  to  say  that 
they  will  turn  and  accept  Christ,  is  a  very  great  part,  no  doubt,  of  the 


484  PULPIT   EFFECTIVENESS. 

preaching  of  the  Gospel,  but  I  do  not  think  that  it  is  the  greatest 
part.  If  you  will  take  any  Christian  congregation  which  is  working 
actively  in  the  Christian  .service,  I  believe  that  you  will  find  that  the 
majority  of  your  most  reliable  people,  without  whom  you  cannot  carry 
on  the  Lord's  work,  and  who  are  absolutely  essential  for  the  effective- 
ness of  that  congregation,  consists  of  persons  who  have  been  brought 
up  from  youth  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord,  who  inherit 
tlie  Christian  tradition,  and  who  are  being  trained  up  to  take  the 
places  of  their  fathers  and  mothers  in  the  Church.  The  nucleus  of 
every  Church  consists  of  the  persons  who  are  not  converted  from 
a  life  of  open  sin,  but  who  are  gradually  brought  to  feel  the  weight 
of  the  Gcapel  appeal,  and  yield  to  it  at  the  time  when  the  maturity 
of  their  judgment  and  conscience  makes  it  right. 

I  want  to  plead  for  the  young  people  of  our  congregations  who  are 
being  educated.  They  are  ia,  very  large  and  important  class.  You 
send  large  numbers  of  youths  and  young  girls  out  as  they  grow  up, 
at  twelve,  fourteen,  and  sixteen  years  of  age.  They  are  being  sent 
to  schools  day  by  day,  in  which  they  are  taught  in  a  style  which  is 
improving  rapidly  ever  year.  The  methods  of  education,  and  the 
familiarity  with  the  leading  thoughts  and  notions  of  the  day,  are 
pressing  upon  them  with  very  great  force.  One  of  the  greatest  points 
necessary  in  preaching  the  Gospel  is  that  the  intellectual  level  of  the 
preaching  which  they  hear  shall  not  be,  at  all  events,  below  the 
intellectual  level  of  the  secular  instruction  which  they  are  getting  in 
their  schools.  If  it  is  below  them,  I  think  they  rarely  render  their 
attention  thoroughly  to  the  Gospel.  I  will  not  say  that  there  are  not 
cases  in  which  they  do,  and,  of  course,  I  do  not  for  a  moment  suggest 
that  the  preaching  is  not  to  be  to  their  hearts,  but  the  preaching  must 
be  to  their  judgment,  their  conscience,  their  opinions,  and  their 
general  knowledge.  You  have  to  show  them  that  the  Gospel  is  not 
contradicted,  is  not  belittled,  is  not  to  be  set  on  one  side,  because  of 
anything  which  they  axe  learning  habitually  in  their  daily  life.  You 
must  keep  uip  to  their  apprehension  the  intellectual  level  of  the 
Gospel  which  you  preach. 

With  regard  ^0  the  knowledge  of  the  day  in  the  terms  in  which 
you  cannot  help  preaching,  because  the  fashion  and  thought  of  the 
day  modify  all  our  minds,  you  must  preach  to  the  young  people  in 
such  a  way  that  they  realise  that  you  know  what  you  are  talking 
about  wlien  you  deal  with  those  subjects.  The  knowledge  of  the 
Bible  is  enormously  increasing.  I  do  not  mean  merely  the  heart 
knowledge  of  the  Bible  which  goes  to  Christian  experience,  but  the 
knowledge  of  the  history,  and  so  on,  of  the  Bible  about  which  those 
in  schools  are  taught  every  day.  It  is  one  of  the  greatest  functions  of 
a  Christian  minister  to  be  himself  abreast  of  the  intellect  and  thought 
of  the  day,  especially  in  Biblical  subjects,  and  to  be  able  so  to  preach 
that  these  people  will  know  that  they  are  not  listeniiig  to  somebody 
whose  word  is  not  to  be  so  much  trusted  as  the  word  of  the  schoolmaster 
whom  they  hear  on  Monday  morning.  Remember  that  a  congregation 
on  Sunday  morning  is  not  composed,  for  the  most  part,  of  persons  who 
have  come  in  terrible  anxiety  of  business,  or  with  a  deeply-burdened 
conscience,  or  with  some  hard  stroke.  They  come,  for  the  most  part, 
with  comparatively  little  preparation,  with  the  daily  life  rather  strong 
in  them,  moderately,  I  might  say,  indifiEerent  about  what  they  are 
going  to  hear  and  see,  and  they  require  to  be  aroused.  You  cannot 
neglect  those  elements  of  interest  and  of  mental  culture  of  the  day  of 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  485 

which  their  minds  are  full  wlicn  you  present  the  Gospel  to  tliem, 
because  the  Gospel  must  be  presented  to  them  in  a  way  which  is  con- 
sistent with  the  Christian  civilisation  in  which  they  live. 

Mr.  John  B.  McCutchbon  (Irish  Methodist  Church)  also  spoke. 
He  said : 

I  am  glad  that  attention  has  been  drawn  by  Mr.  Bunting  to  our 
young  people.  I  would  like  to  follow  that  up  by  drawing  attention 
to  the  enormous  number  of  our  still  younger  people.  It  is  not  only 
the  young  people  who  are  at  school  and  college,  and  who  are  receiving 
there  that  education  of  which  we  have  heard,  who  have  a  right  to  be 
considered  in  our  public  services,  but  there  is  a  still  younger  genera- 
tion growing  up  and  following  in  their  footsteps,  who  are  in  great 
danger  in  many  instances  of  growing  up  in  a  state  of  being  Gospel- 
hardened  owing  to  their  sitting  for  so  many  years  listening  to  sermons 
and  addresses,  and  sitting  out,  in  more  or  less  weariness  of  the  flesh, 
services  in  which  they  have  no  part,  and  in  which  there  is  no  one 
thing  that  is  calculated  to  interest  or  to  attract  them. 

One  of  the  most  useful  and  one  of  the  most  instructive  forms  of 
service,  even  to  the  older  people,  that  I  have  ever  taken  part  in  ia 
that  form  of  service  in  which  there  is  somewhere  introduced  some 
little  address,  often  by  an  illustration  or  a  story,  perhaps  a 
Bible  story,  perhaps  a  story  from  some  secular  source,  which  is 
especially  designed  to  attract  the  very  youngest  of  the  congregation, 
to  give  them  a  share  in  the  service,  to  point  their  young  feet  in  the 
direction  of  righteousness,  and  to  help  to  train  them  to  grow  up  good 
men  and  women.  A  preacher  who  aims  at  being  truly  etfective  must, 
I  think,  not  overlook  the  claims  of  the  very  youngest  children  in  his 
congregation.  The  service  is  a  thing  which  they  have  to  sit  out,  weary, 
and  sometimes  sleepy,  but  some  little  address,  specially  for  themselves, 
with  some  little  interesting  story,  which  may  be  turned  to  good  account, 
is  a  thing  which  will  bear  fruit  in  after  years,  and  which  will,  even  in 
the  days  of  their  childhood,  lead  them  to  look  upon  the  service  of 
God's  house  as  something  even  to  them  interesting,  instructive,  and 
beneficial. 

I  am  glad  that  attention  has  been  drawn  to  the  importance  of  com- 
radeship and  sympathy  between  ministers  and  their  congregations.  I 
have  sometimes  said  to  my  pastor,  "  I  do  not  want  you  to  pay  formal 
pastoral  visits  to  my  house,  but  any  time  that  you  can  come  and  talk 
to  me,  man  to  man,  I  shall  be  glad  to  see  you."  The  best  times  that 
I  have  spent  in  the  company  of  my  pastor  have  been  when  he  has  taken 
me  at  my  word,  visited  me  in  my  house,  and  we  have  had  that  sort  of 
conversation. 

From  the  layman's  point  of  view,  our  ministers  do  best  when  they 
keep  to  the  Gospel.  That  is  their  subject.  If  they  take  up  with  other 
subjects  they  meet  laymen  on  common  ground,  on  which  sometimes 
the  laymen,  perhaps,  know  a  little  more  than  they  do  ;  but  if  they 
keep  to  the  Gospel  they  will  not  fi.il  to  excite  interest,  and  to  do  good. 
That  is  their  special  subject  on  which  we  h.dk  to  them  for  teacliing 
and  guidance.  Many  a  good  sermon  is  spoilt  Ijy  an  illustration  that 
is  faulty.  I  remember  in  my  early  days  licaring  a  sermon  preached 
by  an  eminent  minister  who  had  many  years  of  useful  service  behind 
him,  and  it  was  entirely  spoilt  for  me  by  a  very  elaborate  and  very 


486  PULPIT   EFFECTIVENESS. 

long-drawn-out  illustration  or  analogy  which  the  preacher  drew  from 
wliat  he  presumed  to  be  the  mode  of  trial  in  the  courts  of  justice. 
My  own  legal  education  was  not  very  far  advanced  at  that  time,  but 
it  was  sufficiently  far  advanced  for  me  to  know  that  at  every  step 
of  the  illustration  he  was  making  the  most  ludicrous  and  egregious 
blunders.  The  remembrance  of  that  sermon,  in  spite  of  all  the  good 
it  contained,  is  to  me  purely  a  remembrance  of  the  ludicrous. 

There  is  one  element  of  pulpit  effectiveness  that  has  barely  been 
touched  upon.  My  father,  grandfather,  and  great-grandfather  were  all 
Methodist  preachers,  and  I  am  a  preacher's  friend.  Pulpit  effective- 
ness is  not  a  one-sided  matter.  It  is  not  confined  to  the  pulpit.  It 
bears  to  a  great  extent  upon  the  sympathy,  the  support,  and  the 
prayers  of  the  laity.  No  man  can  be  more  destructive  to  pulpit  effec- 
tiveness than  the  man  who  goes  running  about  from  one  church  to 
another,  to  hear  this  preacher,  that  preacher,  or  the  other  preacher, 
who  worships  the  man,  and  not  the  God  of  the  Sanctuary.  Let  us 
keep  to  our  own  churches  on  Sunday,  no  matter  what  the  attractions 
are  elsewhere.  Let  us  support  our  preacher,  no  matter  whether  he 
jileascs  us  in  all  respects  or  not.  Let  us  give  him  more  of  support 
and  sympathy  than  of  criticism.  There  may  be  points  that  we  do  not 
altogether  appreciate,  there  may  be  matters  which  might  be  improved  ; 
but  he  is  there,  as  we  believe,  preaching  at  the  call  of  God,  and  with 
the  intention  that  we  may  receive  good  from  him.  If  we  go  to  church 
in  the  right  spirit,  if  we  listen  to  our  minister  with  the  right  spirit, 
if  we  give  him  the  sympathy,  support,  and  prayer  that  we  ought  to 
give  him,  then  I  believe  that  almost  any  preacher,  provided  he  has 
the  proper  call  to  his  office,  will  be  effective  and  beneficial  to  his 
congregation. 

The  R©v.  F.  T.  Tagg,  D.D.  (President),  concluded  the  discussion, 
as  follows : 

This  has  been  a  very  profitable  discussion.  There  are  just  two 
things  I  would  like  to  say  in  this  connection  which  it  seems  to  me  have 
not  been  touched  upon.  It  occurs  to  me  that  one  point  of  weakness 
in  the  pulpit  to-day  is  its  lack  of  faith.  We  go  into  the  pulpit,  and 
we  preach  a  sermon,  but  do  we  actually  expect  to  see  immediate  results 
from  that  sermon?  I  remember  in  the  early  days  the  apostles  preached, 
"  and  the  Lord  added  to  the  Church  daily  such  as  should  be  saved."  It 
seems  to  me  that,  if  we  expected  more  immediate  results  from  the 
preaching  of  the  Gospel,  we  might  see  daily  salvation  in  the  Church. 
Another  thing  that  occurred  to  me  during  this  discussion  is  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  Himself,  our  greatest  Example,  went  up  into  the 
mountain  to  pray,  and  that  when  He  came  down  from,  the  mountain- 
side the  multitudes  followed  Him.  Effective  pulpit  preparation  might 
be  found  in  the  mountains,  when  we  spend  the  night  in  prayer,  and 
in  the  morning  the  multitudes  will  follow  us. 

The  Benediction  was  then  pronounced  by  the  President. 


ESSAY   OF   REV.    D.    BROOK.  487 


SECOND     SESSION. 

TOPIC : 
THE    MOBILISATION    OF    THE    CHUECH. 


The  Conferenco  resumed  its  sittings  at  2'".30  p.m.,  the  Rev.  F.  T. 
Tagg,  D.D.  (Methodist  Protestant  Church),  again  presiding. 
Prayer  was  offered  by  the  Rev.  P.  H.  Whisnbr,  D.D.  (Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South). 

The  Rev.  D.  Brook,  M.A.,  D.C.L.  (United  Methodist  Free 
Churches),  who  took  the  place  originally  intended  for  the  Rev. 
Hugh  Price  Hughes,  M.A.  (Wesleyaii  Methodist  Church),  gave  an 
essay  on  "  How  to  Mobilise  the  Whole  Church."     He  said  : 

To  detei'iiiine  the  method  of  mobilising  the  whole  Church,  it  is  first 
of  all  necessary  to  form  a  clear  idea  of  the  Church's  grand  objective. 
That  may  be  expressed  in  one  word  ;  it  is  nothing  less  than  the 
evangelisation  of  the  whole  planet.  A  secondary  object  is  to  make  of 
each  atom  in  the  human  mass  the  best  that  can  be  made  of  it,  and 
to  bring  the  relations  of  men  which  are  now  chaotic  into  a  Divine  order. 
I  call  these  two  latter  items  of  the  Church's  programme  secondary 
because,  if  only  yon  can  eflfeetually  evangelise  the  human  race,  they 
will  follow  naturally  and  inevitably.  Everywhere  yielding  to  the 
influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  men  would  gradually  become  like  Jesus 
Christ,  and  under  the  magnetic  influence  of  a  common  Divine  love 
old  social  groupings  would  dissolve,  artificial  national  bounHaries 
would  fade  away,  a  Divine  crystallisation  would  set  in,  as  beautiful  as 
irresistible,  and  there  would  gradually  appear  a  world-wide  state 
utterly  unlike  anything  ever  yet  seen,  the  true  Civitas  Dei. 

This  is  a  grand,  far-off  Divine  event,  some  of  you  will  say.  But 
you  have  no  right  to  put  it  away  from  you  as  something  quite  im- 
practicable. The  question  really  is,  Is  it  the  idea  of  Jesus  Christ? 
Did  He  preach  it?  If  He  did,  the  thing  is  settled,  for  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  was  no  mere  dreamer.  When  He  taught  His  disciples  to  say 
when  they  prayed,  "Thy  Kingdom  come,"  He  did  not  mean  they  were 
to  ask  for  a  grandiose  impossibility.  Clearly  the  Church  must  endea- 
vour to  get  the  Gospel  truth  into  the  head,  and  into  the  heart,  of 
every  man,  woman  and  child  on  earth.  The  rest  will  be  compara- 
tively easy. 


488  THE   MOBILISATION    OF    THE    CHURCH, 

Everything  combines  to  suggest  to  us  that  the  supremely  opportune 
time  to  make  a  grand,  final  effort  is  just  now.  The  beginning  of 
a  new  century  appeals  strongly  to  the  imagination.  It  is  a  time 
which  arrests  the  mind,  suggests  fresh  efforts  and  new  enterprises. 
Especially  does  this  apply  to  the  dawn  of  this  twentieth  century,  for 
there  is  at  this  period  such  a  coincidence  of  magnificent  opportunities 
as  was  never  before  presented  in  all  the  long  unfolding  of  the  scroll 
of  Time.  The  wealth  of  material  resources,  through  discovery  and 
invention  in  the  century  just  closed  ;  the  education,  which  for  the 
first  time  in  all  history  is  now  given  to  the  whole  people  ;  the  political 
power  now  wielded  by  those  middle  classes  in  which  the  chief  strength 
of  the  Church  lies  ;  the  enormous  political  preponderance  in  the  whole 
world  of  those  nations  whose  Christianity  is  of  the  purest  type  ; 
together,  these  present  at  this  precise  juncture  such  a  brilliant  com- 
bination of  advantages  as  to  suggest  even  to  a  careless  observer  that 
Providence  intends  the  immediate  future  to  be  a  season  of  quite  un- 
exampled advance  of  the  whole  Church  towards  the  complete  reahsa- 
tion  of  the  purposes  of  Jesus  Clirist  for  the  human  race. 

From  every  side  the  old  prophet's  words  are  insistently  echoed 
to  the  Church  of  this  day,  "Arise,  shine,  for  thy  light  is  come,  and 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  is  risen  upon  thee."  In  other  words  the  time  has 
come,  fully  come,  to  mobilise  the  whole  Church.  Of  course,  such  a 
stupendous  task  is  beset  with  difficulties,  for  we  have  to  take  into 
account  not  only  the  Protestantj  but  also  the  great  historical  Roman 
and  Greek  Churches. 

A  despatch,  somewhat  on  the  following  lines,  should  be  addressed 
to  the  Pope :  "  It  is  our  duty  to  inform  your  Holiness  that  the  whole 
Church  is  to  be  immediately  mobHised.  We  recognise  that  the  eyes 
of  many  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  even  of  some  who  do  not  belong 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  Corps  of  the  Army  of  Christ,  look  with  reverence 
and  affection  to  Rome,  where  Saint  Paul  certainly  laboured  and  died, 
and  where  Christianity  in  Europe  received  a  great  baptism  of  blood. 
We  are,  therefore,  anxious  to  secure  your  hearty  co-operation.  With  a 
view  to  successful  mobilisation  the  following  suggestions  are  respect- 
fully submitted.  1.  You  must  come  out  of  the  Vatican.  The  un- 
dignified spectacle  of  the  head  of  a  great  Church  sulking  in  his  palace 
cannot  continue.  2.  You  must  give  up  entirely  tlie  dream  of  tem- 
poral power.  It  has  done  you  much  harm  with  Bible-reading  Chris- 
tians. They  remember  that  Jesuu  Christ  said,  '  My  Kingdom  is  not  of 
this  world.'  Your  eagerness  for  an  earthly  sovereignty  pains  them. 
We  beg  you  to  get  rid  of  this  awful  heresy.  3.  You  must  recognise 
definitely  and  frankly  that  there  are  Christians  who  believe  on  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  manifest  their  faith  by  lives  of  righteousness 
and  charity,  although  they  may  be  members  of  Protestant  or  Greek 
Churches.  4.  You  must  abolish  at  once  all  known  abuses,  pious 
frauds;  the  Jesuit  doctrine  that  'the  end  justifies  the  means,'  and 
all  crooked  diplomatic  methods  must  be  abandoned.  We  cannot  be 
embairasscd  by  these  things  when  we  come  to  the  practical  work  of 


ESSAY   OF  REV.   D.   BROOK.  489 

mobilisation.  5.  The  above  will  involve  the  abrogation  of  the  dngiiia 
of  Papal  Infallibility.  6.  The  Confessional  muat  go.  7.  Your  Index 
Expurgatorius  must  be  abandoned.  You  may  fearlessly  let  ciitieisiu 
have  full  play.  It  will  destroy  nothing  that  is  worth  preserving.  8. 
The  Holy  Scrii)tures  must  be  recognised  as  the  one  rule  of  faith  and 
practice.  9.  You  must  recognise  as  the  sole  Commanding  Authority 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  a  living  Presence  guiding  His  Church  through 
the  mind  of  the  faithful.  10.  All  the  organisation  and  material  re- 
sources which  you  possess  must  be  used  unreservedly  for  the  great 
enterprise.  These  points  do  not  by  any  means  exhaust  the  changes 
which  are  essential  to  preliminaries  to  mobilisation.  But  probably 
these  will  afford  sufl&cient  occupation  for  a  little  while,  and  as  they  are 
worked  out  you  will  yourself  see  the  way  more  clearly  to  further 
action.     Kindly  report  progress  at  your  early  convenience." 

A  despatch  on  somewhat  similar  lines,  but  adapted  to  the  circum- 
stances, must  be  forwarded  to  the  Holy  Governing  iSynod  of  the  Rus- 
sian Church,  and  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  The  other  Churches 
of  the  world  must  also  be  brought  into  active  oo-operation,  such  as  the 
Lutheran,  which  has  become  all  too  cold  in  these  last  days  ;  the 
Presbyterian,  Baptist,  Congregationalist,  and  other  Free  Churches  of 
Great  Britain,  from  which  we  confidently  hope  for  warmest  sympathy 
and  splendid  service.  Happily,  in  regard  to  these  last,  the  spirit  is 
all  that  could  be  desired,  and  we  may  rely  upon  it  that  they  will 
not  be  far  from  the  front  in  the  fierces.t  of  the  battle.  We  may 
look  for  very  special  help  from  the  Salvation  Army.  While  its  soldiers 
are  thoroughly  organised  and  drilled,  they  have  also  power  of  initia- 
tive ;  they  have  dash,  and  daring  ;  they  have  the  habit  of  prompt 
obedience,  readiness  to  take  any  post  that  may  be  assigned  to  them. 
They  have  mobility.  They  carry  no  unnecessary  impedimenta.  They 
are  not  weighted  down  by  their  "  respectability."  As  scouts,  as  light 
irregulars,  they  will  be  invaluable.  We  could  do  with  more  of  them. 
Praise  God  for  the  Salvation  Army ! 

Manifestly,  our  own  chief  responsibility  is  for  the  great  Methodist 
Army  Corps.  It  is  no  light  responsibility  even  so  limited.  However, 
it  is  a  great  thing  achieved  towards  the  purpose  to  have  together  the 
representatives  of  the  world's  Methodism.  If  you  were  not  here 
already  it  would  be  almost  necessary  to  call  you.  That  is  something 
gained  and  is  another  emphasis  of  Providence.  Moreover,  you  come 
here  in  the  right  mind  and  spirit.  Although  you  had  probably  no 
very  distinct  idea  that  this  gathering  was  to  be  used  for  the  definite 
purpose  of  mobilisation,  you  are  not  quite  unprepared  for  it.  You 
would  be  sorry  if  the  CEcumenical  Conference  were  nothing  more  than 
a  huge  talking  shop  for  the  glorification  of  Methodism.  You  want 
something  done,  and  something  great.  You  represent  Churches  which 
pant  to  be  led  forward,  that  throb  with  the  imperial  passion  of  John 
Wesley.  You  are  ready  to  place  the  Methodist  Church  on  a  wai 
footing.  A  few  of  you  may  be  content  to  look  back  with  pride  and 
complacency  on  the  achievements  of  the  past,  and  to  let  the  cry, 
"What  hath  God  wrought  I"'   suffice  you.     But  most  of  you  feel  the 


490  THE    MOBILISATION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

thrill  of  a  new  age.  You  feel  that  what  Gnd  has  wrnught  is  to  be 
used  as  a  fulcrum  for  working  more,  and  that  the  future  has  possibili- 
ties of  victories  whose  splendour  shall  pale  the  glories  of  the  past. 
It  is  a  symptom  of  age  and  decrepitude  to  dwell  too  much  on  the  past. 
You  feel  this.  True,  we  have  ended  one  era,  but  we  have  already 
commenced  another,  and  in  that  era,  please  God,  there  is  far  more  for 
Methodism  to  do  than  in  the  age  that  is  closed.  Knowing  this,  you 
are  stirred  by  a  loyal  eagerness  to  respond  when  the  cry  is  sounded 
out  to  the  representatives  of  Methodist  regiments,  and  posts,  and 
stations  all  over  the  planet  to  mobilise.     How  is  it  to  be  donel 

Obviously  to  put  the  Methodist  Church  on  a  war  footing  the  first 
requirement  is  to  examine  our  resources  in  material  and  in  men.  We 
are  told  that  the  members  and  adherents  of  Methodism  number  over 
thirty  millions,  or  as  large  a  number  as  the  i>opulation  of  England, 
and  no  doubt  they  possess  an  aggregate  yearly  income  which  is  com- 
parable with  that.  Mr.  Perks  tells  us  that  Methodists  are  now  worth 
forty  millions  more  than  they  were  four  years  ago,  and  they  were  pretty 
well  off  tlien.  England,  with  its  thirty  millions,  is  able  to  raise  by 
taxation  not  terribly  oppressive  quite  a  hundred  millions  a  year.  The 
entire  voluntary  tax,  which  is  paid  by  thirty  million  Methodists,  does 
not  show  up  very  well  in  the  comparison.  We  think  we  are  doing 
great  things  when  we  pay  our  way  in  the  maintenance  of  our  present 
huge  organisation  ;  and  when,  in  addition,  the  Methodist  Churches  on 
both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  raise  four  or  five  millions  for  special  pur- 
poses, really  as  a  step  towards  mobilisation,  we  are  jubilant  and  proud. 
But  does  it  mean  very  much  i  What  is  this  compared  with  the  excise 
duties?  You  are  driven  to  the  conclusion  that  there  is  an  immense, 
incalculable  financial  reserve  in  Methodism.  Hundreds  of  millions  of 
pounds  sterling  are  possessed  by  Methodists,  held  in  trust  for  the  pur- 
poses of  Christ,  ample  for  the  most  ambitious  scheme  of  mobilisation. 
We  have  the  money,  and  yet  our  ordinary  income  is  inadequate  even 
for  the  work  which  we  have  in  hand.  I  do  not  underrate  the  enter- 
prises of  to-day.  Absolutely  they  are  grand,  and  they  would  be  grander 
if  more  money  were  available.  Yet  relatively  to  the  final  object — the 
Christianisation  of  the  whole  world — they  are  not  grand  at  all.  Com- 
paratively we  are  on  a  peace  footing,  with  just  a  little  border  warfare 
constantly  going  on.  This  is  not  because  there  is  not  money  enough 
among  Methodists.  We  have  abundant  means  for  putting  the  whole 
Methodist  Church  into  a  state  for  meeting  the  armies  of  Satan  in  one 
determined  struggle  to  annihilate  his  empire  on  earth.  But  these 
means  are  either  stored  up  or  squandered  in  luxury.  Mobilisation 
will  necessitate  a  big  draw  on  these  reserves.  Is  it  not  for  this  pur- 
pose they  are  there  ?    We  have  the  money. 

We  also  have  the  men.  We  have  carefully  reviewed  them.  Over 
twenty-eight  million  adherents.  Eight  million  members.  You  cannot 
possibly  read  these  numbers  without  concluding  instantly  that  this 
army  is  at  present  on  a  peace  footing.  What  proportion  of  the  eight 
million  members  are  evangelists?    Evangelists  not  in  the  conventional 


ESSAY   OF  REV.    D.    BROOK.  49I 

Bfiist'. — 'but  keenly,  clctermiiiedl}',  whether  in  private  life  or  in  public, 
trying  to  make  known  Jesus  as  the  Saviour.  You  have,  say,  500 
members  in  your  church.  Can  you  say  of  half,  or,  of  a  quarter  of 
them,  that  they  are  Christian  workers  ?  The  truth  is,  if  these  figures  are 
correct,  and  you  have  over  twenty-eight  million  adherents,  there  must 
be  a  tremendous  reserve  of  soldiers  of  Christ,  The  way  to  mobilise  is 
tj  call  out  all  the  reserves  to  take  their  place  in  the  ranks  for  imme- 
diate service  in  the  Army  of  God.  Come  into  the  ranks,  you  who  have 
retired  prematurely  and  mistakenly.  Come,  you  who  gave  up  your 
Sunday  School  work,  or  your  preaching.  Come,  you  who  have  grown 
lazy  and  lukewarm.  Come,  you  who  are  half  asleep  in  your  too  easy 
chairs.  Come,  you  who  have  been  hoarding  your  one  talent  until  'fc 
has  begun  to  rust.  Come,  you  who  are  bitten  by  the  crazes  of  the 
world.  Come,  you  who  have  thought  yourselves  too  young,  and  you 
who  have  thought  yourselves  too  old.  Come,  you  who  are  shy  and 
diffident,  everyone  of  you  who  owns  Jesus  for  Lord.  Come,  now,  put 
your  armour  on,  and  join  the  ranks. 

Let  us  next  look  at  our  weapons.  Modern  victories  have  often  gone 
to  the  side  of  the  nation  which  had  the  best  guns.  We  have  some  old 
weapons  that  we  cannot  improve  upon.  It  is  not  by  might,  nor  by 
power,  that  the  victories  of  the  cross  will  be  won.  Let  the  people  have 
the  Word  of  God.  Let  them  have  its  truths  shot  forth  from  hearts 
kindled  with  holy  love.  Let  them  have  those  truths  accompanied  by 
trustful  prayer,  for,  without  all  this,  you  may  as  well  lounge  on  in 
your  snug  corner.  But  sometimes  you  may  speak  the  Gospel.  That 
has  been  the  principal  method  of  its  propagation  all  the  ages  through. 
Sometimes  it  has  been  from  a  pulpit  to  a  crowd — artillery  practice — • 
and  much  good  it  has  done  ;  in  some  ages  and  circumstances  more  tlian 
in  others.  But  artillery  has  not  always  been  so  deadly  as  was  expected. 
We  want — and,  with  our  enormous  battalions  called  into  active  service, 
we  ought  to  have — ^more  good  rifle  practice.  Every  one  of  our  millions 
should  fix  on  his  man,  and  in  the  most  effective  way  he  knows  let  that 
particular  man  have  the  truth.  It  really  is  wonderfully  effective  when 
a  man  tells  out  of  a  full  heart  to  another  man  about  Jesus  Christ,  what 
He  is  to  the  speaker,  and  what  He  will  be  to  the  hearer. 

There  is  another  method  of  spreading  the  truth,  which  was  never  so 
effective  as  it  is  to-day.  Writing  is  an  art  which  has  been  known  for 
millenniums,  and  printing  for  centuries,  but  never  in  the  history  of  the 
world  till  now  have  you  had  whole  nations  trained  to  read.  The  Press 
is,  therefore,  a  power  to-day  it  never  could  be  before.  Are  you  using 
this,  an  up-to-date  weapon  from  God,  for  all  it  is  worth?  You  know 
you  are  not.  Those  thirty  millions,  with  their  monej^  and  intelli- 
gence, could  control  a  force  competent  to  carry  a  Gospel  message 
to  every  civilised  and  half-civilised  man  on  earth,  and  in  such  a  form 
that,  with  the  blessing  of  God,  he  would  be  constrained  to  understand 
it,  and  to  feel  it  too.  Look  at  the  London  papers  any  morning  this 
Conference  has  met — a  Conference  meeting  only  once  in  ten  years,  a 
Conference  of  representatives  of  over  thirty  millions.     There  is  more 


492  THE    MOBILISATION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

in  every  London  morning  paper  about  sport,  about  the  theatres,  about 
the  money  markets,  about  petty  police  cases,  than  about  this  Con- 
ference. It  may  bo  difFereut  in  America,  but  fhe  absurdity  uf  the  con- 
trast here  is  simply  an  illustration  of  a  fact  that  we  have  mot  learnt 
how  to  use  the  weapon  which  God  has  placed  within  our  reach  in  thia 
age.  But  we  must  mobilise.  Meney,  and  brain,  and  heart  of  Chris- 
tianity, you  must  seize  the  printing  press  and  use  it  for  your  Master ! 
The  next  thing  we  must  look  at  is  how  to  use  our  resources  to  the 
best  advantage  in  scientific  co-ordination  and  with  severest  economy. 
God  never  makes  us  so  rich  as  to  justify  us  in  waste.  That  is  true  of  a 
country,  and  it  is  true  in  the  Church.  It  is  obvious  that  if  we  spend 
time,  money,  and  talent  in  fighting  one  another  we  are  committing  a 
grievous  foUy.  We  are  already  beginning  to  see  that.  But  we  have 
still  to  recognise  clearly  that  alike  in  great  towns  and  villages,  where 
our  home  work  is  done,  and  abroad  in  foreign  lands  we  must  mark 
out  vrork  for  our  different  regiments.  Here  is  a  province  for  you  to 
win,  and  there  another  for  you.  No  doubt,  in  practice  that  would 
mean  an  approach  towards  the  unity  of  Methodism.  That  union  is 
inevitable  when  the  Church  means  business.  On  a  peace  footing  we 
may  be  content  to  go  on  our  present  lines,  with  much  real  sympathy 
and,  perhaps,  even  more  gush,  but  when  the  Evangelical  Church  ia 
mobilised,  and  it  is  no  Church  at  all  which  is  not  Evangelical,  we  shall 
deal  rather  sternly  with  those  who  prattle  about  microscopic  distinc- 
tions of  polity,  when  we  ought  all  to  be  busy  on  the  battlefield  against 
sin.  No  Church  would  like  to  be  late  taking  its  place  on  Armaggedon, 
because  it  had  been  debating  whether  the  minister  should  lead  because 
he  was  the  minister,  or  because  he  was  elected  to  lead.  At  the  word, 
mobilise,  a  loyal  and  loving  Church  would  have  such  a  glow  of  holy 
joy  that  it  would  ignore,  it  would  never  see,  some  of  the  barriers  that 
occupy  its  languid  attention  in  the  leisured  times  of  peace. 

We  must  apply  common-sense  tactics  and  strategy.  St.  Paul  threw 
his  most  sustained  energies  into  the  most  populous  and  influential 
centres.  Corinth  and  Ephesus  even  did  not  suffice,  but  always  the  cry 
was  coming  from  his  heart,  "  I  must  see  Rome."  He  knew  that  if  he 
could  get  the  Gospel  into  Roman  life  it  would  soon  be  carried  every- 
where. So  also,  we  must  throw  a  tremendous  force  upon  the  great 
nerve  centres  of  the  world,  and  be  prepared  to  spend  treasure  and 
blood  without  stint  to  capture  London,  New  York,  Chicago,  Paris, 
Berlin,  Rome,  and  so  on.  All  the  world  will  soon  feel  the  effect  of 
work  done  in  these  great  cities, 

I  have  reached  another  point,  and  one  of  great  importance.  It  is 
the  question  of  the  staff.  There  must  be  no  nonsense  here.  Men  must 
be  put  into  position  according  to  their  character  and  ability.  Nothing 
in  the  world  else.  Not  because  they  are  rich,  or  titled,  or  influen- 
tially  connected,  and  not  even  because  they  are  growing  old.  It  is  no 
time  for  ornamental  officers  or  carpet  knights.  We  know  the  mischief 
that  may  come  of  neglect  of  this  rule.  The  best  man  in  the  church, 
best  in  grace  and  in  gifts,  must  be  at  the  top.    What  matter  in  the 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  J.  HAY  YOUNG.  493 

Army  of  the  Lord  how  poor  a  man  may  be  ?  The  Church  must  be 
just,  and  justice  is  blind,  even  colour-blind.  In  the  Church  of  the 
early  centuries  a  slave  might  become  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  the  Church 
of  to-day  must  be  resolute  to  let  a  man's  worth  determine  his  place. 
We  are  coming  into  line  for  battle,  and  we  want  the  very  best  men 
the  Church  possesses  to  be  our  leaders. 

What  of  the  highest  position  of  all,  the  supreme  Headship  on  earth? 
That  will  be  no  difficulty.  When  the  Church  has  reached  this  point, 
the  result  will  be  wonderful.  Jealousies,  ambitions,  selfishness,  in 
every  form  will  have  been  extinguished,  for  you  can  only  have  the 
Church  fully  mobilised  as  you  get  rid  of  these  hateful  things.  When 
you  have  that,  you  will  feel  that  the  figure  of  an  army  applied  to  the 
Church  is  not  strong  enough.  No  army  is  so  mobile,  disciplined, 
brave,  obedient  to  the  will  of  its  commander  as  this.  It  is  not  the 
Army  of  Christ,  but  it  is  the  Body  of  Christ.  Its  Lord,  its  Command- 
ing Spirit,  is  Christ  dwelling  within,  and  the  Church  in  its  purity, 
healthfulness^  immortal  youth,  elasticity,  and  vigour,  responds  sensi- 
tively and  spontaneously  to  the  Will  of  its  Lord.  That  is  all  that  is 
needed. 

Before  such  a  Church  many  evils  would  shrink  away  without  a  word 
of  defence,  like  the  shamefaced  crowd  before  the  Holy  One  of  Galilee. 
Among  such  evils  would  be  gambling  and  drinking.  Business  life 
would  be  transformed  past  recognition,  were  even  thirty  millions 
in  the  world  working  solely  in  the  Spirit  of  Christ  and  for  the 
objects  of  Christ.  Strife  of  classes  and  wars  of  nations  would  be 
impossible.  The  Church  would  put  forth  a  hand  so  tender  that  it 
would  soothe  the  fever  of  this  mighty  London  ;  so  strong  that  it  would 
propel  the  Parliaments  of  the  world  ;  and  such  a  Church  in  less  than  a 
decade  would  charm  and  convert  mankind. 

A  dream,  you  say,  again.  No  !  Not  for  a  dream  would  the  universe 
of  God  have  gazed  on  the  tragedy  of  Calvary.  It  is  an  ideal  which 
waits  realisation  only  until  the  Church  of  Christ  is  mobilised.  That  in 
its  turn  waits  only  for  this  one  thing,  for  those  who  profess  to  own 
Jesus  Christ  as  their  King  to  follow  up  their  profession  by  obedience, 
joyous,  prompt,  and  absolute  to  the  commands  of  His  Spirit. 

The  Rev.  J.  Hat  Young,  Ph.D.,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South),  took  the  place  of  the  Rev.  James  Atkins,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Episicopal  Church,  South),  who  was  unable  to  be 
present,  and  delivered  the  first  invited  address  on  the  topic.  He 
said : 

The  question  how  to  put  the  whole  Church  in  a  position  for 
active  service  is  too  great  for  an  hour's  discussion,  to  say  nothing 
of  the  ten  minutes  allotted  me.  It  is  so  full  of  suggestion  that  I  am 
at  a  loss  to  know  what  jwiiits  to  emphasise  and  what  to  pass  by. 

I  like  the  idea  suggested,  of  the  Church  Divinely  commissioned  for 
the  overthrow  of  sin  and  the  establishment  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
This  attitude  is  not  only  Scriptural,  but  thoroughly  accords  with  the 


494  THE    MOBILISATION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

actual  state  of  aflPairs  throughout  the  whole  ecclesiastical  world.  The 
Church  is  an  army  ;  it  has  many  divisions,  each  occupying  a  Divinely- 
appointed  place,  all  of  them  recognising  but  one  Commander,  one 
Leader — Jesus  Christ,  the  Captain  of  our  Salvation. 

It  would  seem,  then,  if  this  be  true,  the  question  how  to  mobilise 
this  great  army  is  not  one  for  our  determination.  As  soldiers  of 
Christ  it  is  not  our  part  to  mobilise  the  Church  ;  it  is  ours  to  obey 
the  orders  already  received,  and  leave  the  direction  of  the  movements 
of  the  hosts  uf  the  Lord  to  Him  who  alone  is  entitled  to  command. 
The  question  before  us  suggests  that  the  Church  has  not  been,  or,  at 
least,  is  not  now,  mobilised  ;  that  is  to  say,  the  Church  is  not  in  a 
position  for  active  service  or  war.  If  this  question  involves  a  friendly 
criticism  of  the  present  state  of  affairs  in  the  Church,  there  is  no 
doubt  room  for  some  complaint.  I  am  not  prepared  to  accept  the 
scepticism,  the  infidelity,  contained  in  the  suggestion.  Our  great 
Leader  has  not  only  furnished  us  thoroughly  to  every  good  word  and 
work,  armed  us  with  the  most  aiDproved  weapons  of  our  warfare,  and 
given  the  most  ample  directions  as  to  the  course  we  are  to  pursue, 
but  has  assured  us  of  His  constant  presence  with  us,  and  has  promised 
certain  victory  in  the  end. 

It  has  always  been  a  difficult  matter  for  men  to  keep  their  hands  off 
the  Ark  of  the  Lord,  when  they  imagined  it  was  tottering  to  its  fall. 
Honour,  miglit,  and  power  have  in  all  ages  sought  to  add  to  the 
efficiency  of  the  Church  by  means  and  instrumentalities  which  are 
wholly  the  product  of  the  wisdom  of  men.  We  are  for  ever  seeking  for 
methods  and  ways  of  obeying  the  commands  of  God,  and  advancing 
the  interests  of  the  Church.  Every  branch  of  the  Christian  Church  is 
groaning  under  the  crushing  weight  of  its  over-organisation.  Verily, 
our  age  is  the  age  of  organisation,  and,  following  the  trend  of  the 
times,  the  Church  has  been  plastered  all  over  with  Societies  and 
Guilds,  until,  like  a  London  omnibus,  you  can  scarcely  tell  what  it 
is,  or  what  is  its  destination.  To  my  mind  it  is  a  serious  question 
whether  this  multiplication  of  organisations  within  the  Church  has 
tended  to  help  or  to  hinder  the  mobilisation  of  the  Church.  Organisa- 
tion is  not  power.  It  may  be,  like  the  great  steam  engine,  aji  excellent 
means  of  transmitting  power,  provided  the  power  is  there.  But  every 
wheel  and  cog  added  only  tends  to  dissipate  the  power  until  the  time 
is  finally  reached,  when  the  machine  will  cease  to  move  at  all.  Roman 
Catholicism  has  reached  this  point,  and  High  Churchism  in  England 
and  in  America  is  fast  nearing  this  end.  You  cannot  mobilise  the 
Church  of  God,  and  put  it  into  position  for  active  service,  by  multiply- 
ing its  societies,  adding  to  its  ritual,  or  increasing  the  number  of  its 
officials,  bdth  clerical  and  lay.  You  may  thus  strengthen  the  organisa- 
tion, and  make  it  beautiful,  or  more  imposing  in  appearance,  but  you 
will  not  have  proportionately  increased  its  usefulness  in  the  matter  of 
practical  service  for  God  ,and  man. 

To  return  to  the  thought  with  which  we  began,  the  Church  has  been 
already  mobilised.  We  need  not  ask  how,  but  accept  the  fact.  Our 
Lord  has  fully  armed  and  equipped  His  militant  hosts,  and  placed  them 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  J.  HAY  YOUNG.  495 

in  position  to  do  the  most  effective  service.  "What  we  need  now,  and 
always,  is  a  loyal  spirit  to  obey  His  commands,  and  the  Spirit  of  the 
Master  Himself  who  stands  in  the  forefront  of  battle  to  lead  us  on 
to  victory. 

It  may  look  a  little  strange  to  the  world  to  see,  after  but  little 
more  than  a  century  of  its  existence,  the  great  Methodist  Church 
seriously  asking,  How  to  mobilise  the  Church.  In  the  daye  of  our 
founder  this  Church  was  the  wonder  of  the  ecclesiastical  world, 
because  of  its  complete  and  perfect  mobilisation.  One  of  the  chief 
features  of  that  perfect  work  was  the  return  to  the  itinerancy  so 
emphatically  commanded  by  our  Lord.  The  glory  of  our  Methodism, 
as  to  its  organic  polity,  is  the  itinerancy.  Under  Mr.  Wesley  this 
system  was  apostolic  and  simple.  In  our  day  we  have  sought  to  im- 
prove upon  it,  until,  as  a  system,  it  is  fast  becoming  impaired  and 
losing  its  apostolic  authority.  The  Master  commanded  us  to  go,  and 
the  old  Methodist  preachers  gladly  obeyed  the  word.  Now  we  are 
beginning  to  come  at  the  call  of  the  stronger  and  more  wealthy  con- 
gregations. At  one  time  the  Methodist  preacher  was  content  to  obey 
the  judgment  of  his  fathers  in  Grod.  Now  he  must  have  a  voice  in 
the  matter  himself.  A  settled  pastorate  is  an  anomalous  thing  in 
Methodism.  Our  separate  existence  as  a  Church  depends  not  upon  our 
doctrines,  and  not  upon  our  peculiar  rites  and  ceremonies.  It 
depends  upon  our  evangeHstic  work,  reaching  and  saving  the  rich  and 
poor  alike.  God  forbid  that  Methodism  should  ever  seek  to  compete 
with  the  settled  pastorates  of  the  land.  It  is  for  us  always  to  go  at 
the  bidding  of  our  Lord  to  seek  and  save  the  lost. 

Are  we  then  in  a  position  for  active  service  ?  I  take  this  to  be  the 
meaning  of  the  question.  How  to  mobilise  the  Church,  Look  at  it. 
Our  Lord  has  placed  us  in  the  front  of  the  battle  ;  a  world  of  sin 
confronts  us,  against  which  we  are  to  Wage  a  war  of  extermination,  till 
every  knee  shall  bow  and  every  tongue  confess  Him  Lord  of  all.  We 
have  then  the  position,  for,  of  all  the  Churches,  Methodism  is  in 
closest  contact  with  men.  But  our  greatest  trouble  has  been,  and 
is,  to  keep  out  of  one  another's  way.  It  is  sad  to  see  the  different 
Denominations  of  our  common  faith  and  practice  all  seeking  to  occupy 
the  same  territory.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  see  two  or  three  divisions 
of  the  Methodist  array  contending  against  each  other  for  the  occupancy 
of  some  small  village  or  town.  Such  conduct  is  to  be  characterised  as 
zeal  for  the  Church,  but  hardly  as  zeal  for  the  highest  i!nterests  of  the 
Master's  cause.  The  Church  has  begun  to  realise  the  folly  and  the 
shame  of  this  course  in  its  missionary  work  in  foreign  lands.  But 
it  needs  to  take  a  step  further,  and  cease  erecting  altar  against  altar  in 
the  small  villages  and  towns  in  our  home  work.  We  shall  welcome 
gladly  the  inauguration  of  some  policy  of  federation  among  our  Methodist 
Churches  which  shall  remove  all  possible  antagonisms,  and  make  our 
work  more  effective  in  reaching  the  masses  to  whom  we  have  been  sent. 
We  have  not  only  the  position  of  vantage  for  the  battle,  but  we 
have  been  provided  also  with  the  most  approved  weapons  of  warfare. 
Not  only  is  our  polity,  but  the  doctrines  of  Methodism   are,  suited 


496  THE   MOBILISATION   OF   THE   CHURCH. 

to  the  times,  and  those  with  whom  we  have  to  deal.  Free  salvation 
for  all  and  assurance  of  pardon — What  more  can  we  ask?  Only  for 
grace  that  we  may  measure  up  to  the  high  commission  wc  have  received 
—  'Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature." 

Mr.  William  Windsob  (Primitive  Methodist  Chui-ok)  gave  the 
second  invited  address  on  the  topic.     He  said : 

It  has  long  been  the  fashion  for  speakers  addressing  meetings  of 
the  miembers  of  other  Churches  than  their  own  to  figuratively  describe 
the  several  Churches  as  so  many  regiments  of  the  great  Christian  army. 
I  am  afraid  the  description  has  often  been  more  remarkable  for  its 
picturesqueness  than  for  its  correspondence  with  facts.  You  need 
not  question  the  sincerity  of  the  speakers.  They  simply  assumed  the 
role  of  prophets  and  idealists  rather  than  that  of  witnesses  of  things 
as  they  were. 

Alas,  the  controversies  which,  in  days  not  yet  out  of  memory,  were 
wont  to  divide  the  adherents  of  Evangelical  Churches,  were  frequently 
conducted  in  a  spirit  which  rendered  effective  co-operation  exceedingly 
difficult.  Nor  can  it  be  claimed,  in  this  country  at  least,  that 
Methodists  have  always  been  entirely  free  from  this  grave  defect. 
Happily,  we  live  in  days  when  a  truer  Christian  temper  prevails. 
There  is  a  widespread  disposition  to  emphasise  our  fundamental  unity. 
Tlie  Evangelical  Free  Church  Council  movement  in  England  and  Wales 
witnesses  to  the  accuracy  of  this  statement.  In  the  past  the  separatist 
temper  which  so  often  prevailed  did  incalculable  harm.  It  starved 
and  enfeebled,  it  narrowed  and  distorted  the  higher  Christian  life 
in  all  our  Churches  ;  it  furnished  the  mockers  and  traducers  of  Chris- 
tianity with  one  of  their  most  deadly  weapons,  and  it  placed  grave 
and  insidious  difficulties  in  the  way  of  tens  of  thousands  who  halted 
between  (acceptance  and  rejection  of  the  Christian  faith.  I  would 
be  the  last  to  minimise  the  direct  benefits  of  concerted  fiction  on  the 
part  of  the  Evangelical  Free  Churches  of  this  country.  Nevertheless 
I  am  one  of  those  who  strongly  hold  that  the  indirect  results  are 
little,  if  at  all,  inferior  in  importance.  The  effect  upon  our  separate 
Churches  has  been  altogether  satisfactory.  Every  close  observer  must 
see  that  there  is  being  evolved  a  more  generous  and  gracious,  there- 
fore a  higher  and  purer.  Christian  spirit.  Beyond  all  this,  the  demon- 
stration of  our  substantial  unity  has  made  a  profound  impression  on 
the  community  at  large — an  impression,  I  venture  to  affirm,  which 
must  be  fraught  with  great  and  far-reaching  blessing. 

Speaking  of  union  as  distinct  from  unity,  I  do  not  think  he  is  too 
sanguine  a  man  who  believes  that  the  organic  union  of  Methodists  in 
this  country  may  some  day  be  an  accomplished  fact.  When  the  time 
is  ripe  for  it,  every  wise  and  discriminating  lover  of  Methodism  will 
hail  its  advent  as  "a  consummation  devoutly  to  be  wished."  On  the 
other  hand,  in  my  judgment,  the  organic  union  of  all  the  Free  Evan- 
gelical Churches  of  Britain  is  neither  practicable  nor  desirable.  The 
necessities  of  the  great  enterprise  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  demand 


ADDRESS    OF    MR.    WM.    WINDSOR.  497 

diversity  as  well  as  unity,  and  such  diversity  as  best  justifies  itself 
in  the  unfettered  movements  of  varying  Churches.  But  while  recog- 
nising all  this,  why,  may  we  not  ask,  should  it  be  impossible  for 
enlightened  Christian  statesmanship  to  devise  a  gieat  scheme  of  federa- 
tion, embracing  all  the  Free  Evangelical  Churches  of  the  world?  I 
mean,  of  course,  such  federation  as  is  reflected  in  the  Evangelical 
Free  Church  Council  movement  in  this  coxmtry.  If  that  were  accom- 
plished we  might  witness,  before  many  years  have  passed,  a  colossal 
Simidtaneous  Mission,  so  to  speak,  engirdling  the  world.  The  gracious 
results  of  such  a  Mission  could  not  be  foretold.  Independent  of  great 
direct  gain  to  all  the  Churches,  its  influence  upon  th«  average  Chris- 
tian man  and  woman  everywhere  would  be  beyond  computation. 

The  weakness  of  all  our  Churches  lies  in  the  fact  that  so  large  a 
proportion  of  our  membership  is,  for  purposes  of  aggression  and 
extension,  of  so  little  use.  The  consciousness  of  participation,  how- 
ever humble  or  obscure,  in  so  vast  and  world-wide  a  movement, 
might  touch  with  contagious  fire  the  hearts  of  the  Christian  millions, 
and  lift  them  to  the  level  of  enthusiasm  and  sacred  passion  which,  for 
many  decades  of  Christian  enterprise,  our  leaders  and  guides  have 
hoped  and  prayed  for  in  vain.  Over  and  above  all  this,  the  spectacle 
of  this  great  Mission  would  lay  upon  the  heart  and  mind  of  the 
nations  such  a  spell  of  wonder,  reverence  and  awe,  as  would,  under 
the  Divine  blessing,  contribute  effectively  to  hasten  upon  earth  the 
Kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  Master  Jesus  Christ. 

All  this,  however,  would  only  serve  to  exhibit  our  spiritual  unity. 
The  world  would  still  need  a  demonstration  of  the  oneness  of  the 
federated  Churches  on  great  moral  issues.  The  opportunity  for  this 
would,  I  believe,  be  best  found  in  a  supreme  attempt  to  grapple  with 
a  problem  which  has  aheady  received  the  attention  of  this  Conference 
— the  drink  problem.  I  fear  it  must  be  admitted  that  a  universal 
attack  on  the  liquor  trafiic  by  the  whole  Christian  Church  is  to  be 
regarded  as  a  more  remote  probability  than  a  world-wide  Simul- 
taneous Evangelistic  Mission,  but  sure  I  am  that  the  call  of  God 
to  her  touching  this  great  moral  issue  is  not  a  whit  less  solemn  or 
imperative.  For  years  it  has  seemed  to  me  clear  as  the  sunlight  that 
80  vast  are  the  material  and  political  interests  ranged  on  the  side  of 
the  traffic,  so  unbounded  its  monetary  and  social  resources,  that  no 
other  power  in  the  world  is  adequate  to  deal  with  it  effectually  but 
the  Church  of  Christ,  aroused,  consecrated,  and  united.  In  nothing 
will  she  find  a  nobler  opportunity  for  the  manifestation  of  the  charac- 
teristic Christian  passion  for  the  service  of  humanity.  In  nothing  may 
she  hope  to  confer  more  direct  and  indirect  blessings  on  the  world. 

When  will  the  Church,  possessed  by  the  spirit  of  unity,  and  bap- 
tized with  the  passion  of  Divine  love,  rise  to  the  height  of  this  great 
occasion,  and  essay  this  stupendous  and  Christ-like  task?  Would  to 
God  some  Christian  prophet  might  arise  among  us — I  care  not  whether 
a  Methodist  or  known  by  some  other  name — some  great,  impassioned, 
God-inspired   man,  whose  voice   of  imperative   call  would  rouse  the 

33 


498  THE   MOBILISATION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

slumbering  and  self-indulgent  followers  of  Jesus  throughout  the 
Churches  to  a  sense  of  their  urgent  duty,  their  divine  privilege,  to 
assist  in  relieving  the  world  of  this  incubus  of  sorrow  and  woe  that 
now  weighs  upon  its  afflicted  heart. 

The  Rev.  D.  J.  Waller,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Cburoh),  at  this  point  of  the  session  raised  the  question  of  holding 
a  Memorial  Service  for  the  late  President  McKinley  as  part  of  the 
Conference.  The  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Chairman 
of  the  Business  Committee),  agreed  that  such  a  service  was  desir- 
able, and  after  a  short  disioussion  it  was  res.olved  that  a  Memorial 
Service  should  be  held  on  the  following  afternoon,  the  Business 
Committee  being  requested  to  make  the  necessary  arrarigements. 

The  Rev.  J.  A.  B.  Wilson,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
resumed  the  oonversiation  on  the  topic.     He  said : 

The  best  leader  of  Christian  endeavour  is  not  the  man  who  does  the 
most,  but  the  man  who  sets  and  keeps  the  greatest  number  of  people 
at  work.  It  is  easy  to  say  the  way  to  mobilise  is  to  mobilise,  but  it 
takes  first  a  great  issue  which  is  fully  recognised,  and  which  fills  and 
thrills  the  soul  of  leadership.  I  heard  a  gentleman  say,  in  comment  on 
a  minister  this  morning,  "  He  is  a  good  preacher,  but  not  a  great  one, 
but  you  should  hear  him  in  a  political  speech.  Why,  I  have  seen  our 
greatest  statesmen  in  America  weep  like  children  under  his  appeals 
from  the  rostrum."  Why  is  that?  Because  the  man  has  a  political 
issue  he  believes  in,  but  a  rehgious  conviction  that  does  not  thrill  his 
soul  with  the  pathos  of  a  mighty  conviction. 

We  are  suffering  religiously  for  the  thirst  of  a  great  conviction,  an 
issue  that  commands  and  stirs  the  whole  being.  I  often  envy  the 
Baptists  ;  their  distinctive  issue  does  not  amount  to  much,  but  in 
their  hands  it  is  an  issue,  and  living  for  it,  their  whole  membership 
rally  to  it,  and  become  proselytisers  for  their  favourite  element.  The 
time  was  when  Arminianism  was  a  Methodist  issue,  until  we  broke 
down  all  opposition  to  it,  and  Congregationalism  re-wrote  its  creed, 
and  made  it  more  Arminian  than  Arminius.  A  large  part  of  American 
Methodism  had  anti-slavery  for  a  living  issue  at  one  time,  and  we 
to-day  have  the  great  temperance  and  prohibition  cause  as  a  question 
calling  for  settlement.  WTienever  a  Church  or  a  pastor  is  found  who 
sensibly  but  radically  forces  this  cause  to  the  front,  that  society  rallies 
to  the  standard,  and  there  are  great  results  in  that  church.  A  thorough 
radical  belief  in  hell  was  once  an  issue  that  made  every  Methodist  an 
evangelist,  and  in  proportion  to  our  unequivocal  conviction  of  the 
ultimate  outcome  of  sin,  eternal  sin,  wiU  be  the  virility  or  the  emascula- 
tion of  our  soul-saving  efforts. 

The  mobilisation  of  Methodist  forces  demands  the  presence  and 
prominence  of  a  great  distinctive  paramount  issue  upon  which  the 
Church  can  be  rallied.  With  the  standard  to  the  front,  and  well  de- 
fined, we  need  it  in  the  hands  of  our  greatest,  strongest  men,  with 
great  convictions.  An  army  of  lions  is  ineffectual  when  led  by  a  stag. 
It  is  bad  for  the  stag,  and  demoralises  the  lions.  The  lions  cannot 
respond   with  enthusiasm   to   the  leadership   of  the   inferior   animal. 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  499 

In  too  many  great  opportunities  the  hosts  are  led  by  weaklings  in  the 
ministry.  No  Church  can  be  at  its  best  when  led  by  its  weak  men. 
Yet  this  is  a  hard  matter  to  control,  for  those  who  practically  dictate 
our  pulpit  appointments  are  afraid  of  men  whom  they  cannot  control. 
Men  of  strong  personality  and  virile  leadership  have  opinions  of  their 
own,  and  must  be  permitted  to  practically  shape  the  policy  of  their 
own  Churches,  and  rather  than  surrender  their  own  convictions  they 
will  take  inferior  stations. 

Would  our  great  laymen  liave  their  Church  forces  mobilised  and 
thrilled  with  a  magnificent  and  sustained  enthusiasm  ?  Then  let  in 
the  mighty  experts  in  Church  endeavour  who  can  command  the  respect, 
the  thought,  the  action,  of  manly  manhuod.  "  Why,"  said  a  gentle- 
man visiting  a  sister  Church  recently,  "your  congregation  almost  fills 
your  great  church,  and  two-thirds  of  them  are  men."  "  Yes,"  said  the 
oflScial  member  to  whom  he  spoke,  "  Yes,  and  the  reason  is  that 
our  preacher  talks  man-talk,  and  men  want:  to  hear  him."  There  is 
a  Church  of  manhood,  mobilised  by  a  man — and  a  doomed  Churcli  is 
saved  absolutely  through  manly  leadership.  Let  us  have  a  leadership 
of  virile  masterful  manhood  in  our  great  opportunities,  and  we  shall 
have  the  wliole  Church  in  line  for  work  in  some  practical  form,  and 
the  smaller  Cliurches  and  leaders,  always  imitating,  will  follow  the 
leadership  which  demonstrates  its  practicability  by  its  success.  Let 
the  banner  of  mobilisation  representing  a  vital  issue  be  held  by  the 
hand  of  our  strongest  leaders.  No  Church  can  come  to  its  best  while 
led  by  its  small  men. 

The  Rev.  Ezekiel  Smith  (Union  American  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church)  said : 

How  to  mobilise  all  the  force  of  the  whole  Church  ?  It  was  not  tlie 
intent  of  the  Divine  mind  that  this  should  ever  be  in  question  in  a 
Christian  Church,  but,  on  account  of  the  falling  away  and  unfaithful- 
ness of  the  early  Christians,  the  question  is  made  necessary  to-day. 
It  is  a  great  pity.  When  the  Nicene  Council  assembled  in  the  third 
century  of  the  Christian  era,  the  Church  was  frozen  to  death,  and  they 
gave  a  code  of  laws  revised  by  human  minds,  minus  that  Divine  inspira- 
tion that  the  apostle  had,  and  that  lasted  the  Church  until  God  raised 
up  Martin  Luther.  He  went  back  over  those  cold  icebergs  to  the 
Apostolic  Church,  and  there  he  caught  a  spark  of  the  faith  which  was 
once  delivered  to  the  saints.  That  lasted  the  Church  in  the  progress 
of  human  events  until  God  raised  up  John  Wesley,  who  went  back 
to  the  Apostolic  Church  and  received  a  baptism  of  fire.  He  organised 
the  Methodist  Church,  and  it  has  sent  out  its  fire  and  has  set  on  fire 
all  civilisation. 

How  to  mobilise  the  whole  Church?  I  would  suggest  this  plan  :  — 
Let  us  be  inspired,  as  those  good  men  were  more  than  twenty  years 
ago,  when  they  suggested  that  they  would  mobilise  all  branches  of  tht 
Methodist  Church,  and  thus  brought  about  the  (Ecumenical  Conference, 
of  which  this  is  the  third  session.  It  has  accomplished  a  great  thing. 
We  can  see  that  we  are  one  in  doctrine  and  one  in  charity.  But  when 
we  mobilise  all  Christian  Churches,  I  do  not  say  call  it  an  CEcumenical 
Conference,  for  some  of  the  other  Denominations  would  be  offended. 
It  would  not  do  to  call  it  a  "  Synod,"  as  someone  else  would  be 
offended— maybe  we  would.     I  would  suggest  we  should  call  it  the 


500  THE    MOBILISATION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

"Great  Convention."  When  we  mobilise  the  whole  forces,  there  and 
then,  and  not  till  then,  shall  we  be  ready  as  a  Christian  Church  to  win 
the  world  for  God. 

The  Rev.   Frederick  Brown,    F.R.G.S.    (Methodist    Episcopal 
Church),  concluded  the  discussion,  as  follows : 

I  have  an  idea  that  on  this  question  the  foreign  field  is  coming  to 
the  rescue  of  the  home  work,  it  has  been  already  said  by  one  of  the 
sjieakers  that  in  the  foreign  field  we  have  a  kind  of  federation  j  we 
understand  each  other  as  different  branches  of  the  Methodist  Church. 
That  is  perfectly  true.  We  have  met  in  China  from  the  east  and 
west,  and  we  have  met  as  Methodists,  and  I  am  happy  to  say,  that, 
so  far  as  I  am  aware,  in  the  whole  Chinese  Empire  there  is  not  a 
single  case  of  overlapping.  I  think  that  is  a  very  good  thing.  Not 
only  so,  but  we  are  able  to  help  each  other.  Five  years  ago  a  young 
man  was  transferred  from  the  Southern  Methodist  Church  to  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  Tientsin.  He  was  a  student  in  the 
Imperial  University  there,  and  was  transferred  as  a  probationer.  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  baptising  him.  He  studied  medicine  in  the 
Government  College,  and  then  went  as  medical  adviser  to  Yeun  Hsi 
Kai,  the  present  Governor  of  the  Province  of  Shantung.  It  may  be 
knowm  to  you  who  read  the  papers  that  Yeun  Hsi  Kai  succeeded  in 
saving  the  lives  of  150  foreign  missionaries  last  year.  Dr.  Chung, 
the  young  Methodist  who  was  transferred  to  us  from  the  Southern 
Methodist  Church,  had  a  great  influence  on  Yeun  Hsi  Kai,  and  pro- 
bably helped  the  missionaries  to  get  away  safely. 

Early  last  year  it  was  very  remarkable  how  a  revival  spread  through- 
out the  whole  of  North  China.  We  have  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  a  missionary  known  throughout  the  Chinese  Empire  as  an 
evangelist,  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Pyke.  He  had  revival  meetings  throughout 
Chi-li  ;  the  Congregationalists  took  Dr.  Pyke  as  an  evangelist,  and 
then  the  Baptists  invited  him.  So  we  had  the  province  aflame  with 
evangelistic  zeal,  in  preparation,  I  am  sure,  for  the  coming  storm. 
When  the  storm  did  come,  and  the  Methodist  Church  of  North  China 
lost  no  less  than  one  thousand  converts,  they  were  ready  to  a  man, 
and  I  am  here  to  testify  that  I  do  not  know  of  a  single  one  who  turned 
back  in  the  hour  of  death.  I  think  Wesley  said  that  we  not  only 
prepare  men  to  live,  but  we  prepare  them  to  die. 

I  have  been  in  China  nearly  tweaity  years,  and  the  esiperiences  of  last 
year  have  had  an  influence  on  me  in  making  me  believe  more  than 
ever  in  the  eflBcacy  of  the  Gospel  even  to  convert  a  Chinaman.  How 
many  years  have  we  heard  of  the  "rice  Christians"  in  China — ^how 
many  years  have  we  missionaries  been  taunted  that  they  are  no  good  ? 
But  when  you  see  them  going  to  the  stake  because  of  their  religion, 
I  call  the  Christian  world  to  witness  whether  there  ,is  any  grander 
sight  in  any  part  of  the  globe  than  to  see  a  Christian  Chinaman  going 
to  the  stake  for  his  religion.  It  cannot  be  bettered  anywhere  under 
the  sun.  In  China  we  are  united  in  word — the  Congregationalists, 
the  Methodist  Episcopal,  and  Methodist  New  Connexion.  Owing  to 
circumstances',  their  missionaries  had  to  leave,  and  I  helped  their 
refugees.  The  Methodists  of  the  South  are  transferred  to  us  in  the 
Ni>rtli,  and  If  we  send  any  South  we  transfer  them  there,  and  so  we 
Tinderstand  each  other.  T  think  it  is  a  glorious  thing  to  have  federa- 
tion on  the  mission-field. 


BUSINE???;   PROCEEDINGS. 


50T 


Arranfreineiit?  were  made  for  a  public  Monion'nl  Scrvioo  for  tlie 
late  Prepideiit  McKinlry  to.  he  lip-lrl  ;if.  r?.30  p.m.  on  Tupsday  after- 
noon, the  clo«in<^  session  of  the  Conference  to  be  from  2  p.m.  to 
3.15  p.m.  It  was  further  agreed  that  two  addresses  should  be  given 
at  the  Memorial  Service,  the  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  from  the  Chair,  delivering  the 
address  on  behalf  of  the  Eastern  Section,  and  Bishop  J.  H.  Vin- 
cent, D.D.,  LL.D,  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  on  behalf  of  the 
Western  Section, 


The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  (Secretary  of  the  Business  Committee) 
submitted  the  plan  embodying  the  requisite  preliminary  arrange- 
ments for  the  next  (Eoimienical  Methodist  Conference,  and  it  was 
adopted  by  the  Conference.      It  is  as  follows : 

The  Committee,  to  which  was  referred  the  question  of  preliminary 
arrangements  for  the  Fourth  QHcumenical  Methodist  Conference,  to  be 
held  within  the  Western  Section,  in  the  .year  1911,  subject  to  the  ap- 
proval and  direction  of  the  various  Methodist  Churches,  would  respect- 
fully recoiniiioiid  : 

The  appointment  of  an  Executive  Commission,  to  be  formed  on  the 
basis  of  the  organisation  of  the  CBcumenical  Conference,  and  to  consist 
of  eighty  members,  to  be  appointed  by  the  several  Churches. 

The  Commission  shall  be  divided  into  two  sections,  called  respec- 
tively the  Eastern  Section  and  the  Western  Section.  The  Eastern 
Section  will  consist  of  thirty  members,  and  the  Western  Section  of 
fifty  members. 

The  thirty  members  of  the  Eastern  Section  of  the  Commission  shall 
be  distributed  among  the  various  branches  of  Methodism  in  that  Sec- 
tion as  follows : 


Wesleyan  Methodist  Church  ... 
Primitive  Methodist  Church  ... 
United  Methodist  Free  Churches 
Methodist  New  Connexion 

Irish  Methodist  Church 

Bible  Christian  Church 

Wesleyan  Eeform  Union 

Independent   Methodist  Church 
Australasian  Methodist  Church 
French  Methodist  Church 
West  Indian  Methodist   Church 
South.  African  Methodist  Church 


Members 

10 
5 
3 
2 
2 
2 
1 
1 
1 

a 
1 
1 


Total 


30 


502 


BUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS. 


The  fifty  meml)crs  of  the  Western  .Section  of  tlie  Commission  shall 

be  distributed  among  the  various  branches  of  Methodism  in  that  Sec- 
tion as  follows : 

Members. 

Methodist  Episcopal  Church 18 

Methodist  Episcopal   Church,  South 9 

The  Methodist  Church,  Canada     4 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 3 

African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church 3 

Coloured  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 1 

Methodist  Protestant  Church 1 

African  Union  Methodist  Protestant  Church     1 

Union  American  Methodist 'Episcopal  Church 1 

United  Evangelical  Church     1 

Primitive  Methodist  Church 1 

Free  Methodist  Church    1 

The  remaining  number  (6)  to  complete  the  number, 
fifty,  to  be  apportioned  by  the  Western  Section 
of  the  Executive  Commission  among  the  above  or 

other  Methodist  bodies 6 


Total 


50 


This  Executive  Commission,  when  appointed  by  the  various  Confer- 
ences, shall  be  charged  to  make  the  necessary  arrangements  for  the 
fourth  CEcumenical  Conference,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  several 
Churches  represented. 

Pending  the  appointment  and  organisation  of  the  Executive  Commis- 
sion, the  two  sections  of  the  Business  Committee  of  this  third  CEcu- 
menical Conference  are  authorised  to  transact  any  necessary  business, 
and  especially  to  correspond  with  the  several  Conferences,  and  to 
arrange  for  the  organisation  of  the  Executive  Commission  at  as  early 
a  date  as  practicable. 

The  Rev.  John  Bond  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  is  hereby  re- 
quested to  act  as  the  Secretary  of  the  Eastern  Section  of  the  Business 
Committee  for  such  purposes,  and  the  Rev.  J.  M.  King,  D.D.  (Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church),  for  the  Western  Section. 

The  fourth  CEcumenical  Conference  shall  consist  of  500  delegates — 
300  for  the  Western  Section  and  200  for  the  Eastern  Section ;  and  the 
Executive  Commission  shall,  not  later  than  January  1,  1908,  apportion 
these  delegates  among  the  different  Churches  to  be  represented,  accord- 
ing to  the  rules  of  this  CEcumenical  Conference,  and  shall  notify  each 
Church  of  the  number  of  delegates  to  which  it  is  entitled. 

In  the  interim  of  the  CEcumenical  Conferences  the  Executive  Com- 
mission, in  exercising  the  power  delegated  to  it,  shall  be  governed  by 
the  general  rules  of  this  (Ecumenical  Conference, 

In  matters  of  fraternal  greetings   the  Executive  Commission   shall 


REPLIES    TO    ADDRESSES,  503 

act  as  a  wlmle,  if  praciicaMo  ;  but  where  this  may  not  he  advisjihlc  or 
expedient,  each  Soctiou  shall  have  the  right,  within  its  limits,  to  yet 
for  itself,  or  for  both  Sections. 

All  the  business  of  the  Executive  Commission  shall,  as  far  as  prac- 
ticable, be  conducted  by  correspondence. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  explained  that  the  United  Brethren  in 
Christ,  the  American  Wesleyan  Church,  the  Congregational 
Methodist  Church,  the  British  Methodist  Church,  the  Evan- 
gelical Association,  and  the  Independent  Methodist  Church  in  the 
Western  Section  had  not  sent  any  representatives,  and  it  was  felt 
that  it  would  be  more  prudent  to  refer  the  allocation  of  the  six 
members  of  the  Commission,  which  in  the  past  had  been  allocated 
to  those  six  Churches,  to  the  discretion  of  the  Executive  of  the 
Western  Section  of  the  Conference  than  to  do  it  by  definite  act  now. 

The  Rev.  J.  Bond  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  asked  to  be 
allowed  to  withdraw  his  name  from  the  nomination  of  Secretary. 
He  had  undertaken  the  work  for  three  Conferences,  but  the  state 
of  bis  health  would  not  permit  him  to  siervo  fot  another  term, 

A  Delegate  said  he  thought  they  wanted  an  alteration  in  the 
Eastern  Section.  He  would  like  to  have  seen  six  Hindu  Method- 
ists, two  Fijians,  and  half-a-dozen  Chinamen  present.  If  they 
called  it  the  Eastern  Secti:>n  let  them  make  it  so.  The  Rev. 
Albert  Clayton  siaid  that  w^is  a  matter  which  would  come  within 
the  purview  of  the  Eastern  Section. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  said  the  Business  Committee  bad  pre- 
pared replies  to  the  Addresses  presented  at  the  Third  Session  of 
the  Conference  on  Wednesday  evening,  September  11,  and  they 
were  adopted  by  the  Conference. 

The  following  is  the  reply  sent  to  the  National  Free  Church 
Council : 

To  the  National  Council  of  the 

Evangelical  Free  Churches  of  England  and  Wales. 

Your  fraternal  greetings  are  heartily  welcome.  We  recognise  with 
pleasure  your  appreciation  of  Methodism  and  the  Methodists.  We 
note  with  gratification  what  you  say  of  Methodism  as  a  Church — a 
Church  called  into  existence  by  Divine  Providence  ;  a  Church  that  is 
catholic  in  its  spirit  and  service  ;  a  Church  which  has  in  its  ministry 
men  who  have  been  called  and  ordained  of  God  ;  a  Church  which  has, 
by  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  consecrated  enthusiasm,  and 
scholarship,  and  wealth  to  the  good  of  men  ;  and  we  are  thankful  that 
you  are  able  to  make  mention  of  the  Evangelistic  work  to  which  Metho- 
dism has,  by  the  grace  of  God,  been  able  to  give  itself  in  all  parts  of 
the  world. 


504  REPLIES   TO   ADDRESSES. 

Your  Address  to  us  is  as  cheering  as  it  is  fraternal  and  cordial.  The 
visit  of  your  deputation  on  the  evening  of  September  11th  was  an  occa- 
sion of  great  joy  and  lioly  stimuhis.  The  words  which  your  Represen- 
tatives spoke  to  us,  in  your  name  and  in  the  name  of  our  common  Lord, 
delighted  our  souls,  and  moved  us  with  great  power  towards  the  high 
and  holy  things  to  which  we  feel  ourselves  called. 

We  need  not  say  that  your  organisation  and  the  numerous  local 
organisations  which  you  represent  inspire  us  with  hope  and  strength. 
The  Free  Church  Councils  of  England  and  Wales  demonstrate  the  fact 
that  the  Free  Evangelical  Churches  are  one  in  Christ  Jesus.  It  is, 
too,  made  more  manifest  by  these  Councils  that  Presbyterians,  Congre- 
gationalists.  Baptists,  Friends,  and  Methodists  of  the  present  genera- 
tion have  one  common  ancestry  and  one  common  inheritance.  All  of 
lis  can  trace  our  descent  through  the  Revival  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
the  Puritan  era  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  the  Reforma- 
tion of  the  sixteenth  century,  back  to  the  Apostles  and 
up  to  the  Christ.  We  all  inherit  the  rich  treasures  which  have  come  to 
us  from  Divine  sources  through  these  channels  ;  we  are  alike  evangelical 
in  doctrine  and  evangelistic  in  spirit  ;  and  we  have  one  common  work 
— the  work  of  establishing  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  on  the  earth. 

We  rejoice,  too,  to  know  that  the  principles  for  which  Free  Church 
Councils  stand  and  the  ideals  which  they  represent  are  establishing 
themselves  on  the  American  Continent  and  in  other  lands. 

Brothers  beloved,  we  reciprocate  your  sentiments  ;  we  say  "  Amen  !  " 
to  your  prayers  ;  and  we  ourselves  pray  that  the  benediction  of  God 
may  be  so  upon  our  common  labours  that  everywhere  we  may  see  the 
pleasure  of  the  Lord  prosper  in  our  midst. 

On  behalf  of  the  Methodist  (Ecumenical  Conference, 
We  are,  yours  cordially, 

John  Bond,  \ 

J.  M.  King,  l     „       ,    • 

Thomas  Snape,      (      Secretaries. 

W.  I.  Shaw,         i 
Wesley's  Chapel, 

City  Road,  London, 

September  13,  1901. 

The  following  is  the  reply  sent  to  the  United  Free  Church  of 
Scotland :  ^^ 

To  the  Rev.  Thomas  Kennedy,  D.D., 

Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
United  Free  Church  of  Scotland. 
Dear  Sir, 

We  have  received  with  great  pleasure  the  Greet  mas  sent 
from  your  General  Assembly,  and  cordially  reciprocate  all  the  good 
wishes  therein  expressed. 


REPLIES    TO   ADDRESSES.  505 

The  address  delivered  to  this  Conference  by  Dr.  Boss  Taylor  was 
one  of  great  eloquence,  and  its  powerful  exposition  of  the  advantage  of 
Christian  Union  was  heard  with  sympathetic  attention. 

We  rejoice  in  the  Union  happily  consummated  last  year  between  the 
Free  Church  of  Scotland  and  the  United  Presbyterian  Church,  and 
we  pray  for  you  abounding  spiritual  prosperity.  From  this  Union  we 
anticipate  good  results.  The  Union  amongst  Methodist  Churches 
accomplished  in  Canada,  and  later  in  Australasia,  leads  us  to  believe 
that  great  blessing  will  follow  the  Presbyterian  Union  in  Scotland,  and 
great  and  permanent  enlargement  in  all  directions. 

All  the  Churches  we  represent  are  drawing  nearer  together,  and  this, 
our  third  CEcumenical  Conference,  like  the  two  preceding  ones,  is  help- 
ing us  to  a  fuller  recognition  of  each  other's  work.  If  the  time  is  not 
yet  for  further  organic  Union,  there  is  undoubtedly  increasing  warmth 
of  affection  and  more  thorough  and  effective  co-operation.  In  the 
presence  of  a  common  enemy  we  have  learned  to  act  as  cordial  allies. 
We  do  not  look  upon  each  other  as  rivals  or  competitors,  but  as  fellow- 
workers  ;  and  if  at  present  we  belong  to  various  ecclesiastical  organisa- 
tions, we  possess  a  common  faith  and  a  common  hope,  and  every 
Methodist  is  regarded  by  other  Methodists  as  a  brother  beloved. 

You  will  be  glad  tu  know  that  our  meetings  have  not  only  demon- 
strated our  true  and  essential  unity,  but  that  they  have  also  been  full 
of  inspiration,  and  that  all  the  representatives'  of  our  Churches  are 
girding  themselves  afresh  for  the  great  work  to  which  we  are  called. 
To  spread  Scriptural  holiness  is  our  lofty  aspiration,  and,  like  our 
honoured  Founder,  we  regard  the  world  as  our  parish,  and  are  seeking 
to  give  the  good  news  of  the  Kingdom  to  peoples  sitting  in  the  region 
and  shadow  of  death.  We  rejoice  that  God  has  honoured  us  in  the  past, 
and  that  our  numbers  are  counted  not  by  thousands  but  by  millions  ; 
but,  so  far  from  being  satisfied  with  the  victories  achieved,  we  simply 
regard  them  as  pledges  and  prophecies  of  still  wider  conquests  in  the 
coming  days. 

We  greet  you  with  every  Christian  affection,  and  pray  that  upon  all 
your  evangelistic  and  educational  labours  at  home  and  abrt-ad  the 
blessing  of  the  Most  High  may  conspicuously  rest. 

Signed  on  behalf  of  the  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference,  and  by 
its  order,  by  the  only  permanent  officers,  ^ 

John  Bond,  '\ 

*  J.  M.  King,  I 

Thomas  Snaps,  [     Secretaries. 

W.  I.  Shaw,  ) 

Wesley's  Chapel, 

City  Road,  London, 
September,  1901. 


5o6  REPLIES    TO    ADDRESSES. 

The  following  is  the  reply  sent  to  the  Moravian  Church  : 

To  the  Members  of  the  Directing  Board  of  the  Moravian  Church, 

Honoured  and  Beloved  Brethren, 

We  received  with  much  joy  your  cordial  Address  of  welcome 
to  us  in  our  third  (Ecumenical  Conference.  We,  in  the  most  l.eaity 
manner,  reciprocate  your  fraternal  greetings,  and  assure  you  of  our 
love  in  Christ  Jesus  for  your  ancient  and  Evangelical  Church. 

We  are  familiar  with  your  history,  and  we  rejoice  in  the  noble  &id 
you  have  rendered  and  are  rendering  in  ameliorating  the  sorrows  of 
mankind  and  in  the  salvation  of  the  world.  May  the  Lord  of  our 
fathers  make  you  a  thousandfold  more  than  you  are. 

The  ties  which  unite  us  to  you  are  of  the  most  tender  character,  and 
our  prayer  is  that  they  may  be  greatly  strengthened.  We  remember 
the  influence  for  good  which  you  had  over  our  Founder,  John  Wesley,  at 
a  critical  time  in  his  religious  life,  and  how  through  the  teaching  of 
Peter  Bohler  he  was  taught  the  Scriptural  doctrine  of  conscious  pardon 
through  faith  in  the  atonement  of  Jesus  Christ.  This  glad  news  it  was 
his  joy  to  proclaim  throughoiit  his  lengthened  ministry,  and  his  fol- 
lowers preach  it  with  cheering  success. 

We  are  convinced  that  the  result  of  the  Conference  will  be  to  drtiw 
the  various  sections  of  Methodism  more  closely  together  in  respect  and 
affection,  that  we  shall  co-operate  more  successfully  in  every  work  for 
the  welfare  and  uplifting  of  our  fallen  but  redeemed  race,  and  thus,  by 
our  fraternal  intercourse  and  mutual  co-operation,  help  towards  the 
fulfilment  of  the  prayer  of  our  Divine  Lord  :  "  That  they  all  may  be 
one."  We  are  devoutly  thankful  for  the  success  which  God  has  granted 
us  in  all  our  Sections.  The  churches  which  have  been  built  and  the 
schools  erected,  the  Colleges  and  Universities  which  are  maintained  by 
the  liberality  of  our  people,  and  the  great  missionary  work  carried  on 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  are  evidences  of  the  love  and  loyalty  of  our 
Church  to  our  Master,  and  we  believe  that  the  success  given  to  all  the 
Christian  Churches  is  but  an  earnest  indication  of  that  glorious  success 
which  is  assured  to  us  by  the  Word  of  God.  May  we  claim,  pray  fcr, 
and  have  it  in  the  century  on.  which  we  have  entered  ! 

You  will  rejoice  to  know  that  we  hold  with  as  firm  a  grip  as  ever,  and 
with  deepening  conviction  of  its  supreme  import,  the  faith  once  for  all 
delivered  to  the  saints,  and  our  pulpits  proclaim  with  no  uncertain 
sound  that  we  are  ruined  by  sin,  redeemed  by  the  atoning  death  of 
Jesus  our  Lord,  and  are  regenerated  and  sanctified  by  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  we  are  sure  that  the  Gospel  of  the  Grace  of  God  is  the  Divine 
means  by  which  the  world  is  to  be  saved. 

The  century  opens  to  us  with  large  responsibilities,  and  calls  us  to 
the  discharge  of  great  duties.  In  order  to  the  fulfilling  of  our  obliga- 
tions, we  must  seek  for  the  ajjostolic  endowment  of  power  from  Him 
with  whom  is  the  residue  of  the  Spirit.     Then  indeed  shall  the  Churches 


ADDRESS   TO   THE   CHURCHES.  507 

engage  in  their  blessed  toil  with  apostolic  zeal,  and  expect  Pentecostal 
ingatherings. 

"  Lo !  the  promise  of  a  shower 
Drops  already  from  above." 

Praying  that  your  ancient  and  honoured  Church  may  share  in  all 
these  benefitSj 

We  are,  Beloved  Brethren, 

Yours  in  the  faith  and  love  of  the  Gospel, 

John  Bom),  \ 

J.  M.  King,  | 

Thomas  Snape,      [      Secretaries. 
W.  I.  Sha«,         j 
Wesley's  Chapel, 

City  Boad,  London, 
September,  1901. 

The  Rev.  Albert  Clayton  also  moved  the  adoption  of  tho  follow- 
ing recommendation  of  the  Business  Comniitte'e  in  regard  to 
Foreign  Missions,  Evangelistic  work  and  Women's  work,  to'  which 
the  Conference  agreed :  "  That  the  Executive  Committee  be 
requested  to  arrange  the  programme  of  the  next  (Ecumenical  Con- 
ference so  that  Foreign  Missions,  Evangelistic  work  in  our  great 
cities,  and  the  work  of  women  throughout  Methodism  may  be  taken 
at  a  time  when  full  oonsideratio'n  may  be  given  to  them." 

In  response  to  a  special  reoommendation  which  had  been  sent 
to  the  Business  Committee,  it  was  agreed  that  the  Bev.  Young 
J.  Allen,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South),  a  dis- 
tinguished returned  missionary  from  China,  should  have  a  special 
opportunity  given  to  him  of  addressing  the  Conference  after  the 
two  appointed  addresses  on  the  following  day. 

The  Rev.  John  Bond  (Secretai-y),  on  behalf  of  the  Editorial 
Committee,  requested  that  all  corrected  pi'oofs  not  already  returned 
be  at  once  sent  to  the  Rev.  A.  Crombie  (Convener),  at  119,  Salis- 
bury Square,  Fleet  Street,  E.C.  -r 

The  Rev.  William  Redfern  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches) 
then  read  the  (Ecumenical  Address  to  Methodists  throughout  the 
world,  which,  with  some  slight  alterations  and  additions,  was 
adopted.     The  amended  address  is  as  follows  : 

\\e,  the  members  of  the  third  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference, 
now  assembled  in  Wesley's  Chnpel,  London,  send  our  fraternal  greet- 
ings to  all  Methodists  througliout  the  world.  The  special  circumstances 
of  our  meeting  have  taken  us  back  to  the  days  of  old.  In  this  hallowed 
and  historic  place,  where  the  apostolic  and  revered  John  Wesley  lies 


508  ADDRESS   TO    THE   CHURCHES. 

burled,  his  name  appeals  to  iis  with  unique  power.  We  have  vividly 
realised  our  historic  continuity,  our  living  fellowship,  and  the  precious 
heritage  of  the  past  committed  to  our  care.  But  we  have  also  felt  the 
power  of  the  present.  Through  your  representatives  we  have  been 
brought  into  direct  sympathy  with  you.  We  have  heard  you  speak  to 
us  through  them.  Our  hearts  have  been  filled  with  a  great  faith  in 
your  future.  We  desire,  therefore,  before  we  separate  and  return  to 
our  widely-scattered  homes,  to  send  you  a  message  of  encouragement 
and  sympathy,  which  has  been  graciously  borne  in  upon  us  by  God 
during  the  course  of  our  deliberations.  We  can  never  cease  to  pray 
that  God  may  bless  you  with  all  spiritual  blessings  in  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord. 

Years,  and  even  decades,  pass  quickly,  but  we  see  with  joy  the 
signal  advance  made  by  universal  Methodism  since  we  met  in  Washing- 
ton in  1891.  It  is  computed  that  tliere  are  now  nearly  eight  million 
members  in  our  different  Methodist  folds,  not  including  upwards  of 
twenty-eight  million  adherents — an  increase  of  more  than  one  million 
members,  and  three  million  adherents,  during  the  past  ten  years. 
Our  Foreign  Missions  are  fast  spreading  throughout  all  heathen- 
dom. The  Twentieth  Century  Funds  indicate  not  only  the  growing 
wealth,  but  also  the  cheerful  liberality  and  the  aggressiveness  of  our 
people.  There  has  also  been  progress  in  the  culture  and  scholarship  of 
Methodism,  and  especially  marked  has  this  progress  been  with  regard 
to  our  coloured  brethren,  who,  for  eloquence,  thought,  and  power,  have 
surpassed  all  expectations.  Untrodden  areas  are  being  occupied  one 
after  another  by  the  Methodist  preacher.  Methodism  is  now  a  world- 
fact,  the  largest  of  all  the  English-speaking  Protestant  communities,  a 
potent  energy  everywhere  working  for  civilisation,  an  incomparable  in- 
strument, humanly  speaking,  for  the  evangelisation  of  the  race. 

It  was,  of  course,  to  be  expected  that  in  our  Conference  the  senti- 
ment of  Methodist  Union  should  receive  an  impetus.  All  the  choice 
spirits  of  Methodism  are  praying  for  it,  even  though  for  the  present 
they  may  deem  it  to  be  impracticable.  The  story  of  the  progress  and 
triumphs  of  United  Methodism  in  Canada  is  itself  the  strongest  of  all 
arguments  for  Union,  and  since  the  last  CEcumenical  Conference,  partly 
as  a  result  of  what  took  place  in  that  Conference,  Methodist  Union  has 
been  consummated  in  Australasia.  Dreamers  are  already  dreaming  of 
a  United,  or,  at  least.  Federated  Methodism  on  each  side  of  the 
Atlantic.  Dreamers  are  often  the  truest  prophets.  As  Oliver  Crom- 
well said  :  "  A  man  never  mounts  so  high  as  when  he  knows  not  whither 
he  is  going."  One  thing  is  clear :  the  trend  of  Methodism  is  in  the 
right  direction.  Nor  can  we  be  too  thankful  that  the  secret  of  this 
dream  of  Union  and  the  desire  for  it  lies  in  a  deep,  rich,  common  spiri- 
tual experience  ;  for  the  nearer  we  get  to  God  the  nearer  do  we  get  to 
one  another. 

From  this  GEcumenical  vantage  ground  we  are  able  to  see,  perhaps 
with  exceptional  clearness,  the  vital  brotherhood  and  the  growing  sense 
of  brotherliood  between  the  two  great  nations  of  the  English-speaking 


ADDRESS   TO   THE    CHURCHES.  509 

race.  In  our  view,  this  is  fhe  most  notable  fad  of  mir  time,  the  greatest 
of  all  guarantees  for  the  freedom,  peace,  and  progress  of  the  world. 
In  this  unifying  process  Methodism  has  been,  and  still  is,  a  factor. 
English  and  American  Methodists  love  each  other  all  the  more  because 
they  are  Methodists.  Probably  at  no  time,  not  even  when  the  beloved 
Queen  Victoria  passed  away,  has  this  feeling  of  brotherhood  been  more 
powerfully  evoked  than  during  the  last  few  days  in  our  gatherings. 
The  news  of  the  cruel  assassination  of  President  William  MoKinley 
touched  with  terrible  intensity  a  responsive  chord  in  every  breast.  The 
mighty  emotion  which  passed  over  our  Conference  c:ni  never  be  for- 
gotten. Those  of  us  who  belong  to  the  British  Empire  admired  the 
departed  President  as  the  Chief  of  a  great  people  bound  to  us  by  the 
threefold  tie  of  blood,  language,  and  religion  ;  but  we  loved  him  as  a 
Methodist  in  whose  public  career  and  personal  character  the  Spirit  of 
Jesus  Christ  so  beautifully  shone.  The  lonely  widowed  lady  will  be 
remembered  in  our  prayers.  By  a  tragic  coincidence  the  lamented  death 
of  President  Garfield  took  place  during  the  sittings  of  the  first  (Ecumeni- 
cal Conference  in  London  in  1881.  Lincoln,  Garfield,  and  McKinley— 
what  glorious  sons  of  a  great  i>eople  1  The  three  stricken  Presidents  by 
their  deaths,  even  more,  it  may  be,  than  by  their  lives,  have  done  much 
to  make  the  two  nations  in  sympathy  indissolubly  one.  The  path  of 
progress  is  indeed  one  of  agony.     "  It  is  God's  way.     His  will  be  done  !  " 

Still  further,  it  may  be  claimed  that  Methodism  is  destined  to  play 
an  influential  part  in  the  future  expansion  of  the  whole  English-speaking 
race.  Some  of  its  empires — if  so  we  may  call  them — Canada,  Austral- 
asia, and  South  Africa,  are  in  the  making.  America  has  still  its  influx 
of  foreign  populations  to  assimilate.  The  old  country  has  its  own 
problems  not  less  formidable.  How  can  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  in  all 
its  branches  be  truly  Christianised?  Methodism  must  have  a  voice  in 
answering  the  momentous  question.  Into  politics,  as  such,  it  must  not 
intrude.  But  politics  are  ultimately  determined  and  controlled  by 
spiritual  forces,  and  Methodism  is  a  world-wide  spiritual  force.  It 
deals  with  the  individual.  It  works  for  the  conversion  of  the  man.  It 
creates  happy  homes.  It  befriends  the  poor,  and  it  preaches  the 
stewardship  of  wealth.  It  believes  in  the  Kingship  of  Jesus  Christ. 
It  stands  by  the  ethics  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  It  is  the  in- 
veterate foe  of  drink,  gambling,  and  social  impurity — the  three  deadly 
scourges  of  the  people.  It  makes  for  righteousness,  thrift,  brother- 
hood, domesticity,  education,  purity,  simplicity,  and  just  as  in  the 
early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  it  helped  to  make  reforms  in  this 
country  beneficent  and  bloodless,  so  it  must  be  an  ever-increasing  and 
saving  power  in  the  future  development  of  the  English-speaking  race  all 
over  the  globe. 

As  the  social  conscience  becomes  more  educated  and  sensitive  the 
cry  against  social  wrongs  waxes  more  and  more  vehement.  To  this 
cry  Methodists  cannot  turn  a  deaf  ear.  Whatever  will  enhance  the 
happiness  of  the  world,  whatever  will  make  our  large  cities  better  worth 
living  in — cleaner,  healthier,  brighter,  with  better  and  cheaper  schools, 


5IO 


ADDRESS    TO   THE    CHURCHES. 


with  fiiwor  Icinptatiniis  in  the  way  of  young  people,  with  h^ss  poverty 
and  squalor,  with  nobler  incentives  to  the  right,  with  more  of  open 
doors  of  ojiportunity — whatever  brings  brotherhood  nearer,  will  touch 
the  heart  of  the  true  Methodist.  Emphatically  would  we  call  on  you 
to  stand  by  the  cause  of  Temperance.  More  than  anything  else,  the 
drink  trade  debases,  corrupts,  and  desolates  all  classes  of  society.  It  is 
the  arch-enemy  of  morals  and  religion.  Fight  it  to  the  death  in  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ ! 

It  cannot  be  too  strongly  pressed  home  that  the  genius  of  Metho- 
dism is  evangelistic  and  missionary.  Evangelism  made  Methodism. 
John  Wesley  lived  to  save  souls.  He  saw  more  clearly  than  perhaps 
any  other  man  since  St.  Paul  the  glorious  meaning  of  salvation  by 
faith,  and  he  preached  it  to  the  people.  He  was  imbued  also  with  mis- 
sionary enthusiasm,  for  Missions  and  Evangelism  are  essentially  one. 
We  rejoice  to  know  that  the  work  of  Foreign  Missions  throughout 
Methodism  is  being  prosecuted  with  untiring  energy  and  with  distin- 
guished ability,  and  we  beseech  you  to  support  the  work  to  the  utmost 
of  your  power.  Let  your  missionary  enterprise  be  aggressive,  bold,  and 
liberal.  The  duty  of  evangelising  the  people  at  your  own  doors  is  of 
almost  equal  urgency,  and  it  is  a  most  glorious  and  promising  fact  that 
the  strongest  and  best  men  in  Methodism  to-day  are  intensely  evan- 
gelistic. We  pray  you  all  to  come  nearest  to  those  who  need  you  most. 
Carry  the  Gospel  to  the  poorest  of  the  poor,  and  compel  them  to  think 
about  the  Saviour.  Particularly  may  we  impress  upon  you  how  suit- 
ably in  this  work  you  may  enlist  the  ministry  of  good,  sympathetic,  and 
consecrated  women.  Methodist  culture  and  refinement  must  be  laid  at 
the  foot  of  the  cross. 

There  is  no  subject  which  Methodists  are  called  upon  to  consider 
more  deeply  and  seriously  than  the  doctrine  of  the  Church.  John 
Wesley  himself  laid  great  emphasis  upon  it,  and  within  the  past  ten 
years  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Conference  has  officially  discarded  the 
word  "  Society  "  and  substituted  for  it  the  word  "  Church,"  as  recognis- 
ing its  spiritual  and  ecclesiastical  status.  The  change  is  Scriptural  and 
deeply  significant.  Every  duly  organised  Methodist  Society,  if  made 
up  of  converted  people,  is  a  Church.  Where  Christ  is,  there  is  the 
Church,  and,  to  use  His  own  words,  "  Where  two  or  three  are  gathered 
together  in  My  Name  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them."  The  Church  is 
the  Body  of  Christ,  the  fulness  of  Him  that  filleth  all  in  all  Sacer- 
dotalism, although  intellectually  groundless,  is  louder  than  ever  in  its 
pretensions,  the  priest  claiming  to  pervert  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  into  a  propitiatory  sacrifice,  claiming  to  hol^  the  keys  of  the 
Kingdom,  and  daring  to  dishonour  the  crown  riglits  of  our  Redeemer. 
To  this,  not  the  least  important  antidote  is  the  New  Test-ament  concep- 
tion of  the  Church.  No  priest  and  no  State  can  make  or  unmake  the- 
Church,  but  only  Christ,  its  unseen  Lord.  We  counsel  you  to  value 
your  membership  with  the  Church.  Put  into  it  your  best — not  wood, 
and  hay,  and  stubble,  but  gold,  and  silver,  and  precious  stones.  Be- 
lieve in  the  communion  of  saints.  We  plead  also  for  the  greater  effi- 
ciency of  the  Methodist  pulpit.     While  disowning  all  priestly  preten- 


ADDRESS    TO    THE    CTIURTHES.  «;  1 1 

sions,  yet  holding,  as  we  do,  that  the  ministry  is  called  of  G„.l  for  the 
perfecting  of  the  saints,  and  is  justified  by  historic  expcdiomy  and  ad- 
vantage, we  ask  you  to  consider  how  best  to  promote  the  culture  and 
effectiveness  of  the  ministry.  Do  not  despise  the  preaching  of  the 
Word.  Produce  local  preachers  in  greater  abundance,  and  love  them 
for  their  work's  sake.  Promote  in  every  way  you  can  a  wider  reverence 
for  the  Sabbath.  Especially  ought  you  to  recognise  the  sanctity  and 
dignity  of  the  ordained  Sacraments  of  Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper, 
and  to  avoid  all  that  is  unseemly  and  irregular  in  the  observance  of 
them.  The  loving  care  of  all  young  people  in  the  Church  was  never 
more  important  than  it  is  to-day.  Nor  must  we  forbear  to  call  your 
attention  to  the  commanding  imjjortance  of  the  old-fashioned  prayer- 
meeting  and  the  class-meeting.  A  Church  without  prayer  and  ttsti- 
niony,  whatever  its  worldly  resources,  has  seen  its  best  days. 

As  you  guard  the  sanctity  of  the  Church,  so  guard  the  sanctity  of  the 
home.  Family  ties  are  as  old  as  humanity  ;  let  them  be  neither 
weakened  nor  relaxed.  In  these  days,  when  the  world  is  too  much 
with  us,  it  may  not  be  unnecessary  for  us  to  enjoin  upon  you  the  duty 
of  family  prayer,  and  of  the  definite  religious  instruction  of  your  chil- 
dren. "And  ye,  fathers,  provoke  not  your  children  unto  wrath,  but 
bring  them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord." 

But,  after  all,  the  true  strength  of  Methodism  lies,  as  in  the  old  days, 
in  the  individual,  happy,  confident  experience  of  God.  The  Methodist 
saints  of  old,  carrying  about  with  them  the  assurance  of  pardon,  enjoy- 
ing the  witness  of  the  Spirit,  realising  in  their  own  lives  the  victorious 
power  of  Christ  to  conquer  inbred  sin,  gifted  with  ^he  power  of  long 
continuance  in  prayer,  deeply  versed  in  the  Word,  consumed  with  holy 
passion  for  the  conversion  of  their  fellow-men,  were  the  men  who  built 
Methodism.  Yet  they  indulged  in  no  self-laudation,  either  personal  or 
sectarian,  so  reverently  did  they  adore  their  Lord.  They  welcomed  tlie 
burden  of  personal  responsibility  for  their  work,  and  they  gathered 
personal  inspiration  from  the  warm  breath  of  the  living  God.  They 
dwelt  near  to  the  heart  of  things.  They  knelt  at  the  foot  of  the  cross. 
Oh,  for  a  return  to  the  old  Methodist  saintlTness !  Why  should  there 
not  be  a  league  of  prayer  by  all  Methodists  for  this  crowning  blessing 
of  perfect  holiness?  Then  should  we  have  a  revival  of  religion  which 
would  fill  the  coming  decade  and  encircle  the  whole  world. 

"  Grace  be  to  you  and  peace  from  God  our  Father  and  from  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Grace  be  with  all  them  that  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
in  sincerity.     Amen." 

The  Doxoiogy  was  then  sung  and  the  Benediction  was  pro- 
nounced. 


512  BUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS. 


TWELFTH  DAY,  Tuesday,  Septemher  17,  1901. 


TOPIC : 
FOREIGN    MISSIONS. 

FIRST     SESSION. 


The  Confereoice  resumed  its  sittings  at  10  a.m.,  the  Rev.  T. 
Bowman  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyaii  Methodist  Church), 
presiding.  The  Rev.  Prof.  W.  I.  Shaw,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist 
Church  of  Canada),  read  a  poi'tion  of  Scripture  and  offered  prayer. 

The  Rev.  J.  Bond  (Secretary)  read  the  Daily  Record  for  Monday, 
which  wa.8  confimiied. 

The  Rev.  C.  W.  Baldwin,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  in 
presenting  a  gavel  to  the  President,  said : 

I  hold  in  my  hand  an  article  which  is  made  of  some  historic  Methodist 
wood  of  America,  which  I  wish  to  present  to  the  Conference.  On 
July  4,  1776,  when  the  men  were  engaged  in  putting  their  signatures 
to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  a  man  from  Maryland  wrote  his 
name — Charles  Carroll,  of  Carolina.  The  section  of  the  State  of  Mary- 
land in  which  I  have  the  honour  of  working,  and  supervising  a  county, 
has  heem  carved  out  of  other  counties  and  named  in  honour  of  that 
man — Carroll  County.  Ahout  thirteen  years  before  that  signature  by 
Carroll,  an  Irishman  came  to  America  and  located  in  Carroll  County. 
While  Philip  Embury  was  waiting  for  the  call  of  Barbara  Heck  to 
quit  playing  cards,  and  go  to  work  preaching  the  Gospel,  according 
to  the  commission  he  had  received,  Robert  Strawbridge  began  to  found 
the  Methodist  Church  in  America.  He  established  it  at  Sam's  Creek, 
building  the  first  Methodist  meeting-house  in  America,  and  preaching 
the  Gospel  under  an  old  oak  tree  that  stands  to  this  day  over  a  spring 
where  he  baptised  the  first  converts  without  any  ordination  papers. 
I  secured  a  piece  of  the  wood  from  that  old  log  chapel,  of  which  the  head 
of  this  gavel  is  made,  and  a  small  branch  from  that  live  oak  tree,  of 
which  the  handle  is  made. 

I  wish  to  have  the  life  our  of  presenting  this  gavel  to  the  CEcumenical 
Conference,  and  I  should  like  at  least  one  session  of  it  to  be  kept  in 
order  by  the  gavel  in  the  hands  of  our  honoured  President.  I  wished 
to  have  the  head  of  Strawbridge  carved  upon  it,  but  we  have  no  likeness 


ESSAY   OF   REV.   FREDERICK  GALPIN.  513 

of  Strawbridgc.  Recently  we  have  had  a  Hall  of  Fame  built  in  America, 
and  the  names  of  our  great  men  have  been  placed  therein,  but  it  was 
necessary  that  they  be  native-born  Americans.  One  of  the  leading 
papers  of  our  country  said  that  if  foreign-born  men  had  not  been 
excluded  the  name  of  Francis  Asbury  should  have  gone  into  that  Hall 
of  Fame.  If  the  Conference,  after  this  session,  will  allow,  I  wish  to 
put  the  face  of  Asbury  thereon,  and  on  one  side  the  Union  Jack  and 
on  the  other  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  I  believe  that  in  this  hour, 
especially,  when  the  English  and  the  American  nations  are  drawn  so 
closely  together  in  this  time  of  our  trouble,  that  no  man  ever  lived 
who  has  done  so  much  to  lay  the  foundation  of  this  amity  and  friend- 
ship as  Francis  Asbury,  and  that  his  work  in  America  has  ultimately 
brought  these  two  nations  so  close  together.  Accordingly,  I  have  the 
honour  of  presenting  this  gavel  to  the  Conference, 

The  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (President),  in  response, 

said: 

It  is  a  privilege  to  me,  as  being  Chairman  to-day,  that  this  presenta- 
tion passes  through  my  hands  to  the  Conference.  I  am  thankful  for 
the  kindly  words  which  were  expressed  by  our  friend.  For  myself, 
I  have  long  wished  that  there  were  in  this  venerable  chapel — the  pillars 
of  which  represent  the  Methodist  Churches  of  the  world,  the  windows 
of  which  represent  the  younger  branches  of  the  Methodist  Church, 
coming  back  to  the  mother  in  their  sympathy  and  love — one  window 
representing  Bishop  Simpson,  the  honoured  man  who  preached  the 
first  sermon  at  the  first  Qlloumenical  Methodist  Conference,  another 
window  representing  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Methodism  in  the  Southern 
seas.  I  wish  that  in  this  historic  Wesley's  Chapel — there  are  a  great 
many  Wesley  Chapels,  but  only  one  Wesley's  Chapel— =1  wish  that 
some  memorial  of  Francis  Asbury,  that  could  be  seen  by  all  men,  were 
to  be  found  here.  Perhaps  some  day  we  may  see  that.  In.  the  mean- 
time, I  thank,  in  the  name  of  the  Conference,  our  friend  who  has 
made  this  presentation,  and  when  it  is  duly  completed  we  will  take  care 
that  it  is  preserved  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  in  safety  until  the  time 
comes  when  it  may  be  needed  for  the  next  (Ecumenical  Conference 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

It  was  resolved  by  the  CJonference  that  the  Hon.  J.  H.  Choate, 
American  Ambassador  at  the  Court  of  St.  James',  should  be  notified 
immediately  of  the  afternoon  Memoirial  Service,  and  that  a  deputa- 
tion, consisting  of  the  Rev.  D.  Brook,  M.A.,  D.C.L.  (United  Method- 
ist Free  Churches),  on  behalf  of  the  Eastern  Section,  and  the  Revs. 
P.  H.  Whisner,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Cbm'oh,  South),  and 
W.  D.  PaiT,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  on  behalf  of  the 
Western  Section,  should  wait  upon  himi  and  request  his  attendance 
at  the  Service. 

The  Rev.  Frederick  Galpin  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches) 
then  opened  one  section  of  the  subject  of  Foreign  Missionsi,  with 
aji  essay  on  "  Missions :   The  Work  Before  Us."     He  said : 

The  supreme  purpose  of  Christian  missions  is  stated  in  our  Master's 
mandate  recorded  in  St.  Matthew's  Gospel,  xxviii.  19  and  20,  "Go  ye 
34 


514  FOREIGN   MISSIONS. 

therefore  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the 
Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Teacliing  them  to 
observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you :  and  lo,  I  am 
with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.  Amen."  The  object 
and  aim  of  our  work  is  so  to  preach  and  teach  that  the  great  personality 
and  world-wide  mission  of  Jesus  Christ  may  be  known  by  all.  The 
Saviour  came,  worked,  died,  and  rose  again  that  "they  might  have  life." 
The  object  is  to  place  Heaven's  free  gift  within  the  reach  of  every 
individual.  Our  duty  is  clear,  to  freely  use  all  our  resources  with  a 
view  to  saving  all.  The  task  is  tremendous.  It  seems  almost  im- 
possible ;  but  we  have  a  great  Saviour,  and  we  dare  not  say  that  His 
resources  are  exhausted,  or  His  power  is  limited.  His  arm  is  not 
shortened.  Thank  God,  the  Gospel  is  still  "  the  power  of  God  unto 
salvation,  to  every  one  that  believeth."  Our  object  cannot  be  accom- 
plished by  the  mechanical  movement  of  Church  machinery,  such  as  the 
use  of  the  sacraments,  regardless  of  teaching,  and  without  discrimina- 
tion of  life  and  character.  We  can  only  approve  of  wholesale  bap- 
tisms when  we  are  assured  of  wholesale  conversions. 

The  mission  of  the  Methodist  Church  is  to  teach  the  pure  Gospel 
of  personal  salvation  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  It  is'  salvation  from  sin, 
and  is  to  be  made  known  by  the  fruits  of  a  pure  life.  We  have 
promised  allegiance  and  obedience  to  our  Master.  We  must  remember 
that  He  stands  to  us  as  a  Lawgiver  as  well  as  a  Saviour.  Our  ministry 
means  a  rousing  call  to  awaken  men  from  the  death  sleep  of  sin.  We 
are  to  throw  a  penetrating  search-light  upon  the  darkness,  and  work 
to  produce  personal  conviction  and  actual  repentance  in  heart  and  life. 
How  can  we  be  true  to  the  traditions  of  our  beloved  Church  ;  how  can 
we  be  loyal  to  Jesus  Christ,  unless  we  are  faithful  to  our  duty  ? 

The  "work  before  us"  means  the  greatest  mission,  the  noblest 
purpose,  and  the  loftiest  aim  possible  to  man  in  this  life.  Compared 
with  all  other  great  movements,  such  as  the  interests  of  commerce, 
politics,  social  betterment,  or  tiie  spread  of  modem  civilisation,  the 
work  of  the  Church  to  extend  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth  stands  in 
the  front  rank  without  a  rival,  undoubtedly  the  most  noble  aim.  It 
is  confronted  with  great  diflSculties  to  be  overcome — ^the  jealousy  and 
bigotry  of  the  non-Christian  religions,  the  hardness  and  unresponsive- 
ness of  the  prejudiced  mind,  the  dulness  and  diflficulty  of  perception, 
the  distrust  and  doubt  if  there  really  is  any  good  thing  to  be  revealed 
in  this  life  ;  as  well  as  the  suspicion  as  to  the  motives  and  aims  of 
the  teachers  of  the  new  and  strange  religion.  Then  there  are  the 
difficulties  on  the  part  of  the  missionary,  the  inability  of  the  inex- 
perienced to  understand  and  adapt  himself  to  the  situation,  the  language 
obstacle,  and  often  the  climate  trouble — all  these  combined  make  the 
work  most  difficult,  as  well  as  most  noble. 

The  extecQt  of  the  work  is  clearly  stated :  "  Go  ye,  therefore,  and 
teach  air  nations."  In  Eevelation  xiv.  6,  the  extent  is  thus  impres- 
sively presented  :  "  And  I  saw  another  angel  fly  in  the  midst  of  heaven, 
having  the  Everlasting  Gospel  to  preach  unto  them  thai  dweU  on  the 
earth,  and  to  every  nation,  and  kindred,  and  tongue,  and  people." 


ESSAY   OF   REV.    FREDERICIt   GALPIN.  515 

This  certainly  means  a  world-wide  work  for  the  Church,  and  a  work  to 
be  ever  kept,  in  vie^v.  In  recent  years  it  has  been  suggested  that 
within  the  present  generation,  a  universal  evangelistic  movement  should 
be  attempted,  so  that  Jesus  Christ  may  be  known  in  every  centre  of  the 
inhabited  world,  and  that  it  may  be  possible  for  every  individual  to 
know  Him  if  they  desire. 

I  assume  that  we  regard  the  Divine  command  as  binding  and  in  full 
force,  and  that  we  arc  under  the  most  solemn  obligations  to  attempt 
to  obey  it  ;  and  that  our  avowed  intention  and  purpose  is  a  loyal  and 
faithful  observance  of  this  great  and  final  law,  laid  upon  the  Church 
by  Christ  Himself.  We  may  do  well  to  pause  a  moment,  and  ask 
ourselves  whether  we  rightly  estimate  the  force  and  character  of  this 
obligation,  to  make  known  the  love  and  work  of  Christ  to  all  men. 
It  is  only  right  to  say  that  if  the  Church  resolved  to  create  a  new 
Decalogue  according  to  the  mind  and  teaching  of  Christ,  it  would  be 
necessary  to  give  a  prominent  place  to  the  command  to  undertake 
the  duty  of  world-wide  evangelisation.  This  mission  is  made  sacred  to 
us,  not  only  by  the  life,  but  by  the  death  of  Christ  on  the  cross. 
He  has  been  "  lifted  up  from  the  earth,"  and  it  is  ours  to  take  to 
heart  the  duty  of  making  Him  known,  tjaat  we  may  help  "  to  draw  aU 
men  unto  Him."  *  ■^' 

Secondly,  How  can  we  help  onward  "  the  work  before  us "  ?  We 
must  be  possessed  by  a  clear  and  true  missionary  view  of  the  extensive 
needs,  and  condition  of  the  heathen  world  ;  and  also  attempt  to  make 
the  vision  widespread,  until  it  permeates  the  entire  Methodist  Church, 
East  and  West. 

Perhaps  our  first  need  is  a  correct  and  true  missionary  perspective. 
It  is  our  duty  to  cultivate  the  missionary  imagination,  and  prepare  the 
way  for  a  passion  for  missions.  We  must  clear  the  ground,  remove 
misconceptions,  and  destroy  indifference  and  apathy  by  the  fire  of  a 
Christ-like  enthusiasm.  It  is  much  to  be  lamented  and  deplored,  that 
after  a  century's  work  of  splendid  enterprise,  there  still  exists  such 
astonishing  ignorance  in  Christendom  and  Methodism  regarding  this 
great  work.  The  Church  is  only  imperfectly  awake  to  the  condition 
of  the  heathen.  Dust  is  thrown  in  the  eyes  of  many  people,  by  writers 
in  the  secular  Press,  or  by  the  pride  and  self-satisfaction  of  the  leaders 
and  rulers  of  civilised  heathen  lands.  Charity  prompts  us  to  believe 
that  many  writers  are  innocently  led  astray,  because  of  the  existence 
of  certain  verbal  resemblances  in  the  ethics  of  some  heathen  nations, 
to  the  sayings  of  Jesus  ;  which  agreements  are  magnified  and  so  pre- 
sented that  the  great  moral  divergence  in  life  and  influence  is  over- 
looked. 

An  unpleasant  duty  is  left  to  missionaries,  to  point  out  that  such 
teaching  could  not  even  in  its  golden  days  compete  wath  the  fulness 
and  richness  of  the  Gospel  power,  and  that  now  in  most  oases  it  is 
but  a  dead  letter.  The  external  polish  of  culture  and  depvortment, 
80  prominent  in  the  ethics  of  China,  can  exist  in  comfort  side  by  side 
witti  a  corruption  and  wickedness  hardly  realised  in  Western  lands. 
It  is  our  duty  to  clear  away  such  gross  misconceptions,  and  to  hold  up 


5l6  FOREIGN   MISSIONS. 

to  view  tTic  true  inwardness  of  heathen  civilisation  ;  and  to  bring  home 
to  the  universal  Church  the  sad  and  solemn  fact,  that  "  the  dark 
l^laces  of  the  earth  are  full  of  the  habitations  of  cruelty."  The  darkness 
may  be  hidden  under  the  glamour  of  a  superficial  polish,  but  it  exists, 
and  cruelty,  too  ;  as  may  be  seen  in  any  crisis  of  misfortune,  sickness, 
pain,  or  death.  If  there  be  a  religion  in  heathen  lands  it  exists  only 
in  name  ;  it  knows  not  how  to  pity  the  suffering.  It  may  congratulate 
the  strong  and  smile  upon  the  great,  it  may  even  preach  a  gospel — • 
to  the  rich — 'but  it  has  no  message  for  the  poor,  no  comfort  for  woman, 
and  certainly  speaks  no  blessing  upon  little  children. 

Many  in  Christendom,  and  I  am  afraid  that  some  in  Methodism, 
are  alarmingly  indifferent  in  regard  to  Foreign  Missions,  because  they 
have  changed  their  view  in  regard  to  the  future  life  of  the  heathen  ; 
they  believe  in  "  the  larger  hope."  I  wish  they  would  be  eager  to  pro- 
duce a  present  hope.  We  want  a  joyous,  happy,  and  hopeful  life  now. 
A  true  perspective  of  heatheniism  will  reveal  a  present  life  of  sin  and 
iniquity  ;  and  sin  means  misery  in  this  life  sooner  or  later,  all  too 
soon  for  those  who  are  sinned  against.  To  excuse  ourselves  from 
duty  because  of  a  possible  deliverance  in  another  age  is  not  Christ- 
like. I  do  not  like  the  terminology  of  the  idea.  It  is  not  a  larger 
hope  if  it  is  to  be  postponed  to  an  unknown  date,  it  is  only  a  small 
hope  at  the  best,  and  Methodists  will  do  well  to  work  as  if  they  had 
never  heard  the  suggestion. 

The  true  missionary  perspective  will  also  give  us  a  view  of  the  past. 
It  will  reveal  our  debt  to  the  early  missionary  movement,  the  debt 
we  owe  to  Christ,  and  to  the  devoted  men  who  brought  us  the  gift  of 
salvation.  A  true  perspective  will  also  inspire  us  with  a  vision  of 
present  possibilities,  and  a  strong  hope  to  be  realised  in  the  immediate 
future.  "  Lift  up  your  eyes  and  look  on  the  fields  ;  for  they  are  white 
already  unto  harvest." 

Further,  we  must  urge  the  entire  Methodist  Church  to  realise  "  The 
Missionary  Call."  If  there  is  any  indifference  and  apathy  now,  it 
exists  because  the  work  of  missions  does  not  occupy  its  true  place 
in  the  Church.  We  must  call  upon  our  people  to  remember  that 
Methodism  has  attained  to  its  present  prominent  position  mainly 
because  of  its  unfailing  fidelity  to  its  one  great  and  distinctive  duty 
as  a  leading  evangelistic  organisation.  We  must  beware  lest  the 
impulse  handed  doAvn  to  us  by  our  great  founder,  Jolin  Wesley, 
should  be  lost.  Our  watchword  ought  still  to  be,  "  The  world  is  my 
parish."  If  we  live  in  a  larger  world  than  was  known  in  the  early  days 
of  Methodism,  we  must  remember  that  our  present  resources  are  as 
great  as  our  modern  knowledge.  » 

Will  a  survey  of  our  present  missionary  work  satisfy  the  Methodist 
conscience?  The  Methodist  conscience  ought  to  bear  a  striking  re- 
semblance to  the  earnest,  tireless,  and  generous  soul  of  John  Wesley. 
Can  we  hear  the  rousing  call,  the  nervous,  energetic,  powerful,  loving 
notes  of  the  noble  man  whose  name  and  work  we  revere  and  honour  ? 
To  maintain  its  fidelity  the  Methodist  conscience  must  cultivate  a 
powerful    missionary   conscience,    in   labours    more  abundant.     How 


ESSAY  OF   REV.   FREDERICK   GALPIN.  517 

does  our  present  work  compare  with  others?  Consider  seriously  the 
missionary  conscience  of  the  devoted  Moravians.  It  was  affirmed  in 
thi  (Ecumenical  Missionary  Conference  held  in  New  York  last  year 
that  "the  Moravians  have  for  every  fifty-eight  communicants  in  the 
home  Churches  a  missionary  in  the  foreign  fields  " !  We  have  still  a 
great  work  to  do  to  bring  home  to  Methodism  the  "  missionary  call." 

Thirdly,  the  work  before  us  on  the  field.  The  time  limit  will  only 
permit  a  passing  reference  to  the  work  already  accomplished  by  Metho- 
dism in  the  past  century.  We  are  all  grateful  to  our  Mother  Church, 
the  British  Wesleyan  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  for  its  splendid 
record  of  'Service  rendered  in  past  years.  I  suppose  that  all  the  other 
Churches  represented  here  at  this  Conference  owe  their  existence, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  Mother  Church.  We  rejoice  that  the  Wes- 
leyan Missionary  Society  has  now  under  its  care  a  great  organisation, 
extending  almost  world-wide,  and  especially  strong  in  Africa,  India, 
and  China.  I  feel,  as  a  member  of  one  of  the  Junior  English  Churches, 
that  we  are  a  long  way  behind  the  parent  Church  in  regard  to  Foreign 
Mission  work.  If  I  read  the  Wesleyan  statistics  correctly,  fifteen  per 
cent,  of  the  ministers  are  engaged  in  Foreign  Missions,  exclusive  of 
those  working  in  the  French,  South  African,  and  West  Indian  Con- 
ferences ;  and  if  these  Conferences  are  included  the  average  is  nearly 
thirty  per  cent.  Concerning  the  American  Methodist  Episcopal  and 
other  Missions  in  the  Western  Section  I  need  not  speak,  as  Dr.  Leo- 
nard, who  is  to  follow  me,  is  well  qualified  to  discharge  that  duty. 

I  must  proceed  to  my  third  point.  A  great  world-wide  field  is  in 
need  of  a  world-wide  evangelistic  movement.  I  am  not  overlooking  or 
disregarding  the  great  work  carried  on  by  other  Protestant  Churches, 
but,  after  making  every  allowance  for  work  done,  it  is  still  a  solemn 
and  pathetic  fact  that  a  world-wide  field  yet  awaits  the  work  of  the 
evangelist.  The  Master's  mandate  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  crea- 
ture appeals  especially  to  us,  because  we  are  compelled  to  be  evangelis- 
tic. We  must  largely  increase  the  strength  of  our  evangelistic  force. 
In  the  first  place,  we  ought  to  aim  to  greatly  increase  the  number  of 
permanent  and  powerful  evangelists.  The  work  demands  mighty  mis- 
sioners,  possessed  of  great  organising  power  and  ability.  I  know  that 
to  gather  in  saved  men  and  Avomen,  and  by  pastoral  care  and  oversight 
to  form  such  communities  into  native  Churches,  who  shall  be  taught 
"  all  things  that  are  commanded  thee  of  God,"  is  as  great  a  work  as 
evangelistic  enterprise,  but  the  eternal  command  is,  "Go!"  extend, 
expand.  We  are  compelled  to  consider  the  great  multitudes  who  are 
still  in  darkness. 

We  need  a  Forward  Movement  on  the  Foreign  Mission  field  as  much, 
or  more  than  it  is  required  at  home.  Is  it  too  great  a  demand  to  make 
if  we  ask  that  the  Churches  of  the  Eastern  Section  should  aim  to  send 
out  one  thousand  evangelists  within  the  next  ten  years  ?  If  this  Con- 
ference is  not  a  judgment  day,  it  ought  to  be  a  time  of  earnest  reckon- 
ing, and  a  season  of  Pentecostal  power.  The  Western  Section  might 
resolve  to  place  five  thousand  more  men  in  the  field  in  the  same  period 
of  time.    We  might  encourage  the  work  of  short  service  evangelists, 


5l8  FOREIGN   MISSIONS. 

men  specially  selected  because  of  their  power  and  fitness  for  such 
work ;  workers  with  large  hearts  full  of  compassion,  who  readily  take 
to  heart  the  condition  and  needs  of  the  people,  and  who  are  capable 
of  strenuous  toil,  and  full  of  burning  enthusiasm.  Many  a  talented 
minister,  and  also  many  equally  talented  laymen,  might  undertake  such 
a  mission  with  splendid  results  abroad,  and  no  less  advantages  at 
home.  The  actual  work,  the  real  mission  field,  would  then  be  better 
understood  at  home,  many  misconceptions  would  be  cleared  away,  and 
give  place  to  a  truer  perspective  of  the  work  that  must  be  done.  We 
should  appeal  for  honorary  workers,  men  and  women  possessing  pri- 
vate means,  who  are  ready  to  consecrate  their  lives  and  their  all  to 
this  noble  service,  as  the  late  lamented  David  Hill  did  in  China, 
whose  name  will  never  be  forgotten.  I  speak  with  diffidence,  because 
of  my  imperfect  acquaintance  with  our  common  Methodist  life,  when  I 
say  that  I  fear  not  many  of  our  wealthy  families  are  found  following 
in  the  same  highway  of  consecration.  Why  is  this  so?  Other  English 
Missionary  Societies  are  blessed  with  several  such  honorary  workers. 
We  ought  also  to  encourage  and  help  to  make  efficient  and  effective  any 
voluntary  movements  that  can  place  a  number  of  useful  evangelists 
in  the  field.  I  mean  such  organisations  as  the  "  Joyful  News "  Mis- 
sion, conducted  by  the  Rev.  Thomas  Champness.  We  can  see  what  is 
possible  in  such  movements  by  the  growth  and  success  of  the  China 
Inland  Mission  and  the  Salvation  Army.  Surely  Methodism  is  able 
to  produce,  and  generously  sustain,  on  a  large  scale,  a  voluntary  work 
of  this  order,  affording  special  facilities  for  lay  workers  in  the  field. 

Fourthly,  special  mission  for  women  and  children.  Woman's  work 
ought  to  receive  some  notice,  if  only  to  place  on  record  the  great 
achievements  accomplished  in  recent  years.  The  (Ecumenical  Mis- 
sionary Conference,  held  in  New  York  last  year,  reported  a  total  num- 
ber of  missionaries,  men  and  women,  in  the  foreign  field  of  13,607. 
Of  these,  if  missionaries'  wives  are  included,  more  than  half  are  women, 
and  among  this  band  of  workers  are  about  3,400  single  women,  includ- 
ing 203  physicians.  These  results  speak  well  for  the  wisdom  and  suc- 
cess with  which  Women's  Boards  and  Women's  Missionary  Auxiliary 
Societies  are  organised.  We  must  encourage  them,  however,  to  more 
extended  work  in  the  immediate  future^  as  their  influence  will  be  seen 
in  the  work  for  the  children  who  will,  we  hope,  be  the  backbone  of  the 
native  Church  in  the  next  generation. 

The  work  before  us  includes  a  special  movement  to  reach  all  the 
heathen  children  in  the  present  generation.  Perhaps  there  is  more 
demand  for  a  great  work  in  schools  on  mission  fields  than  for  any 
other  part  of  our  enterprise.  The  extent  of  this  need  is  indeed  hard 
to  realise.  I  assume  that  there  are  not  less  than  400,000,000  heathen 
children  now  living  in  the  world.  There  are  probably  more.  How 
many  of  this  enormous  number  have  been  reached  by  modern  Pro- 
testant missions?  The  CEcumenical  Missionary  Conference  of  last 
year  reported  as  follows  :  Scholars  in  Day  Schools,  904,000  ;  in  Sunday 
Schools,  772,000 ;  in  Colleges,  High  Schools,  and  Kindergartens, 
145,000.     It  is  only  right 'to  assume  that  the  Sunday  School  scholars 


ESSAY   OF    REV.    FREDERICK    GAI.PIN.  519 

all  attend  the  Day  Schools  ;  there  may  be  a  few  thousands  who  do  not, 
but  the  number  is  not  large.  These  returns  show  that  only  one  in 
every  400  of  heathen  children  is  brought  under  the  influence  of  Chris- 
tian education  in  mission  schools.  We  may  hope  that  there  are  a 
number  of  little  children,  too  young  to  attend  school,  who  are  blessed 
with  some  of  the  advantages  of  Christian  influence,  which  they  receive 
from  a  Christian  father  or  mother.  There  must  be  also  a  large  num- 
ber of  young  people  who  have  left  school  after  having  received  some 
measure  of  Christian  education.  After  making  every  reasonable  allow- 
ance, we  are  compelled  to  admit  that  probably  only  one  out  of  every 
200  heathen  children  has  any  opportunity  of  enjoying  the  love  of  the 
children's  Saviour.  I  ask  you  to  consider  seriously  this  appalling  fact, 
and  to  take  it  solemnly  to  heart. 

This  leads  me  to  say  one  word  upon  the  work  of  Education.  I 
trust  that  the  days  of  controversy  and  divergence  of  view  are  over.  I 
am  a  strong  believer  in  our  duty  to  educate  heathen  children.  Our 
aim  ought  to  be  to  plant  Christian  Day  Schools  everywhere,  for  they 
ari3  a  most  valuable  means  of  spreading  our  evangel.  They  will  pro- 
duce the  most  promising  converts,  because  the  truth  has  laid  hold  of 
the  intellect.  This  means  that  we  must  have  Colleges,  also  literature, 
in  and  by  which  we  can  train  Christian  schoolmasters,  who  may  in 
time  become  most  useful  evangelists  ;  Colleges  with  a  genuine  Chris- 
tian atmosphere,  whose  supreme  tone  is  undoubtedly  and  unmistakably 
Christian. 

I  repeat  that  Methodism  should  aim  to  send  out  a  large  number  of 
evangelists  during  the  next  ten  years,  and  with  them  as  many  school- 
masters as  we  can  possibly  send.  There  is  also  a  most  urgent  need  ^'or 
more  medical  missionaries.  The  value  of  the  services  of  a  Christian 
medical  worker,  man  or  woman,  is  beyond  expression.  The  need,  too, 
is  great,  and  the  character  of  the  work  helpful  and  Christlike. 

Combined  Methodism  should  heartily  co-operate  to  protect  the  weaker 
races  from  the  dreadful  evils  of  trade  in  alcohol  and  opium.  We  must 
bring  our  great  influence  to  bear  upon  and  against  any  injustice  in 
any  form,  whether  of  commerce  or  conduct,  which  will  hinder  the 
betterment  of  non-Christian  nations.  Such  action  might  sometimes  be 
compelled  to  face  a  difficult  problem,  but  wisdom  ought  to  find  a  solu- 
tion of  the  difficulty,  and  a  means  of  saving  all  involved  from  such 
notorious  evils.  A  collective  protest,  followed  up  by  vigilant  and  reso- 
lute action,  would  help  immensely  in  our  work.  We  _ought  not  to 
leave  such  protests  to  missionaries  on  the  field  without  according  them 
our  powerful  co-operation.  When  the  Church  takes  to  heart  the  needs 
of  the  heathen  it  will  soon  clear  away  these  hindrances,  which  largely 
arise  from  the  action  of  Christian  nations. 

"  The  work  before  us "  is  great  and  world-wide  ;  and  it  needs  an 
awakened  Church,  with  a  clear  perspective,  and  a  generous  recogni- 
tion of  duty,  and  a  great  increase  in  financial  gifts,  whereby  the 
Church  may  be  able  to  fulfil  its  great  obligation  to  the  present  genera- 
tion. The  work  calls  for  some  of  our  best  and  most  powerful  evan- 
gelists, and  the  Church  must  give  nobly  to  carry  on  this  world-wide 


520  FOREIGN   MISSIONS. 

movement.  Is  it  too  much  to  ask  from  the  powerful  and  wealthy 
Churches  of  Methodism  that  they  should  take  the  lead  in  such  a  great 
work?  Not  in  the  spirit  of  rivalry  nor  religious  bigotry  ;  and  we 
need  not  fear  this,  for  religious  jealousy  is  not  likely  to  find  a  home  in 
Methodism.  It  has  been  said  that  "  America  and  England,  if  united, 
could  conquer  the  world."  However  this  may  be,  it  is  undoubtedly  true 
that  a  union  of  the  American  and  British  nations  could  greatly  help 
to  save  the  world.  May  united  Methodism  take  the  lead  in  a  Great 
Forward  Movement  in  the  mission  field,  which  may  hasten  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  glorious  and  final  purpose,  when  it  may  be  said,  "  The 
kingdoms  of  this  world  are  become  the  Kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of 
His  Christ ;  and  He  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever." 

The  Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Cliiirch), 
gave  the  first  invited  address,  as  follows : 

In  the  excellent  address  to  which  we  have  just  listened  "  the  work 
before  us"  has  been  clearly  and  graphically  outlined.  Permit  me  to 
invite  your  attention  to  the  facilities  'at  our  disposal  for  its  accomplish- 
ment. Isaiah  (if  the  higher  critics  will  permit  me  to  say  so)  wrote, 
"  Every  valley  shall  be  exalted,  and  every  mountain  and  hill  shall 
be  made  low,  and  the  crooked  shall  be  made  straight  and  the  rough 
places  plain,"  and  we  shall  see  the  day  when  his  prophecy  is  largely 
fulfilled. 

1.  The  discovery  and  exploration  of  the  world  have  been  substan- 
tially accomplished.  A  century  ago  not  more  than  one-third  of  the 
western  hemisphere  had  been  explored,  while,  on  the  eastern  hemi- 
sphere, Afghanistan,  Thibet,  Turkestan,  Mongulia,  China,  Corea,  and 
Japan  were  almost  wholly  unknown  to  the  Christian  world.  On  the 
Continent  of  Africa  there  was  a  narrow  fringe  of  territory  held  by 
Europeans  along  the  Mediterranean,  a  colony  was  planted  on  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  a  small  tract  of  territory  was  held  by  slave 
pirates  on  the  West  Coast,  while  the  interior  was  as  absolutely  unknown 
to  civilised  races  as  tnough  on  another  planet.  Now  all  the  continents 
are  not  only  discovered  but  also  explored.  Their  great  rivers,  valleys, 
and  mountain  ranges  are  traced  and  described,  and  the  islands  of  all 
the  seas  are  located.  About  the  only  unknown  regions  that  remain  to 
tempt  the  ambition  of  the  discoverer  are  the  North  and  South  Poles, 
and  as  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that  human  beings  dwell  at  either  of 
these  extremes,  the  Christian  Church  has  but  littJLe  interest  in  the 
battles  with  frozen  seas  and  icebergs  still   going  on. 

Along  with  the  progress  of  discovery  and  exploration  has  gone  the 
development  of  the  sciences  of  ethnology  and  anthropology,  giving 
helpful  information  as  to  the  dwelling  places  of  nations  and  tribes, 
and  their  peculiarities  as  well.  A  large  number  of  the  great  religious 
books  of  the  world  have  been  translated  into  modern  languages,  and 
the  science  of  comparative  religions  is  taught  in  some  of  our  best 
schools.  We  are  under  great  ol)ligation  to  explorers,  and  to  scientists, 
for  the  knowledge  they  have  given  us  of  the  races  of  men,  and  the 


ADDRESS   OF  REV.   A.    B.    LEONARD.  52 1 

bounds  of  their  haljitations.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  their  labours  have 
contributed  hugely  to  the  progress  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The 
great  Captain  of  our  militant  host  has  sent  out  His  scouts,  "  their  line 
is  gone  out  through  all  the  earth,"  and  they  have  brought  back  full 
information  concerning  the  territory  that  remains  to  be  conquered, 
■and  the  peoples  that  have  not  yet  heard  the  proclamation  of  "  Peace 
on  earth,  good  will  toward  men." 

2.  Facilities  for  rapid  transit  to  nearly  all  parts  of  the  habitable 
earth  are  ample.  A  century  ago,  to  cross  the  Atlantic  required  from 
six  weeks  to  two  months,  and  if  winds  and  waves  were  hostile  a 
longer  period  still.  From  London  to  Bombay  three  months  or  more 
were  required.  In  1793  Oarey  was  five  months  saiHng  from  Dover 
to  Calcutta.  In  1812  Judson  was  eleven  months  going  from  Boston 
to  Calcutta.  In  1817  Moffat  was  three  months  going  from  England 
to  Cape  Town.  In  1857  Stephen  L.  Baldwin  was  147  days  travelling 
from  New  York  to  Foochow,  and  in  1859  James  M.  Thoburn  was  four 
months  journeying  from  Boston  to  Calcutta.  Now  the  journey  from 
New  York  to  Liverpool  takes  about  six  days  ;  to  Bombay  less  than 
twenty-six  days,  and  still  less  if  Europe  is  crossed  by  rail.  From 
New  York  to  Shanghai  via  San  Francisco  is  less  than  twenty-five 
days,  and  when  ships  shall  make  the  same  speed  on  the  Pacific  as 
they  do  on  the  Atlantic  the  time  will  be  considerably  reduced. 

The  latest  available  figures  show  that  there  are  455,000  miles  of 
railroad  in  the  world,  not  counting  double,  treble,  and  quadruple 
tracks,  enough  to  belt  the  globe  about  eighteen  times.  A  few  years 
ago  a  young  lady  representing  a  New  York  daily  paper  made  the  journey 
around  the  world  in  sixty  days,  and  it  is  reported  that  recently  a 
Chicago  lad  has  completed  the  same  journey  in  fifty-three  days.  When 
the  Russians  shall  have  ballasted  their  great  trunk  line,  now  practically 
completed,  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Vladivostok,  so  that  a  speed  of 
twenty-five  miles  an  hour  can  be  attained,  a  journey  around  the  world 
can  be  easily  made  in  thirty  days.  Probably  within  the  next  decade 
Methodist  preachers  in  Europe  and  America  will  be  able  to  use 
their  August  vacation  in  making  a  journey  aronnd  the  world,  and  be 
home  to  take  up  their  work  the  first  Sabbath  in  September,  Any 
pagan  land  can  then  be  reached  from  some  Christian  country  in  less 
than  thirty  days.  The  builders  of  steamships  and  railroads  are,  all 
unconsciously,  perhaps,  contributing  vast  sums  of  money  to  the  cause 
of  Foreign  Missions  that  do  not  pass  through  our  Mission  treasuries. 

3.  The  agencies  for  the  diffusion  of  Christian  knowledge  among  the 
masses  in  all  lands  are  numerous,  available,  and  comparatively  inex- 
pensive. We  do  not  appreciate  as  we  should  the  value  of  the  Christian 
Press  as  a  power  for  the  world's  evangelisation.  When  the  old  cen- 
tury dawned  the  hand-press  in  use  could  turn  out  but  one  hundred 
impressions  an  hour  ;  now  the  steam-power  press  prints,  binds,  and 
folds  about  100,000  papers  an  hour.  A  hundred  years  ago  the  15ible 
was  printed  in  sixty-six  languages  ;  i.ow  in  four  hundred  languages  and 
dialects,  making  it  possible  to  1,200,000,000  people  to  read 
the    Scriptures    in    their    own    tongue    wherein    they    were    born, 


52  2  FOREIGN    MISSIONS. 

leaving  about  300,000,000  still  to  be  provided  for.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  we  estimate  at  their  full  value  the 
Briiisli  and  Foreign  Bible  Socaetj-  and  the  American  Bible  Society  as 
evangelising  agencies.  During  the  nineteenth  century  they,  with 
others,  published  and  sent  out  280,000,000  copies  and  portions  of 
the  Word  of  God.  In  my  judgment  they  are  among  the  most  valuable 
agencies  for  the  advancement  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  now  in  existence, 
and  deserve  the  generous  support  of  all  Christians. 

Nor  must  we  overlook  the  electric  telegraph  as  a  means  of  diffusing 
intelligence  among  the  nations.  The  continents  and  the  larger  islands 
of  the  world  are  a  network  of  telegraph  lines,  and  70,000  miles  of 
submarine  cables  throb  beneath  the  oceans  and  seas,  transmitting,  it 
is  estimated,  six  million  messages  a  year.  There  is  one  thing  in  which 
the  world  has  reached  perfection,  namely,  the  transmission  of  news. 
That  is  now  done  instantaneously,  outrunning  time  itself.  A  few  years 
ago  I  was  at  Hong  Kong,  about  to  sail  for  San  Francisco.  I  sent  a  mes- 
sage dated  December  7th,  which  arrived,  in  New  York  on  December  6th 
about  twelve  hours  before  it  started !  During  the  recent  troubles  in 
China  the  Cabinets  of  the  civilised  world  knew  what  was  going  on  in 
that  country  day  by  day,  if  not  hour  by  hour,  and  when  Pekin  was 
relieved  the  whole  civilised  world  knew  it  in  a  few  hours.  Missionaries 
can  now  communicate  important  news  to  their  respective  home 
authorities  instantly,  and  money  can  be  forwarded  in  emergencies  like 
the  lightning's  flash.  I  believe  that  the  time  is  not  so  far  away  as 
many  suppose  when  ocean  cables  will  throb  with  the  news  of  the 
triumphs  of  Christ's  Kingdom,  and  we  shall  learn  that  a  nation  is, 
as  it  were,  "  born  in  a  day." 

4.  Protestantism  has  already  laid  a  strong  foundation  in  pagan  and 
Mohammedan  countries  upon  which  to  build  a  splendid  structure, 
as  the  following  statistics  will  show.     There  are : 

Missionary  Societies  (about)     500 

Foreign  missionaries 14,220 

Native  preachers  and  workers 54,420 

Combined  force  of  missionaries,  preachers,  and 

workers 68,640 

Communicants      1,585,000 

Adherents      4,000,000 

Total  of  communicants  and  adherents 5,585,000 

Sunday  Schools    8,000 

Sunday  School  scholars     1,100,000 

Educational  institutions     20,000 

Students 1,076,000 

Contributed  in  1899  (dollars) 19,000,000 

With  the  world  explored  ;  the  location  and  conditions  of  the  races, 
nations,  and  tribes  known ;  the  facilities  for  reaching  them  in  a  few 
day?  at  hand ;  the  agencies  for  the  diffusion  of  knowledge  and  com- 
munication of  news  ample,  and  swift  as  the  lightning ;  and  the  work 
already  accomplished,  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  the  prophecy  of 


ADDRESS    OF   MR.    JOHN   B.   MrCUTCHEON.  523 

Hahakkuk  shall  not  be  fulfilled  within  the  limits  of  the  twentieth 
century,  "  For  the  earth  shall  lie  tilled  with  the  knowledge  of  the  glory 
of  tho  fjord  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea."  Isaiah's  vision  may  be  nearer 
its  realisation  than  we  suppose,  "  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last 
days,  that  the  mountain  nf  the  Lord's  house  shall  be  established  in  the 
top  of  the  mountains,  and  shall  be  exalted  above  the  hills ;  and  all 
nations  shall  flow  unto  it.  And  many  shall  go  and  say,  Come  ye,  and 
let  us  go  up  to  the  mountain  of  the  Lord,  to  the  house  of  the  God 
of  Jacob  ;  and  He  will  teach  us  of  His  ways,  and  we  will  walk  in  His 
paths  ;  for  out  of  Zion  shall  go  forth  the  law,  and  the  word  of  the 
Lord  from  Jerusalem.  And  He  shall  judge  among  the  nations,  and 
shall  rebuke  many  people  ;  and  they  shall  beat  their  swords  into  plow- 
shares, and  their  spears  into  pruninghooks  ;  nation  shall  not  lift  up 
sword  against  nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more." 

Mr.  John  B.  McCutcheon  (Irish,  Metbodist  Churoh)  gave  the 
second  invited  address.     He  said : 

I  think  that  we  ought  all  to  devoutly  wish  and  earnestly  pray  that 
from  this  session  of  the  GEcumenical  Conference  such  an  inspiration  and 
such  an  enthusiasm  for  Foreign  Missions  may  be  aroused  that,  when 
the  next  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference  meets,  ten  years  hence, 
it  may  be  reported  with  gratitude  to  God  that  the  first  decade  of  this 
new  century,  this  twentieth  century,  has  been  one  of  unparalleled  and 
unequalled  interest  and  progress  in  the  work  of  the  evangelisation  of 
the  world.  To  that  end,  while  we  have  had  brought  before  us  very 
exhaustive  and  masterly  surveys  of  the  scope  of  the  work,  and  of  the 
facilities  for  doing  it,  I  think  that,  starting  from  those  points,  we  ought 
to  address  ourselves  to  some  practical  questions  as  to  what  is  the  imme- 
diate work  to  be  done,  and  what  it  is  that  lies  immediately  before  us. 

I  am  profoundly  impressed  with  the  thought  that  the  most  important 
and  the  most  immediate  work  to  be  done  for  Foreign  Missions  is  to 
be  done  in  the  home  field,  in  the  home  Churches,  by  the  ministers  and 
by  the  lay  representatives  whom  I  am  now  addressing,  and  by  thou- 
sands of  others  like  them  throughout  the  Methodist  Churches  of 
England,  America,  Australasia,  and  Canada.  It  is  not  with  me  so 
much  a  question  of  geography.  We  hear  on  every  hand  of  open  doors. 
We  know  how  the  progress  of  science,  civilisation,  and  commerce  is 
opening  the  doors  on  every  hand  for  the  advancement  of  Christian 
Missions.  We  know  how  the  great  Lord  over  all  is  making  even  the 
wrath  of  men  to  praise  Him,  and  making  sometimes  even  wars,  which 
we  deeply  deplore,  to  result  in  avenues  for  the  spread  of  the  Gospel. 
It  is  not  with  me  so  much  a  question  of  the  methods  to  be  adopted 
upon  the  mission  field.  There  are  many  splendid  methods  which  can 
be  adopted,  and  which  will  be  adopted  when  the  Church  at  home  pro- 
vides the  means  for  adopting  them.  We  have  the  open  doors  ;  we 
have  the  men  offering  for  the  work ;  the  great  need  appears  to  me  to 
be  an  all-the-year-round,  earnest  enthusiasm  for  Christian  Missions  on 
the  part  of  the  home  Ohurohes,  and  a  continuous,  systematic  consecra- 


524  FOREIGN   MISSIONS. 

tion  of  wealth  and  means  to  the  spread  of  the  Gospel  in  heathen 
lands. 

It  seems  to  me — and  Mr.  Galpin,  in  that  very  able  and  interesting 
paper,  to  which  we  all  listened  with  such  pleasure,  dwelt  also  upon  this 
point — that  in  some  way  or  other  Christian  Missions  do  not  occupy 
their  proper  position  in  the  view  of  the  home  Churches.  We  all  regret 
that  there  ever  should  have  been  such  a  time  in  the  history  of  so-called 
Christian  Churches  when  Christian  Missions  were  in  the  background, 
when  they  were  not  looked  upon  as  forming  any  part  of  the  work  of 
the  Church,  when  men  like  William  Carey  were  regarded  as  having 
taken  leave  of  their  senses  because  they  proposed  that  the  Church 
should  engage  in  Foreign  Missions.  Following  from  those  dark  ages 
Christian  Missions  have  come  down  to  us  not  so  much  as  a  part  of  the 
ordinary  everyday  work  of  the  Church,  not  so  much  as  a  portion  of  the 
general  commission  which  Christ  gave  to  His  Church,  but  rather  as  au 
outside  philanthropic  agency  which  comes  before  us  periodically,  to 
which  we  give  a  little  of  our  money  and  a  little  of  our  enthusiasm, 
more  or  less  spasmodically,  and  with  regard  to  which  during,  perhaps, 
eleven  months  out  of  the  twelve,  our  interest  and  our  enthusiasm  some- 
what lie  dormant. 

It  is  quite  right  that  at  certain  times  of  the  year  we  should  have  mis- 
sionary services,  missionary  anniversaries,  sermons,  and  meetings,  but 
what  about  the  other  parts  of  the  year?  Why  should  we,  when  the 
anniversaries  come  round,  have  to  waste  our  strength  and  our  time 
endeavouring  to  galvanise  the  Churches  into  an  enthusiasm  and  in- 
terest which  should  have  been  kept  at  boiling  point  all  the  year 
round?  The  missionary  anniversary  should  be  a  harvest 
time,  and  it  is  quite  right  we  should  have  a  harvest  time ;  but  the 
reaper,  as  he  comes  forth  to  gather  in  his  harvest,  expects  to  find  the 
seed  previously  sown  and  the  fields  already  white  unto  the  harvest. 
In  like  manner  the  deputations,  when  they  go  forth  at  missionary 
anniversary  times,  should  find  the  harvest  awaiting  their  ingathering. 
It  is  right  and  proper  that  we  should  have  special  sermons  on  behalf 
of  Foreign  Missions  at  the  missionary  anniversary,  but  among  the 
many  sermons  that  are  preached  throughout  the  year  upon  the  duty  of 
the  individual  Christian  and  of  the  Christian  Church  in  relation  to 
various  great  subjects,  why  is  it  that  this,  one  of  the  most  important  of 
all  our  duties,  is  so  seldom  alluded  to  ?  It  is  quite  right  that  we  should 
have  a  periodical  missionary  prayer-meeting,  but  why  should  prayer  for 
Foreign  Missions  be  confined  to  the  missionary  prayer-meeting?  Why 
should  not  the  heads  of  families  at  their  family  devotions,  morning 
and  evening,  pray  earnestly,  and  lead  their  families  in  prayer,  for  the 
spread  of  Christ's  Kingdom,  not  only  at  home,  but  throughout  the 
world?  Why  should  not  every  prayer  that  is  offered  up  in  out  sanc- 
tuaries throughout  the  land  devoutly  and  earnestly  lead  congregations 
to  supplication  at  the  Throne  of  Grace  for  the  spread  of  Christian  Mis- 
sions ?  Why  should  not  the  monthly  prayer-meeting  be  raiher  a  point 
at  which  to  start  a  new  effort,  than  an  endeavour  to  arouse  sluggish 
enthusiasm,  and  to  remind  the  forgetful  ? 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.   YOUNG  J.   ALLEN.  525 

The  Christian  Church,  to  my  mind,  is  synonymous  with  Christian 
Missions.  Christian  Missions  are  not  an  auxiliary  of  the  Church,  but 
a  part  of  the  Church,  and  the  Church  which  does  not  regard  Christian 
Missions  as  its  ordinary,  every-day  work,  and  as  its  proper  business  in 
the  world,  is  a  Church  that  I  believe  will  soon  find  its  home  work 
falling  off  and  suffering.  We  received  the  commission,  "  Go  ye  into 
all  the  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature."  The  early 
Church,  when  it  forgot  that  commission,  and  when  it  displayed  a  slight 
inclination  to  tarry  rather  long  at  Jerusalem,  was  whipped  up  to  a 
sense  of  its  duty  by  a  sharp  persecution  ;  and  I  believe  that  the  Cliurch 
which  omits  its  duty  in  this  respect — that  tarries  at  Jerusalem  and 
omits  the  claim  of  the  wider  world,  and  of  the  peoples  who  have  not 
heard  the  Gospel — will  also  receive  some  sharp  admonition  from  our 
Lord,  who  gave  that  commission. 

We  pray  for  the  coming  of  our  Lord.  We  look  forward  to  it.  Some 
of  us  really  think  He  may  come  at  any  time  as  a  thief  in  tha  night. 
The  greater  number  of  us  act  as  if  we  believe  that  He  will  not  come 
in  our  day,  but  all  of  us  believe  that  He  will  come  some  time.  But  I 
do  not  think  we  practically  or  suflSciently  recognise  the  responsibility 
laid  upon  the  Christian  Church  to  hasten  that  day,  and  to  hasten  that 
coming  by  preparing  the  way  of  the  Lord  before  Him.  We  are  told 
that  "  Blessed  are  those  servants  whom  the  Lord,  when  He  cometh 
shall  find  watching,''  and  we  are  told  of  the  manner  in  which  those 
servants  are  required  to  watch.  When  the  Lord  left  them  He  left  to 
eaoh  man  his  appointed  work.  The  work  that  has  been  left  to  the 
Christian  Church  is  the  work  of  spreading  the  knowledge  of  salvation 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  preaching  the  Gospel  in  every  land. 
Blessed  will  be  the  Christian  Church  which,  when  our  Lord  cometh, 
He  shall  find  engaged  in  that  work,  fully  alive  to  a  sense  of  its  respon- 
sibilities, privileges,  and  duties,  and  actively  and  anxiously  endeavour- 
ing to  prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord  before  Him. 

It  is  for  these  reasons  that  I  am  convinced  that  the  work  imme- 
diately before  us  is  a  work  to  be  done  in  our  home  Churches,  by  our 
home  ministers  and  their  auxiliaries.  We  must  bring  this  subject  before 
the  people.  We  must  endeavour  at  all  our  services,  and  all  our  meetings, 
to  bring  in  the  subject  of  missions  to  heathen  nations  as  a  part  of  our 
ordinary  work,  to  create  an  interest  in  it  that  shall  not  be  spasmodic 
and  periodical,  nor  confined  to  anniversaries;  but  that  shall  continue 
all  the  year  round,  and  I  believe  that  a  due  sense  of  responsibility  to 
God,  and  a  due  sense  of  the  opportunities  which  God  has  given  us, 
and  which  increase  our  responsibilities,  will  result  in  more  adequate 
consecration  ol  time,  effort,  and  means  to  this  great  object. 

The  Rev.  YouNO  J.  Allbn,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South),  by  special  resolution  of  the  Conference,  also  gave 
an  invited  address.     He  said : 

Those  who  know  me  recognise,  possibly,  that  the  privilege  granted 
to  me  to  address  the  Conference  is  not  out  of  place.    I  have  been  more 


526  FOREIGN    MISSIONS. 

than  forty  years  in  the  great  mission  territory  of  China,  and  have 
engaged  there  in  all  kinds  of  work,  a  missionary  primarily,  to  evan- 
gelise  and  preach  the  Gospel.  By  circumstances  I  have  been  editor, 
book-maker,  translator,  founder  of  institutions  and  of  periodicals,  and 
editor  of  a  "Review  of  the  Times"  for  China,  in  Chinese,  foi  more 
than  thirty-three  years.  I  have  been  for  fourteen  years  in  the  China 
Government  service,  organising  its  literary  work  and  its  educational 
work,  and  have  been  identified  for  more  than  forty  years  in  this  line  of 
work  in  behalf  of  Missions.  I  am  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Society  for 
the  Diffusion  of  Christian  and  General  Knowledge  in  China,  the  out- 
come of  which  has  borne  such  a  large  part  in  the  recent  Reform  move- 
ment, and  in  the  troubles  which  have  recently  taken  place. 

I  come  to  you,  therefore,  as  no  stranger ;  and  I  propose  to  speak  to 
you  on  the  missionary  outlook  in  China.  Recent  events  there  have 
drawn  the  attention  of  the  world  to  that  country,  both  the  political 
and  the  missionary  world,  so  that  there  has  been  no  lack  of  interest 
displayed  in  the  subject  of  China,  and  in  the  events  transpiring  there. 
It  will,  naturally,  be  an  inquiry  among  you  as  to  what  effect  the 
recent  events  in  China  have  had  upon  the  progress  and  prospects  of  the 
missionary  cause.  The  outlook  to-day  is  brighter,  better,  and  naore 
hopeful  than  it  ever  has  been  in  all  the  past. 

I  want  to  give  just  one  little  criticism  here  in  regard  to  our  past 
movements.  Our  conception  of  missions  has  been  too  meagre,  too 
restricted.  It  has  been  too  limited,  and  has  not  measured  up  to  the 
conception  of  what  the  cause  is,  and  what  it  really  represents.  Can- 
didly, where  did  you  get  your  idea  of  missions?  Did  you  not  get 
your  idea  of  missions  from  the  home  work,  from  the  domestic  mis- 
sionary work  carried  on  here  among  the  destitute  of  this  Christian 
land?  The  idea  of  Foreign  Missions  transported  to  China  has  not 
carried  with  it  to  you  the  message  which  Christ  gave  us  in  "  Go  ye, 
therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,"  but  you  have  your  meagre  idea  of 
domestic  missions  transferred  to  the  slums  of  China,  a  heathen  nation. 
Your  idea  of  missions  is  to  the  needy,  to  the  destitute  of  a  Christian 
land,  where  there  is  a  great  Christian  Church,  and  all  the  great  mass 
of  the  people  belong  to  the  Christian  Church,  or  recognise  it.  But 
here  you  confound  the  idea  of  domestic  missions,  which  means  mis- 
sions to  the  destitute  and  missions  of  charity,  with  that  of  Foreign 
Missions.  Therefore,  we  have  been  perpetuating  in  China  and  in  the 
East  a  philanthropic  work  under  tlie  form  of  domestic  missions,  but 
not  foreign. 

Foreign  Missions  comprise  the  destitute  in  regard  to  religion — ^those 
who  are  without  hope  and  without  God  in  the  world,  which  applies  to 
the  Emperor  of  China,  his  Council  and  Cabinet,  his  Viceroys  and 
Generals,  merchants,  and  great  people,  and  everybody.  I  am  not 
opposed  to  the  idea  that  Christ  was  anointed  to  preach  the  Gospel  to 
the  poor,  or  that  the  poor  should  have  the  Gospel  preached  to  them. 
The.  idea,  to  my  mind,  represents  that  Christ  preached  a  universal 
Goispel.     As  a  result  of  our  limitations,   our  misconceptions,   and  our 


ADDRESS  OF   REV.   YOUNG  J.   ALLEN.  52  7 

restrictions,  through  men  and  women  being  sent  into  China  in  a 
charitable  kind  of  way,  we  have  left  eight-tenths  of  China  unapproached 
and  unapproachable.     It  is  time  to  revise  these  methods. 

Let  us  take  an  outlook  from  this  Conference  which  shall  embrace 
all  China.  Foreign  Missions  and  Home  Missions  are  certainly  very 
distinct.  The  principles  on  which  we  conduct  Foreign  Missions  are 
the  same  as  you  conduct  foreign  commerce.  Commerce  and  Missions 
go  along  on  the  same  principles  exactly,  and  reach  the  same  ultimate 
result-access  to  all.  The  lines  of  progress,  motion,  or  development  in 
Nature  are  the  lines  of  least  resistance.  Look  at  the  zigzag  lightning. 
What  does  that  mean?  It  means  the  lines  of  least  resistance.  Look 
at  diplomacy  and  politics,  and  what  are  they  but  the  incomparable 
science  of  compromise?  All  these  things  signify  the  lines  of  least 
resistance.  Now  let  us  go  down  to  dealing  with  men  on  another  plane, 
and  we  find  we  follow  the  lines  of  conscious  need 

When  you  go  to  China  with  commerce  you  cannot  take  things  over 
there  just  as  you  please,  and  make  the  Chinese  buy  them.  You  have 
to  find  a  want  there,  and  then  you  can  supply,  because  there  is  a 
demand  and  a  supply,  but  you  must  either  find  it  there  or  make  it. 
One-half  of  the  great  trading  world  spends  its  time  in  thinking  out  how 
to  multiply  wants,  and  when  they  find  a  place  where  wants  exist  they 
multiply  them  more,  and  that  is  why  China  will  be  the  great  commer- 
cial centre  of  the  future,  because  it  has  multiplied  wants. 

You  go  over  there,  and  you  see  the  Chinese  houses.  They  want 
light.  That  is  a  want.  They  put  shells  in  the  place  of  windows, 
because  they  have  no  glass.  In  Japan  they  put  paper  in  the  windows 
with  the  idea  of  providing  light,  ^ou  need  not  go  over  there  and  talk 
about  glass.  Go  there  and  build  your  own  house,  and  put  glass  win- 
dows into  it,  and  those  glass  windows  will  make  glass  windows 
throughout  the  whole  of  the  country,  because  glass  is  better  than 
paper  and  shells.  The  Chinese  want  reflectors  ;  they  want  to  see 
fiiemselves  as  others  see  them,  as  the  Scotchman  said.  They  make 
reflectors  out  of  bronze,  and  brass,  and  copper,  but  when  they  take 
our  beautiful  mirrors,  small  or  large,  and  see  what  we  have  got,  they 
want  to  follow  our  example.  They  all  want  to  know  the  time.  They  have 
not  any  watches,  and  have  no  means  of  getting  accurate  time.  They 
put  a  piece  of  stick  in  a  pot  of  incense  and  burn  it,  and  get  the  time 
that  way  :  they  take  a  glance  at  the  sun,  or  they  have  a  waterclock  or 
dials  but  all  these  are  clumsy  and  difficult  to  use.  Along  come  our 
watches  and  our  clocks,  and  what  happens?  A  transformation  a  revo- 
lution, and  these  watches  and  clocks  are  found  everywhere.  The  other 
day  when  the  Allies  entered  the  Emperor's  Palace,  they  found  one 
room  literally  filled  with  beautiful  clocks  and  watches,  which  had  been 
presented  from  all  over  the  world,  and  from  rich  Chinamen. 

These  things  open  their  own  doors.  The  Chinese  have  a  great  Oml 
Service  They  are  an  educated  people,  a  civilised  people,  a  cultured 
people  a  literary  people.  Their  Government  is  founded  upon  an  edu- 
cational Civil  Service,  and  that  Civil  Service  is  all  over  the  country, 
and  every  three  years  they  skim  the  whole  country  for  its  best  edu- 


528  FOREIGN    MISSIONS. 

cated  men.  They  have  Colleges  and  Universities  granting  the  various 
degrees,  B.A.,  M.A.,  and  the  LL.D.  The  Civil  Service  is  based  upon  the 
Confucian  system  of  the  classics,  and  this  Confucian  system  is  iron- 
bound.  Formerly  China  tried  to  rid  herself  of  all  foreign  intercourse 
by  building  a  great  wall,  and  by  marine  prohibitions  on  the  sea 
coast,  so  that  their  own  people  were  neither  to  go  abroad  nor  were 
foreigners  to  enter.  They  went  further  than  that.  They  were  not 
only  not  to  hold  communications  with  outside  people,  but  were  not  to 
widen  their  ideas,  and  so  the  Civil  Service  was  prevented  by  that  state 
of  things  from  any  new  idea  or  suggestion  being  introduced  into  the 
examinations  from  the  outside.  It  was  iron-bound.  Now  we  have 
access  to  the  country  by  reason  of  breaking  down  the  outside  wall,  and 
breaking  through  the  marine  prohibitions,  and  have  access  to  the  mind 
and  heart  of  China  through  this  iron-bound  system,  because  that  has 
been  broken  down,  too. 

I  want  to  show  you  how  it  was  done.  As  I  said  about  the  shells, 
they  went  out  when  glass  came,  and  in  the  same  manner  watches  and 
clocks  drove  inferior  instruments  away.  It  was  the  same  with  our 
superior  education.  Our  superior  knowledge,  our  greater  civilisation, 
have  made  such  an  impression  upon  the  mind  of  China  that  it  sees  and 
feels  our  superiority,  and  it  is  humiliated  and  degraded  in  the  presence 
of  such  a  country  as  Japan,  which  has  acquired  foreign  knowledge. 
With  such  a  humiliation  in  front  of  it,  it  naturally  looked  about  to  t^ee 
•vrhere  it  could  reform.  This  was  the  first  movement  of  the 
reform.  I  have  the  telegram  in  my  pocket  now  from 
Pekin  saying  that  the  examination  systems  are  to  be  reformed.  The 
examinations  shall  include  Chinese  and  Western  history,  and  Western 
science  and  industrial  methods^  while  it  abolishes  the  traditional  clas- 
sical essays.  It  relegates  the  classics  to  the  background,  and  requires 
only  expositions  of  their  meaning.  What  does  that  mean?  All  these 
Colleges  and  Institutions,  from  which  every  mandarin  or  ofl5cial  is 
supposed  to  be  selected,  were  the  foundation  of  the  system  of  govern- 
ment, and  that  system  has  to  go.  It  has  to  be  aboUshed  for  the  better 
incoming  Christian  system  and  curriculum  of  knowledge. 

That  is  the  grandest  revolution,  the  revolution  that  certainly  could 
not  have  been  predicted — that  a  nation,  in  a  sense,  should  be  "born 
in  a  day."  These  convictions  reach  from  the  Emperor  down,  and  it  was 
these  convictions  that  created  this  reform,  which  the  Emperor  accepted. 
Now  that  the  Emperor  has  returned  to  the  capital,  it  portends  that  he 
expects  to  begin  where  he  left  off  in  1898.  Therefore,  we  may  expect; 
to  find  the  country  alive  commercially  and  in  the  matter,  of  these  insti- 
tutions, and  education,  and  everything  of  that  kind. 

We  must  come  to  this  point — who  shall  make  the  books  for  all  these 
institutions  ?  Who  shall  supply  the  models  and  the  teachers  for  theso 
institutions?  Brethren,  they  are  to  be  supplied  by  the  missionary. 
The  missionary  is  to  make  them  in  the  fiarst  instance ;  the  missionary 
is  to  inaugurate  these  schools.  I  have  inaugurated  more  than  one  my- 
self. The  missionary  is  literally  the  greatest^  the  chief  factor  to-day  in 
the  future  regeneration  of  China. 


ADDRESS   OF   REV.   YOUNG  J.    ALLEN.  529 

Just  another  point.  China  has  entered  the- comity  of  nations.  For- 
merly China,  Persia,  Japan,  and  Corea  were  all  what  we  might  call 
outside  nations.  Foreigners  treated  them  as  degraded  barbarians, 
heathen  peoples,  and  enacted  an  extra  territorial  clause  .in  treaties 
which  allowed  the  foreigner  to  settle  upon  the  shores  of  China  and 
Japan  and  govern  themselves  independently.  Those  nations  also 
were  not  allowed  the  privileges,  immunities,  and  rights  of  the  comity 
of  nations.  Japan,  you  know,  went  to  work  to  remedy  this  state  of 
affairs,  and  achieved  for  herself  the  right  of  comity.  She  first  put  on 
the  Western  clothing,  and  said,  "  Will  you  look  at  us  now  ?  Will  you 
accept  us  now?"  "No,  we  will  not."  Then  they  took  to  eating 
foreign  food;  but  the  foreigner  said,  "No,  not  yet."  They  kept  on 
and  on,  and  revised  the  Army  and  the  Navy.  The  Emperor  conde- 
scended to  come  down  from  the  clouds,  or  from  the  mystery  of  govern- 
ment, into  the  light  of  day,  and  admitted  and  granted  a  constitutional 
Government.  He  granted  the  right  of  the  people  to  elect  their  own 
officers,  and  constituted  a  Diet.  .Japan  gradually  came  on  imtil  1894, 
when  England,  America,  and  other  countries  recognised  her,  and  wel- 
comed her  into  the  comity  of  nations. 

In  that  year  the  war  happened  with  China,  and  when  Japan  made  a 
treaty  with  China,  Japan  made  China  take  the  place  of  the  degraded 
and  of  the  humiliated  outside  the  comity  of  nations.  Japan  was  in, 
but  China  was  out.  What  is  the  feeling  in  China?  A  feeling  of 
humiliation  and  degradation.  China  intends  to  ask  for  admission  into 
the  comity  of  nations.  What  will  our  Ministers  say  ?  What  will  the 
American  Ministers  say?  "Go,  qualify."  They  are  going  to  qualify 
bv  these  schools  and  colleges,  by  periodicals,  and  by  literature  ;  and 
the  missionaries  have  to  make  it  all.  Do  you  not  see  where  the  mis- 
sionaries stand?  The  foreign  nations  have  put  China  as  a  ward  m  the 
hands  of  the  missionary,  and  they  have  constituted  the  missionary  the 
teacher  of  the  nation.  And  so,  when  Christ  says,  "Go  ye,  therefore, 
and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations,"  He  turns  them  over,  as  it  were,  to 
the  missionaries,  and  says  to  them.  Teach,  uplift,  enlighten,  emanci- 
pate, regenerate  them,  bring  them  into  the  comity  of  nations. 

If  I  had  time,  I  would  tell  you  how  it  is  to  be  done.  It  is  along 
th-  line  of  conscious  need.  Our  missionaries  have  felt  this  conscious 
need,  and  over  the^e,  independently  of  our  Boards  and  Missionary 
Societies,  have  founded  and  organised  a  great  literary  department  of 
missions,  which  we  call  "The  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Christian 
and  General  Knowledge."  That  Society  is  promoting  literature,  which 
is  read  from  the  Emperor  down.  Pardon  me  if  I  tell  you  that  m  the 
year  before  this  cataclysm  came,  this  reaction  came  this  one  Society 
iubhshed  of  my  recent  books  in  one  year  228,000  volumes  Belonging 
to  this  Society,  I  wrote  the  History  of  the  Japan  and  China  War  in 
sixteen  volumes.  The  title  was,  "  The  War  between  China  and  Japan  : 
Its  Origin  and  Issues  ;  Its  Revelations  and  Lessons,  and  it  was  the 
circulation  of  tliis  book  everywhere  that  prompted  reform.  It  was 
reprinted  everywhere  in  China  and  Japan,  and  i^n  Corea,  and  was 
accepted  by  the  Emperor,  by  Li  Hung  Chang,  and  all  the  principal  cfti- 

35 


5$0  FOREIGN    MISSIONS. 

cials,  and  I  believe  it  is  regarded  to-day  as  the  standard  history  of  that 
great  event. 

The  Rev.  E.  J.  Grat,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  opened 
the  general  discussion,  as  follows  : 

The  great  surprise  to  me  when  I  study  this  question  is  that  there 
should  be  any  heathen  at  all.  We  are  intensely  interested  in  what 
has  been  said  this  morning,  but  it  is  a  surprise,  if  you  come  to  study  it, 
that  after  nearly  twenty  centuries  of  Christianity  there  should  yet  be 
a  thousand  millions  of  men  and  women  on  the  earth  who  have  not  heard 
of  Jesus  Christ  at  all,  and  that  there  should  only  be  between  400  and 
500  millions  of  human  beings  who  are  in  Christian  lands  and  under 
Christian  Governments.  Think  of  what  Christianity  does,  as  outlined 
in  the  speeches  this  morning.  Think  of  what  heathenism  is,  and  what 
it  means  to  the  heathen.  Take  Christianity  and  heathenism,  and  put 
them  face  to  face,  and  look  at  them.  Then  take  both  and  put 
them  face  to  face  with  God,  and  then  look  into  His  eye  and  see  what 
He  means. 

Consider  what  has  been  done  in  the  early  periods  of  Christianity. 
Witliin  the  first  three  decades  of  Christianity  the  world  was  almost 
reached  by  Cliristian  teaching  and  Christian  preaching.  The  question 
seems  to  me  to  be  this,  What  does  God  say  on  this  subject?  Has  God 
expressed  any  part  of  His  will  concerning  the  duty  of  Christian  people 
as  touching  the  relation  of  lieathenism  to  Christianity?  Not  my  opinion, 
not  your  opinion,  not  the  opinion  of  any  man,  but  the  opinion  of  God. 
It  is  a  matter  of  small  concern  what  we  think  about  this  question.  The 
great  vital  question  is,  what  does  God  think  upon  this  question  ?  Has 
He  given  His  thought  at  all ;  has  He  given  any  order  upon  this  sub- 
ject? If  He  has  given  us  an  order,  that  order  must  be  in  His  will  ; 
that  order  must  be  based  on  knowledge,  all  the  knowledge  that  we  have 
had  this  morning  portrayed,  and  a  thousandfold  more.  The  order  must 
be  in  the  knowledge  of  God  as  to  wliat  is  involved  to  heathenism,  and 
what  is  involved  to  the  cause  of  God  and  to  the  Throne  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  when  He  gives  the  order. 

If  He  has  given  an  order,  then  that  order  must  be  obeyed  ;  it  be- 
comes the  duty  of  the  Chiirch  to  obey  the  order  of  God,  and  it  has  no 
alternative  at  all.  Has  God  given  the  order  ?  Has  He  told  us  what  to 
do  ?  Listen.  Almost  the  last  words  that  fell  from  the  lips  of  Jesus 
Christ  before  He  left  the  world  were  to  the  Church,  not  simply  to  a 
few  apostles  gathered  around  Him,  "  Gro  ye  into  all  the  world" — every- 
where, not  in  Jerusalem,  and  Samaria,  and  Galilee,  but  into  all  the 
world.  That  was  God's  message  from  the  beginning.  Teachers,  law- 
givers, and  wise  men  were  chosen  as  special  messengers  by  God  to  go 
out  and  give  His  message,  which  was  the  message  of  promise  to  all 
the  world  from  the  beginning,  and  God  said.  Give  the  world  hope, 
because  the  world  is  hopeless  ;  give  the  world  cheer,  because  the  world 
is  cheerless  ;  tell  them  "The  seed  of  the  woman  shall  bruise  the  ser- 
pent's head  " — the  basis  of  all  Divine  promise  that  pledges  eternal  life 
to  all  the  world. 

The  Rev.  Hbnrt  Mann  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church)  spoke  as 
follows : 

It  needed  a  little  courage  for  me  to  address  this  Conference,  because 
I  do  not  speak  your  language  very  well.    When,  at  the  beginning,  I  sat 


GENERAL    REMARKS.  S^i 

in  my  place  and  heard  during  the  first  days  of  the  Conference  speakers 
very  often  refer  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  the  thought  came  in  my 
mind,  "Am  I  in  the  right  place?"  But  afterwards  I  said  to  myself, 
"  I  am  a  Methodist,  and  I  am  among  Methodists,"  and  also  the  thought 
oame  to  me,  "  We  all  belong  to  the  great  Teutonic  race,"  and  then  I 
felt  myself  very  soon  at  home. 

As  a  German  I  have  to  give  thanks  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  First, 
with  regard  to  my  home.  My  birthplace  is  in  the  Palatinate,  Bavaria, 
and  I  think  of  the  days  when  the  parents  of  Barbara  Heck  and  Philip 
Embury — ^both  names  you  will  find  in  the  Palatinate  still  very  often, 
only  the  name  Embury  was  formerly  Emerich — were  obliged  to  look 
for  refuge  200  years  ago,  and  England  opened  her  arms.  They  came  to 
England  and  to  Ireland,  and  in  Limerick  Wesley  himself  preached  the 
Gospel  to  these  people  from  my  home.  Then  Barbara  Heck,  that  noble 
daughter  of  Methodism,  and  Philip  Embury  were  converted.  Both 
went  to  the  United  States  of  North  America,  and  were  the  founders 
of  our  Methodist  Episcopal  Church.  Then,  long  after,  our  good 
American  Methodists,  the  children  of  Barbara  Heck  and  Philip  Embury, 
sent  missionaries  to  Germany.     For  this  also  I  desire  to  give  thanEs. 

This  mission  in  Germany  is,  thank  God,  a  blessed  one  and  very  suc- 
cessful. I  myself  had  the  privilege  of  being  one  of  the  first  Sunday- 
school  scholars,  and  I  have  known  our  work  for  more  than  forty  years. 
In  Germany  and  Switzerland  we  have  more  than  30,000  members,  good 
Methodists.  We  have  more  than  40,000  children  in  our  Sunday-schools, 
and  in  our  Conferences  there  are  195  preachers.  In  Frankfurt-on-the 
Main  we  have  a  good  theological  school  with  twenty-eight  students, 
and  my  colleague,  the  Rev.  P.  G.  Junker,  is  the  director.  Also  the 
Lord  has  given  us  a  good  deaconess  work.  We  have  290  deaconesses, 
and  they  are  fervent  servants  of  the  Lord.  What  Germany  needed 
fifty  years  ago,  and  what  Germany  still  needs,  is  not  more  theologians — 
we  thank  God  that  we  have  good  theologians — ^but  more  spiritual  life — 
life  from  above  ;  and  we  believe  that  through  the  Methodists  the  Lord 
has  given  us  such  spiritual  life. 

In  one  of  the  first  days  of  the  Conference  my  colleague,  the  Eev. 
P.  G.  Junker,  and  I  went  to  Aldersgate  Street,  in  this  city.  There 
we  looked  for  the  house  where  John  Wesley  found  peace  with  God. 
It  was  on  that  well-known  evening,  when,  in  the  meeting  of  the  Mora- 
vians, Luther's  introduction  to  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  was  read, 
and  Wesley  felt  himself  wonderfully  moved.  We  found  there,  thank 
God,  not  a  drinking  saloon,  but  a  tea-table  shop,  and  we  learned  that 
in  the  back  part  of  this  shop  there  was  this  sacred  place.  Now,  we 
try  to  bring  to  all  our  German  people  the  thought  that  they  must  have 
the  same  experience  which  Wesley  had  ;  then  they  will  be  Methodists, 
then  they  will  be  good  Christians. 

I  thank  the  Lord  for  His  help,  and  that  I  have  had  the  ]>rivilege  of 
being  here  these  two  weeks.  Many  things  my  eyes  have  seen,  and 
many  other  Chings  my  heart  has  felt,  and  I  go  back  to  my  fatherland 
to  say  to  my  people  that  the  Lord  is  a  mighty  Lord,  and  He  will  help 
us  to  do  our  work  in  Germany.  When  Bishop  Galloway  preached  his 
very  excellent  sermon  here,  one  of  the  brethren  asked  me,  "  Now,  dear 
brother,  do  you  preach  in  such  a  way  the  Gospel  in  Germany?"  I  said 
to  him,  "  Yes,  we  try  to  do  so."  We  preach  in  Germ^any  a  free,  full,  and 
present  salvation,  and  God  will  help  us. 


532  FOREIGN    MISSIONS. 

Mr.  T.  E.  DucKLBs  (South  Africau  Methodist  Church)  made  the 
following  remarks : 

I  have  a  plea  to  urge,  and  three  reasons  to  give  for  it.  I  am  not  a 
missionary,  I  am  not  a  minister  ;  but  I  have  been  in  business  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century  in  a  frontier  town  in  South  Africa,  in  the  midst 
of  a  population  composed  of  British,  Germans,  a  few  Dutch,  with 
masses  of  natives  all  about  us,  and  with  masses  more  for  hundreds  of 
miles  to  the  east  of  us.  Let  me  remind  you,  first,  of  the  different 
conditions  under  which  mission  work  is  wrought.  We  have  heard  of 
Fiji,  and  of  the  wonderful  and  speedy  conversion  of  people  to  God. 
You  had  there  little  or  no  other  European  influence,  good  or  bad, 
but  that  of  the  missionaries.  In  India  and  in  China  you  have  a  fringe 
of  European  influence,  some  good,  some  indifferent,  and  some  decidedly 
very  bad.  In  South  Africa  you  have  a  large  native  population,  with 
blocks  of  Europeans  here  and  there  all  through  it.  The  conditions  of 
missionary  work  there  are  altogether  different,  it  seems  to  me,  from 
any  other  country,  and  the  area  under  that  description  is  widening 
and  enlarging  day  by  day. 

My  plea  is  this — and  I  am  pleading  with  an  influential  assembly — 
that  all  who  have  influence  should  teach  that  all  European  Christians 
living  among  or  near  heathen  people  should  see  in  them  a  sphere  of 
Christian  work  and  influence  wherein  they  may  serve  and  glorify  God. 
Three  reasons  are  special  to  South  Africa: ;  they  will  apply  elsewhere. 
The  first  is  to  help  in  their  conversion  and  the  building  up  of  the  faith. 
The  second  is  to  help  in  building  up  their  Church  life.  The  third  ia 
to  hinder  the  growth  and  increase  of  race  antagonism. 

1.  South  African  native  people  are  singuJarly  deB-titute  of  those  things 
which  help  to  sustain  and  develop  Christian  life.  There  is  no  home 
life.  A  native  man  has  a  number  of  wives,  each  in  her  own  'hut — ^some 
in  this  kraal,  others  in  that,  some  miles  away.  There  is  no  home 
life.  The  first  they  see  of  it  is  in  the  missionary's  home.  It  is  a  wonder 
to  tihem.  They  see  it  here  and  there  in  a  trader's  or  a  farmer's  house. 
They  want  all  the  help  they  can  get  from  those  who  are  about  them 
to  give  them  the  ideas  and  the  ideals  of  Christian  living,  and  to  show 
them  in  what  ways  they  can  be  helped  and  developed  in  their  personal, 
domestic,  and  social  life. 

2.  As  regards  the  Church  organisation  and  church  building,  they  have 
no  materials  for  it,  and  it  takes  time  and  experience  to  fit  these  men 
for  the  management  of  ecclesiastical  affairs.  The  social  part  of  our 
Church  life  they  Itake  to  promptly,  and  develop  and  use,  but  when  it 
comes  to  organisation  and  government  of  churches,  and  management 
of  funds,  it  will  take  time  to  get  them  capable  of  doing  these  things 
properly. 

3.  My  third  reason  is  that  there  are  great  questions,  apart  from  race  or 
colour,  which  bring  conflidting  interests  between  the  •^hite  people  and 
the  native — questions  of  land-ownership,  labour,  and  franchise.  All 
these  have  been  in  existence  for  some  years.  Some  of  them  have  been 
getting  accentuated,  and  it  only  wants  a  little  development  of  selfishness 
and  perversity  or  folly  on  the  part  of  one  side  or  other  to  crealte  deeper 
and  stronger  antagonisms  which  wiU  cause  troiible  in  that  grealfc 
country  in  coming  years. 

Many  people  talt  of  the  natives  of  South  Africa  as  hewers  of  wood 
and  drawers  of  water.  That  is  what  some  would  like  them  'to  be  ;  but 
they  will  not  remain  like  that.  They  are  absorbing  education  ;  they 
are  learning  handicrafts  ;  they  are  becoming  in  a  way  professional  men. 


GENERAL   REMARKS.  533 

Some  are  schoolmasters  and  newspaper  editors.  There  are  brains  in 
them  and  heart  in  them.  Many  of  them  may  remain  hewers  of  wood 
and  drawers  of  water,  but  my  experience  among  'those  people  tells  me 
that  in  fifty  years,  with  the  development  of  their  present  advantages, 
they  will  stand  side  by  side  with  white  men  in  business  professions 
and  handicrafts.  They  have  powers,  which  we  can  see  from  time  to 
time  developing,  showing  here  and  there  samples  of  whalt  is  in  the 
race  that  is  to  come  out.  Our  great  work  as  Christian  people  is  to  keep 
in  close  contact  with  them,  nut  to  let  them  separate  from  us,  not  to 
make  two  ranks  and  two  classes  ;  but  to  be  one  in  Christ,  and,  whatever 
the  diflference  in  rank  or  social  condition,  to  hold  fast  to  the  root  of 
things,  and  to  do  things  by  recognition  of  the  great  Head  of  the 
Church. 

Bishop  J.  C.  Hartzell,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  said : 

I  was  profoundly  impressed  with  the  statements  of  Dr.  Young  J. 
Allen.  We  have  reached  a  period  in  the  history  of  missionary  move- 
ment in  the  world  wheii  there  must  be  Christian  statesmanship. 
Statesmanship  having  as  its  basis  salvation  in  Jesus  Christ ;  men  and 
women  consecrated  to  their  work,  but  added  to  that  a  breadth  of  know- 
ledge, a  grip  as  to  events,  an  understanding  of  national  movements, 
and  a  study  on  the  line  of  expert  methods  as  to  the  conditions  of  the 
people  among  whom  we  go.  The  success  of  the  Church  in  missionary 
work  up  to  this  date  has  been  marvellous,  but  we  have  passed  the 
experimental  stage.  We  are  face  to  face  now  with  what  appears  to 
me  to  be  the  last  tremendous  grapple  with  the  powers  of  evil  on  the 
earth.  Not  long  ago  I  spent  an  hour  or  more  with  the  Chinese  Minister, 
and  I  was  profoundly  impressed  as  I  stood  befbre  that  man,  keen  of 
intellect,  clear  of  thought,  studying  Christianity,  but  satisfied  that  ithey 
h'ad  a  better  religion  than  we  have  ;  and  I  said  to  myself,  "  This  is  a 
new  epoch  in  missionary  work  ;  it  is  not  a  matter  simply  of  a  little 
school  here  and  a  hospital  yonder  taking  care  of  a  few  sick  children, 
although  that  is  a  great  work.  But  here  a  Christian  missionary  stands 
face  to  face  with  a  man  of  thought." 

In  China  and  elsewhere,  thank  God,  this  Christian  statesmanship  is 
at  the  front,  and  the  Christian  Church,  through  her  missionaries,  pre- 
pared men  and  women,  stands  face  to  face  with  the  scholars  of  those 
nations.  We  have  to  remember  that  they  have  their  convictions.  One 
of  the  great  lessons  for  us  to  learn  is  that  whether  it  be  the  Chinese 
Minister  or  Li  Hung  Chang,  or  the  statesmen  of  Japan,  or  the  dignified 
heathen  statesman,  if  you  please,  in  the  heart  of  Africa,  who  has 
brains  and  a  care  for  his  people,  or  the  meanest  and  lowest  Chinaman 
on  the  Eiver  Tangtse,  or  the  African  on  the  Nile  or  on  the  Zambesi, 
for  every  man  God  has  a  place  in  His  heart.  We  have  to  go  there 
with  our  Christianity,  the  Christianity  that  is  to  rule  the  world,  and 
meet  these  men  on  a  common  basis,  to  command  their  respect,  to 
make  them  understand  what  they  are  and  what  we  are  to  do  for  them — 
in  other  words,  with  a  broader  view,  a  statesmanlike  view,  that  will 
give  us  strength  and  power  everywhere. 

The  other  word  I  wish  to  emphasise  is  this — ^Do  we  realise  how 
quickly  the  Lord  has  brought  all  the  earth  into  the  presence  of  the 
Christian  Church?  China  is  an  illustration,  India  another,  and  so  all 
round  ;  but  take  Africa  as  one  of  the  latest.  See  how  the  veil  of 
mystery  has  hung  over  that  continent  century  after  century.     That 


534  FOREIGN   MISSIONS. 

continent.,  whicli  was  yesterday  one  of  mystery  and  tragedy,  to-day  a 
continent  of  oppitirtiunity,  to-morro-w  to  be  a  continent  .of  marvellous 
achievements  for  GufJ  and  civilisation. 

See  how  quickly  that  veil  of  mystery  has  removed,  and  look  with 
me  for  a  moment  at  that  continent,  with  its  12,500,000  square  miles. 
Stand  with  me  on  the  deck  of  that  ship  yonder  in  Table  Bay,  and  look 
at  Cape  Town,  a  city  of  60,000  people,  lying  so  beautiful  on  that  extend- 
ing plain,  and  look  out  yonder  on  the  mountains  in  the  reaj,  and  then 
think  of  South  Africa,  south  of  the  Zambesi,  the  land  which  is  larger 
in  square  miles  than  all  the  United  States  east  of  the  Mississippi  river, 
and  where  dwell  forty-five  millions  of  people.  Then  look  at  great 
Central  Africa,  the  home  of  the  black  races.  Some  men  ask  me  if  I 
believed  there  would  be  a  great  black  nation.  I  simply  say  "I  do  not 
know,"  but  we  may  rest  assured  that  out  of  that  great  belt  of  black 
humanity,  the  last  great  bulk  of  the  heathen  humanity  to  be  touched 
by  the  Christian  Gospel,  are  to  come  vastly  greater  things  in  govern- 
ment and  in  civilisation  than  we  ever  dreamed  of.  Then  look  at  that 
great  belt,  the  great  Sahara  Desert,  stretching  across  the  continent. 
Great  portions  of  that  are  to  blossom  as  the  rose.  Think  of  the  rail- 
ways of  Africa.  I  expect  to  take  a  Pullman  car  from  Cape  Town  to 
Cairo  before  I  die.  Take  the  branch  railway  lines,  take  the  six  thousand 
miles  of  railway  already  running.  I  went  over  a  line  of  track  near 
Buluwayo  of  five  hundred  miles,  which  'had  been  built  in  500  days. 
Nobody  but  Americans  and  Englishmen  could  have  done  that.  Then, 
take  the  wealth  of  that  continent.  The  gold  of  South  Africa  is  greater 
in  quantity  than  the  whole  of  the  gold  in  circulation.  Take  West 
Africa.  See  how  men  of  commerce  are  putting  brains  and  power  into 
their  movements  there.  Look  at  the  great  schools  studying  the 
malaria,  and  how  they  have  diagnosed  the  bite  of  the  mosquito  and  the 
germs  of  the  microbe.  Men  of  science  and  brains  are  following  up 
these  researches.  I  would  to  God  there  were  people  in  the  isame  way 
studying  the  races  and  languages  of  people  and  governments  and  geo- 
graphy— everything  that  has  to  do  with  the  continent  and  with  the 
people. 

Give  us  Christian  statesmanship,  and  let  us  understand  that  God  has 
put  the  ends  of  the  world  open  to  us,  and  as  Methodists  let  us  go  out 
and  have  our  share. 

The  Rev.  D.  W.  Carter,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South),  concluded  the  discussion  as  follows  : 

As  an  example  of  the  wonderful  opening  out,  in  God's  Providence, 
of  the  world  for  the  entrance  of  the  missionary,  I  have  the  pleasure 
ito  represent  a  country,  an  island,  that  is  perhaps  one  of  the  latest 
examples  of  that  movement  of  God's  Providence. 

When  the  Spianisb  flag  was  lowered  at  Mora  Castl^,  and  the  Stars 
and  Stripes  took  its  place,  a  new  land  was  given  religious  and  civil 
liberty.  A  country  that  ever  since  its  discovery,  for  four  hundred 
years  had  never  known  ;what  either  religious  ot  civil  liberty  meant,  but 
they  know  now.  One  of  the  very  first  things  done  by  the  American 
Government  on  that  island  was  the  inspection  of  all  the  prisons  from 
one  end  of  the  island  to  the  other,  and  the  release  of  hundreds  of 
men  against  whom  no  record  could  be  found  in  any  Court  or  any  place 
on  the  island.  The  doors  were  opened  for  the  prisoners,  and  they 
that  were  in  bondage  were  set  free.  Then  began  the  sanitation  of 
the  cities,  and  such  a  cleansing  up  there  has  rarely  ever  been  ex- 


DU.iUN'ESS    PR0CEEDIXG3. 


535 


hibited  or  seen,  nor  such  a  successful  work  as  has  been  aocompUshed 
from  one  end  of  the  island  to  the  other.  Then  the  feeding  of  the 
poor,  starving  million  of  people  found  there,  saving  them  from  im- 
minent death,  was  another  of  the  first  works  done  by  the  American 
Government.  As  soon  as  these  things  had  been  attended  to,  to  some 
extent,  right  along  with  them,  began  the  work  of  the  education  of 
the  Cuban  people.  More  than  a  million  dollars  have  already  been 
expended  in  organising  and  equipping  a  system  of  public  schools. 
Such  a  flocking  of  children  in  the  schools  perhaps  was  never  witnessed 
before  as  has  been  seen  when  the  Cuban  people  flocked  to  the  schools 
which  have  been  thrown  open  to  them  by  the  American  Government. 
Not  only  these  matters,  but  before  that  flag,  which  was  not  an 
emblem  of  religious  or  civil  liberty,  had  been  lowered  from  its  place, 
the  missionary  and  the  Missionary  Secretary  were  on  the  ground  in- 
specting, and  looking  to  see  where  they  should  plant  themselves,  and 
begin  the  work  of  the  Lord.  It  began  in  earnest,  and  has  been 
actively  pushed  forward  ever  since  that  period.  The  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church,  South,  has,  by  courtesy  and  arrangement  with  the  other 
Methodist  Churches,  taken  possession  of  the  Island  of  Cuba.  While 
the  people  in  the  Philippine  Islands  have  been  left  to  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  and  they  have  entered  into,  and  are  cultivating  that 
field,  we  prapose  to  do  the  very  best  we  possibly  can  for  the  people  of 
Cuba,  in  giving  them  a  Methodism  of  the  true  type,  and  we  have 
already  some  specimens  who  are  worthy  of  the  name. 

The  Rev.  T.,B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (President),  read  a 
letter  which  had  just  been  received  from  Lady  Henry  Somerset, 
Eastnor  Castle,  Ledbury,  in  the  following  terms  : 

To  the  President  of  the  CEcumenical  Methodist  Conference. 

Very  Eev.  and  Dear  Sir, 

As  the  chosen  representative  of  half  a  million  women  of  all 
lands,  I  send  respectful  and  affectionate  greeting  to  the  CEcumenical 
Conference  now  assembled  in  Wesley's  historic  chapel. 

I  pray  God  to  bless  your  deliberations  to  the  hastening  of  the  day 
when  "  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  are  become  the  Kingdoms  of  our 
Lord  and  of  His  Christ." 

I  am  keenly  hopeful  that  your  Conference,  representative  of  thirty- 
two  millions  of  believers  in  Christ,  may  send  forth  a  clarion  note  of 
warning  against  the  evils  of  war  and  anarchy,  class,  and  all  party  and 
race  antagonism, 

I  am  not  unmindful  how  strong  a  stand  thousands  of  Methodist 
ministers  and  tens  of  thousands  of  Church  members  have  made  against 
the  scourge  of  intemperance,  and  I,  with  heartfelt  thanks,  call  to  your 
minds  the  fact  that  the  sainted  founder  of  the  Union  I  represent, 
Frances  E.  Willard,  was  an  attached  and  convinced  Methodist,  and 
so  I  oannot  but  believe  that  one  result  of  the  (Ecumenical  Conference 
will  be  increased  zeal  and  stronger  effort  for  temperance  reform  in  all 
the  countries  represented. 

With  earnest  prayers  that  you  may  have  in  your  deliberations  the 
clear  guidance  of  God's  Spirit, 

I  am.  Very  Rev.  and  Dear  Sir, 

Tours  in  service  of  our  Lord  and  Master, 

Isabel  Somerset, 

President  of  the  World's  Women's  Christian  Tempemnce  Union. 


53 6  F0REI6N  MISSIONS. 

The  Conference  .appointed  the  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  to  reply  to  the  letter,  which  he  did  in  the  following  terms  : 

Lady  Henry  Somerset. 

Dear  Madam, 
Tour   letter  of   September   16   was   duly  delivered   to  me,   as  the 
President  of  the  CEcumenical  Methodist  Conference,  yesterday, 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  reading  it  to  the  Conference,  and  it  was 
received  with  great  interest  and  with  much  sympathy,  and  I  was  re- 
quested to  reply  to  it  o-n  behalf  of  the  Conference. 

The  Conference  fully  sympathises  with  you  in  your  horror  of  war 
and  anarchy,  and  is  entirely  at  one  with  you  in  your  desire  that  the 
evils  of  intemperance  may  be  abated  and  ultimately  destroyed  by 
enlightened  legislation  and  by  the  triumph  of  moral  suasion. 

The   Conference  greatly  appreciates   your  devotion  to  these   great 
causes,  and  prays  that  you  may  be  long  spared  to  assist  by  voice,  and 
pen,  and  influence,  these  great  moral  and  religious  causes. 
Thanking  you  for  your  communication, 
I  am,  dear  Lady  Henry, 

Yours  most  faithfully. 
On  behalf  of  the  CEcumenical  Methodist  Conference, 

T.  BoT^TviAN  Stephenson. 

Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South), 
on  behalf  of  the  Business  Committee,  proposed  the  adoption  of  the 
following  resolutions.  They  are,  he  said,  perhaps,  somewhat  formal, 
but  they  are  none  the  less  genuine,  and  such  as  we  could  not  afford 
to  lightly  omit  from  our  proceedings.  We  all  know  what  splendid 
services  have  been  rendered.  We  have  been  the  recipients  of  great 
kindness,  especially  the  members  of  the  Western  Section.  I  am 
sure  they  will  all  heartily  agree  with  me  in  making  acknowledgment 
for  the  many  tokens  of  favour  and  kindliness  with  which  we  have 
been  greeted. 

1.  That  the  cordial  and  affectionate  thanks  of  the  Conference, 
and  especially  of  the  Western  Section,  be  and  are  hereby  presented  to 
the  Methodist  Churches  of  the  Eastern  Section,  and  particularly  to 
friends  in  London  and  its  neighbourhood,  for  their  generous  hos- 
pitality. 

2.  That  the  thanks  of  the  Conference  be  presented  to  the  ministers 
and  trustees  of  Wesley's  Chapel  for  the  use  of  the  chapel  during  the 
sessions  of  the  Conference. 

3.  That  the  hearty  thanks  of  the  Conference  be  presented  to  the 
following  brethren  who,  in  their  respective  offices,  have  rendered 
inestimable  services: — ^The  Eev.  John  Bond  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  First  Secretary  of  the  Conference  ;  the  Rev.  J.  M.  King, 
D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  Secretary  of  the  Third  Division  ; 
Mr.  Thomas  Snape,  J.  P.  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches),  Secre- 
tary of  the  Second  Division  ;  and  the  Rev.  Professor  W.  I.  Shaw, 
D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada),  Secretary  of  the  Fourth 
Division;  the  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church),  Chairman  of  the  Business  Committee  ;  the  Rev. 


BUSINESS    PROCEEDINGS.  537 

Albert  Clayton  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Churck),  Secretary  of  the 
Business  Committee ;  the  Rev.  F.  W.  Bourne  (Bible  Christian 
Church)  and  Mr.  Robert  W.  Perks,  M.P.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  Treasurers  ;  the  Rev.  J.  Smith  Spencer  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  Secretary  of  the  Finance  Committee ;  the  JElev.  .T.  Scott 
Lidgett,  M.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  Secretary  of  the  Re- 
ceptions Committee ;  the  Rev.  W.  Stephen  (Methodist  New  Con- 
nexion), Secretary  of  the  Homes  and  Entertainment  Committee  ; 
the  Rev.  W.  Wakinshaw  (Wesleyan  MeiUodist  Church),  Secretary 
of  Wesley's  Chapel  Oommdttee  ;  the  Rev.  W.  Kaye  Dunn,  B.A.  (United 
Methodist  Free  Churches),  Secretary  of  tlie  Plan  Committee  ;  Mr. 
George  Burroughs  (Methodist  New  Connexion),  Secretary  of  the 
Publications  Committee. 

4.  The  Conference  recognises  the  valuable  services  of  the  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  London  and  Daily  Press. 

Bishop  J.  C.  Hartzell,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  seconded  the  resolutions.     He  said  : 

I  esteem  it  a  very  great  honour  and  privilege  to  second  the  resolu- 
tions which  have  been  offered.  I  am  sure  that  they  express  the  sincere 
sentiments  of  all  of  us,  I  have  not  heard  of  anything  unpleasant 
occurring ;  I  have  heard  nothing  but  kind  words  and  pleasant  words, 
and  I  am  sure  that  the  presence  of  so  many  members  from  the  West 
in  England  during  these  two  weeks  will  be  productive  of  very  great 
good,  and  has  been  productive  of  a  great  deal  of  happiness  on  their 
part. 

I  want  especially  to  emphasise  the  motion  thanking  the  Press  for 
the  interest  they  have  taken  in  this  Methodist  Convention.  The  Press 
is  a  pulpit  of  power  that  we  do  not  utilise  so  much  as  we  ought  to  as 
Christian  men.  I  beheve  in  America  that  is  true.  I  believe  that  the 
gentlemen  of  the  Press  the  world  over  are  more  and  more  coming  into 
sympathy  with  the  higher  things  which  have  to  do  with  humanity  and 
government,  and  I  haive  been  exceedingly  glad  to  see  so  many  representa- 
tives here,  and  to  see  so  much  interest  taken  by  the  Press  of  this 
worthy  city,  this  marvellous  city,  this  city  of  six  and  a  half  millions 
of  people,  this  city  with  more  people  than  there  are  now  in  the  State 
of  New  York. 

I  take  great  pleasure  in  seconding  every  part  of  this  resolution.  1 
wish  just  to  add  this  word  of  special  thankfulness  to  the  men  who 
have  borne  the  burden  of  the  day.  They  are  the  men  I  sympathise 
with.  I  was  Secretary  of  an  Annual  Conference  for  about  twelve  or 
thirteen  years,  anfl  Presiding  Elder  a  good  share  of  the  same  time.  I 
know  what  it  is  to  have  the  worry  night  and  day  of  details.  Our 
friends,  the  Rev.  John  Bond,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Stephenson,  the  Rev. 
Nehemiah  Curnock,  and  all  those  brethren  here  who  have  laid  them- 
selves out,  as  we  say  in  America,  to  do  everything  they  could,  who 
have  robbed  themselves  of  sleep — they  are  the  men  that  I  feel  like 
taking  my  hat  off  to  this  morning. 

The  chair  was  here  vacated  by  the  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  and  taken  by  Bishop  J.  C.  Granrery,  D.D.  (Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  South). 


538  FOREIGN   MISSIONS. 

Bishop  W.  B'.  Derrick,  D.D.  (African  Mettodist  Episcopal 
Church),  supported  the  resolutions.    He  said  : 

Words  are  but  the  shadow  of  our  thoughts.  On  account  of  the 
barrenness  of  the  soil  of  the  mind,  I  find  myself  inadequate  for  the 
task  of  producing  suitable  words  to  express  the  lasting  gratitude  we 
are  under  to  the  Committee  of  Arrangements  for  the  magnificent 
entertainment  accorded  us  as  visitors  from  the  Western  Section,  from 
the  land  across  the  seas.  Nature  has  blessed  the  various  nations, 
and  has  acted  as  the  foster  mother  towards  those  Governments.  To 
some  she  has  given  a  St.  Petersburg,  a  Paris,  a  Eome,  a  Pekin,  a 
Berlin,  a  Washington,  a  New  York,  but  none  has  she  dealt  so  tenderly 
with  as  with  England,  in  giving  to  her  London  as  her  capital,  the 
greatest  metropolis  in  the  world,  the  city  of  magnificent  distances,  with 
her  historic  palaces  and  palatial  mansions,  indicating  tEe  breadth  of 
English  hospitality  and  English  hearts,  which  are  always  genuine, 
warm,  and  sincere. 

Language  fails  us  to  express  our  appreciation  for  the  kindness 
evinced  towards  us.  The  doors  of  your  comfortable,  Christian,  and 
palatial  homes  have  been  opened  for  our  entertainment.  The  furnaces 
of  your  affection  and  kindheartedness  have  been  opened  from  the  start 
to  the  finish.  For  the  past  fourteen  days  every  want  has  been  antici- 
pated, and  every  desire  gratified.  And  now,  on  the  threshold  of  part- 
ing, the  hour  has  come.  Our  lips  quiver,  our  hearts  beat  with  fond 
emotion,  our  teeth  are  clenched  for  fear  to  express  the  word  "  farewell " 
— ^whioh  means,  I  wish  you  well. 

We  go  from  this  great  city  with  a  double  assurance,  that  in  no 
period  in  the  history  of  these  nations  has  there  been  a  closer  bond 
of  friendship  and  kindred  feeling  than  now.  We  need  no  stronger 
evidence  to  convince  us  of  the  fact.  First,  the  kind  treatment  we  have 
received  at  the  hands  of  the  Committee  of  Arrangements,  and  the 
English  people  in  the  City  of  London,  but  still  greater,  while  we  who 
are°from  the  land  beyond  the  seas  are  standing  beneath  the  shadow 
of  a  great  sorrow,  indications  arc  to  be  seen  in  your  great  metropolis 
that  the  two  flags  are  blended  in  mourning,  mother  sympathising  with 
the  daughter — ^England  the  mother,  America -the  daughter.  If  my 
expressions  were  equal  to  my  sensibilities  I  would  in  more  eloquent 
language  than  I  can  master  express  our  obligations  for  the  reception 
we  have  had.  We  assure  you  that  we  shall  turn  our  faces  Westwards, 
going  on  with  renewed  determination,  and  with  encouragement  in  all 
that°tends  to  promote  the  spread  of  the  Redeemer's  Kingdom.  We 
shall  further  tell  the  story  that  the  Union  Jack  and  the  Stars  and 
Stripes,  the  two  great  English-speaking  nations,  are  to  be  the  leaders 
of  the  future  civilisation  of  the  world  in  extending  the  Redeemer's 
Kingdom.     I  bid  you  farewell. 

The  Rev.  S.  P.  Rose,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada),  speak- 
ing for  the  Canadian  delegates,  said  : 

It  is  quite  impossible  that  I  should  rival  the  eloquence  of  my  friend, 
Bishop  Derrick,  who  has  made  it  impossible  for  one  to  speak  in 
ordinary  terms,  such  as  a  modest  Canadian  can  command,  without  it 
being  very  apparent  that  there  is  a  wide  difference  in  methods  of 
expression.  But  I  can  rival  him  certainly  in  the  warmth  of  the  grati- 
tude which  I  express,   not  on  my  own  l)ehalf,  but  on  behalf  of  the 


BUSINESS   PROCEEDINGS.  539 

Canadian  delegation.  It  would  be  impossible  to  state  in  terms  of 
exaggeration  our  sense  of  obligation  for  the  hospitality  and  kindness 
of  our  friends  here.  It  was  just  exactly  as  we  expected  it  to  be.  iou 
have  met  expectation,  and  in  doing  this  you  have  done  what  was 
much  more,  you  have  gone  beyond  it.  You  have  realised  our  hopes 
in  so  many  particulars  that  I  cannot  stay  to  speak  of  them  With 
very  sincere  thoughts  of  gratitude,  and  with  real  warmth  of  heart, 
I  beg,  on  behalf  of  the  Canadian  delegation,  to  support  the  resolutions 
that  are  now  submitted  to  the  Conference. 

The  Rev.  F.  T.  Tagg,  D.D.  (Methodist  Protestant  Church),  said : 
I  am  in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  resolutions,  but  it  occurs  to  me 
that  we  were  hardly  sufficientlv  grateful  to  the  proprietors  ot  the 
"Methodist  Recorder"  for  the  absolutely  accurate  and  splendid  reports 
that  they  have  made  of  these  meetings,  which  I  am  sure  must  have 
been  of  great  benefit  to  all  the  delegates.  T  make  a  motion  that  they 
be  specially  included  in  these  resolutions. 

The  Rev.  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South), 

said: 

As  a  Methodist  editor  from  America,  knowing,  as  I  do,  the  very 
great  difficulty  of  making  an  absolutely  accurate  report,  it  gives  me 
the  very  greatest  pleasure  to  second  the  motion.  We  have  had  a 
capital  report. 

The  Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D.   (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 

said : 

Before  the  vote  is  taken  I  would  like  to  say  that  in  all  the  Con- 
ferences I  have  been  permitted  to  attend  where  stenographic  reports 
have  been  made,  I  have  never  attended  one  where  the  reports  were  so 
uniformly  accurate  as  they  have  been  at  this  Conference. 

The  resolutions  were  carried  unanimously,  and  acknowledged  by 
the  Rev., John  Bond  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church).  Mr.  Bond 
further  said  he  must  ask  the  Conference  to  accept  his  resignation  of 
the  post  of  Secretary,  owing  to  the  state  of  his  health,  and  especially 
as  it  was  desirable  to  appoint  someone  to  take  charge  of  the  arrange- 
ments for  the  next  CEcumenical  Conference,  who  should  act  from  the 
close  of  the  present  one.  It  was  resolved  that  the  resignation  of  the 
Rev.  J.  Bond  should  be  accepted,  and  that  an  expression  of  the  Con- 
ference's profound  thanks  and  appreciation  be  conveyed  to  him  for 
the  work  he  had  done. 

The  Rev.  J.  Bnxi»  tli<ii  nominated  us  his  successor  the  Rev.  James 
Chapman  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  of  the  Wesleyan  Normal  In- 
stitution, Batteiseu,  ami  he  was  unaniinunsly  appointed  Secretary  for 
tlio  Eastern  Section. 

Bishop  J.  C.  Hartzell,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
(Uiurch),  proposed  that  a  loyal  Address  be  presented  from  the  Con- 
ference to  King  Edward  VII.     He  said  he  felt  that  it  would  be 


540  FOREIGN   MISSIONS. 

especially  appropriate  that  an  expression  should  go  from  them,  be- 
cause the  King  had  taken  such  pains  in  every  way,  individually  and 
oflScially,  to  manifest  his  sincere  sympathy  with  Mrs.  McKinley  and 
with  the  American  nation  in  their  great  bereavement. 

After  discussion,  in  which  it  was  suggested  that  the  great  loss  the 
world  had  suffered  by  the  death  of  the  late  Queen  Victoria  should 
also  be  refeiTed  to,  the  following  Committee  was  appointed  to  pre- 
pare the  Address  for  presentation  as  soon  as  possible  :  — Bishop  J  C. 
Hartzell,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  the  Rev.  T.  B. 
Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  the  Rev.  D. 
Brook,  M.A.,  D.C.L.  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches),  the  Rev. 
S.  P.  Rose,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada),  Mr.  W.  B.  Luke, 
J.P.  (Bible  Christian  Church),  and  Mr.  J.  Bamford  Slack,  B.A.  (Wes- 
leyan Methodist  Church),  Convener. 

In  accordance  with  the  resolution  of  the  Conference,  the  following 
Address  was  presented  to  King  Edward  VII.  through  the  Right 
Hon.  C.  T.  Ritchie,  M.P.  (Home  Secretary),  and  acknowledged  by 
him : 

To  His  Most  Gracious  Majesty  King  Edward  VII. 

May  it  please  Tour  Majesty : 

The  CEcumenical  Methodist  Conference  has  recently  assem- 
bled in  London,  after  an  interval  of  ten  years.  It  represents  the 
Methodist  Churches  in  the  British  Empire,  in  the  United  States,  and 
in  many  other  countries  in  which  Missionary  Churches  have  been,  or 
are  being,  created.  The  Methodist  Churches  of  the  world  contain  about 
seven  and  a  half  millions  of  communicants,  and  influence  in  various 
degrees  upwards  of  thirty  millions  of  adherents.  Much  the  larger  por- 
tion of  these  are  within  the  territory  and  influence  of  the  Unji^ed  States 
of  America,  but  powerful  Methodist  Churches  exist  in  every  part  of 
Your  Majesty^s  Dominions. 

The  strong  influences  of  a  common  faith  and  experience  are  not  only 
a  bond  of  union  between  the  several  portions  of  the  British  Empire, 
but  also  create  strong  ties  of  sympathy  and  goodwill  between  the  two 
great  sections  of  the  English-speaking  race. 

Meeting  as  we  have  done  in  the  capital  of  your  vast  Empire,  we  have 
felt  it  a  duty  and  privilege  to  address  to  Your  Majesty  a  respectful 
greeting.  We  assure  you  that  in  the  grief  which  overtook  yourself,  your 
family,  and  the  Empire,  through  the  decease  of  the  late  beloved  and 
revered  Queen  Victoria,  the  citizens  of  the  United  States  share  sympa- 
thetically and  sincerely  ;  and  in  the  congratulations  which  greeted  your 
accession  to  the  Throne  they  joined  not  less  heartily. 

The  people  of  the  United  States  have  been  deeply  moved  by  the 
solicitude  and  sympathy  manifested  by  Your  Majesty  during  the  illness 
and  after  the  decease  of  their  honoured  and  lamented  President 
McKinley  ;    and  they  value  highly  the   outburst  of  tender  .and  true 


ESSAY   OF   REV.    WALTER   R.    T,AMBUTH.  ,541 

emotion  which  tlic  assassination  of  tlie  President  called  forth  from  all 
classes  of  the  British  people  in  every  part  of  the  Empire. 

We  beg  to  assure  Your  Majesty  of  the  loyalty  and  affection  cherished 
for  your  person  and  House  by  those  of  us  who  are  Your  Majesty's  sub- 
jects, and  of  the  hearty  prayers  of  those  amongst  us  who  belong  to 
other  nations,  and  esi>ecially  to  the  United  States,  that  Your  Majesty 
may  have  a  long,  happy,  and  beneficent  reiga 

We  have  the  honour  to  be,  Your  Majesty, 

On  behalf  of  the  CEcumenical  Methodist  Conference, 
Yours  faithfully  and  most  respectfully, 

Joseph  C.  Hartzell, 

Bishop,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
T.  Bowman  Stephensox, 

Ex-President,  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church. 
J.  Bamford  Slack, 

Wesleyan  MetTiodist  Church. 
David  Bkook, 

President,  United  Mefhodist  Free  Churches.    . 
W.  B.  Luke, 

Bible  Christian  Church. 
Samuel  P.  Rose, 

Methodist  Church  of  Canada. 
September  27,  1901. 

The  session  closed  with  the  Benediction. 


SECOND     SESSION. 


The  Conference  commenced  its  last  session  at  2  p.m.,  under  the 
presideney  of  the  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church).  Prayer  was  offered  by  the  Rev.  J.  Luke  (Bible 
Christian  Church). 

The  Rev.  Walter  R.  Lambuth,  D.D.  (Metliodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South),  gave  the  closing  essay  of  the  Conference,  it  being  supple- 
mentaiy  to  that  given  at  the  morning  session.  It  was  on  "Mis- 
sions :  Our  Resources  for  the  Work."     He  said  : 

The  world  is  our  mission  field.  With  an  Atonement  through  the 
blood  of  the  everlasting  Covenant,  as  wide  as  the  race  ;  with  a  Gospel 
adapted  to  all  time  and  to  every  condition  of  man  ;  and  with  the  com- 
mission to  go  and  preach  this  Gospel  to  every  creature,  the  discussion 
of  the  problem  of  Missions  and  of  our  resources  should  take  the 
broadest  possible  range. 

For  lack  of  time  I  must  immediately  dismiss  the  consideration  of 
secondary  resources,  such  as  doors  thrown  wide  open  by  eipIoRition — 


542  FOREIGN  Missioisrs. 

it  was  David  Livingstone  wlio  said,  "  The  end  of  exploration  is  the 
beginning  of  enterprises  "  ;  the  marvellous  facilities  for  reaching  the 
ends  of  the  earth  ;  the  enormous  wealth  stored  in  the  keeping  of 
Christian  nations  ;  the  widespread  use  of  the  English  language — the 
vernacular  of  a  missionary  race  ;  the  power  of  the  Press  ;  the  dawn 
of  a  world-consciousness  ;  and  the  development  of  an  altruistic  spirit 
which  expresses  itself  so  beautifully  and  so  pathetically  to-day  in 
that  national  and  international  sympathy  which  speaks  in  heart-throbs 
of  the  brotherhood  of  man  and  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  These  are 
all  important  factors  in  the  advance  of  modern  Missions,  but  they 
are  at  best  auxiliary  forces. 

I  turn  to  those  which  more  vitally  concern  us  in  a  grasp  of  the 
problem  of  evangelisation  at  home  and  abroad.  First,  that  spirit  of 
true  Methodism  which  is  not  bound  by  tradition,  but  is  ever  open  to 
change  in  either  policy  or  method,  and  yet  remains  powerfully  aggres- 
sive, which,  with  Pauline  wisdom,  shall  lead  us  to  take  and  hold  the 
great  cities  of  the  world  for  Christ — storm  centres  of  sin  and  shame, 
or  strategic  and  reinforcing  points  for  the  diffusion  of  spiritual  pov.'ei. 
Secondly,  the  creation  of  a  missionary  pastorate.  Thirdly,  the  Word 
of  God  furnished  to  the  missionary  and  the  unreached  millions  through 
the  great  Bible  Societies.     Fourthly,  prayer  and  the  Holy  Spirit. 

The  London  Wesleyan  Methodist  Mission  has  given  us,  in  its  For- 
ward Movement,  a  splendid  illustration  of  resourcefulness,  heroic 
courage,  and  masterful  ability  in  grasping  the  problem  of  city  evangeli- 
sation. At  a  juncture  when  the  abandonment  of  the  old  preaching 
plac^  seemed  inevitable,  and  from  causes  similar  to  those  which  too 
often  in  America  have  led  to  the  surrender  of  what  we  call  the  "  down 
town  church,"  the  leaders  of  this  movement  threw  themselves  into  the 
breach  and  planted  their  standards  in  the  thick  of  London's  densest 
and  most  needy  population.  Here  these  devoted  men  and  womeji  have 
not  only  maintained,  their  position,  but  have  gone  steadily  forward, 
until  it  has  been  demonstrated  that  even  greater  London  can  be  held 
for  Christ. 

Conditions  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  city  missions  enter  into  the 
problem  of  the  evangelisation  of  the  metropolis  of  the  world,  and  yet 
they  are  conditions  Methodism  faces  to-day  in  New  York,  Chicago,  and 
New  Orleans.  Greater  London  has  an  area  of  700  square  miles,  with 
a  population  of  6,000,000,  which  grows  at  the  rate  of  100,000  a  year ; 
with  over  20,000  Mohammedans,  more  Roman  Catholics  than  in  Rome, 
and  more  Jews  than  in  Palestine.  We  are  confronted  ■  by  both  racial 
and  religious  elements  of  the  most  difficult  character.  There  are  14,000 
houses  licensed  to  sell  liquor,  more  than  10,000  canal  boatmen,  17,000 
cabdrivers,  22,000  omnibus  and  tramcar  men,  40,000  dockers,  and 
40,000  more  who  spend  every  night  upon  the  streets.  Nor  have  we 
mentioned  the  thousands  of  factory  girls,  barmaids,  and  courtesans  who 
throng  not  only  Whitechapel,  but  Piccadilly  and  the  Strand.  When 
to  this  again  is  added  the  statement  that  over  fifty  per  cent,  of  the 
population  is  "  quite  outside  of  all  Churches,"  and  that  in  some  districts 


ESSAY  OF   REV.    WALTER   R.    LAMBUTH.  §43 

less  tlian  two  per  cent,  enter  any  place  of  worship,  we  begin  to  form 
a  conreptian  of  tlie  prnl)lein  which  can  he  solved  only  by  heroic  men 
and  women,  qualified  for  difiiciilt  and  dangerous  service,  and  throiigh 
agencies  which  can,  and  will,  carry  the  Gospel  to  those  who  perish. 

What  are  the  resoiu'ces  with  which  the  solution  of  this  problem  has 
been  attempted?  Leadership,  courage  to  break  with  old  traditions, 
common  sense,  in  adapting  methods  to  environment,  the  intelligent  co- 
operation of  leading  laymen,  a  corps  of  seventy  trained  women,  music, 
and  money.  The  following  policy  is  the  outgrowth  of  sixteen  years' 
experience :  1.  The  organisation  of  a  system  of  city  missions  by  the 
authority  of  the  Wesley  an  Conference,  and  under  the  administration 
of  general  executive  committees  composed  of  an  equal  number  of 
ministers  and  laymen,  six  ladies  being  members  of  the  London  com- 
mittee. 2.  Down  town  churches  not  to  be  given  up,  but  held  for 
mission  purposes,  the  property  being  transferred  by  the  trustees  of  the 
churches  to  the  trustees  of  the  city  missions.  3.  The  employment  of 
lay  agents,  and  a  corps  of  sisters  or  deaconesses — the  latter,  by  their 
thorough  and  constant  house-to-house  visitation,  pronounced  by  Mr. 
Hughes  to  be  "  the  best  agency  for  unearthing  backsliders."  4.  Peni- 
tents sought  and  conversions  expected  in  every  service,  and  emphasis 
upon  class  meeting  attendance  and  systematic  giving,  both  as  a  test  of 
sincerity  and  a  means  of  spiritual  growth.  5.  The  adoption  of  no 
hard  and  fast  regulations,  and  the  utilisation  of  every  legitimate  means 
of  reaching  the  people  with  the  Gospel,  whether  in  the  open  air, 
Sunday  afternoon  meetings  in  the  halls,  breakfasts  for  poor  children, 
night  rescue  missions,  or  by  social  work.  The  results  under  the 
secretaryship  of  the  Rev.  W.  D.  Walters  and  the  leadership  of  such 
men  as  the  Revs.  Peter  Thompson,  John  E.  Wakerley,  Hugh  Price 
Hughes,  Henry  T.  Meakin,  and  others  have  been  the  rehabilitation  of 
the  old  churches,  the  erection  of  new  and  commodious  halls,  the  rescue 
of  hundreds  of  women  and  children,  and  the  gathering  of  thousands 
of  converts  into  organised  societies,  a  large  portion  of  the  young  men 
and  women  being  trained  and  mobilised  for  active  service,  as  in  the 
Central  London  Mission,  where  I  fotmd  twenty-seven  class  meetings 
in  operation,  and  a  band  of  three  hundred  workers  in  a  membership  of 
eight  hundred. 

After  a  careful  study  of  the  question,  I  am  profoundly  convinced  that 
what  has  been  done  in  England  can  be  done  elsewhere.  I  cannot  better 
close  this  section  of  my  paper  than  by  quoting  the  following  from  the 
Annual  Report  for  1900 :  "  The  Church  membership  in  all  the 
missions  of  the  five  large  cities — London,  Birmingham,  Liverpool,  Man- 
chester, and  Leeds — steadily  increases  year  by  year.  For  the  present 
year  the  increase  is  1,752,  the  figures  being  13,736  for  1900,  as  against 
11,984  for  1899.  In  other  words,  these  missions  show  one-third  of  the 
increase  reported  for  the  whole  Connexion,  and  in  all  of  the  missions, 
the  vast  congregations  of  working  people  assembled  from  week  to 
week  to  hear  the  Gospel,  attest  the  fact  that  the  problem,  how  to  reach 
the  masses,  has  been  to  a  great  extent  solved.  The  adoption  of  similar 
methods  on  a  much  larger  scale  is  all  that  is  needed  to  bring  about 


544  FOREIGN    MISSIONS. 

a  widespread  religious  awakening  among  the  great  multitudes  of  our 
fellow  countrymen.' 

Christianity  as  a  spiritual  force  must  be  developed  and  delivered 
through  a  human  agency.  "  Ye  have  not  chosen  Me,  but  I  have 
chosen  you,  and  ordained  you,  that  ye  should  go  and  bring  forth  fruit." 
The  solution  of  the  missionary  problem  rests  largely  with  the  pastor. 
In  the  education  of  the  conscience  of  his  Church,  his  position  is 
strategic.  He  holds  the  key  to  the  situation.  Boards  may  devise 
methods,  organise  campaigns,  and  project  forward  movements,  but 
without  the  hearty  co-operation  of  the  pastor  every  plan  will  prove 
abortive.  His  responsibility  is  supreme.  If  he  leads,  the  Church 
will  move  to  the  conquest  of  the  world  ;  if  he  is  unfaithful,  spiritual 
paralysis  ensues,  and  the  Church  will  fail  in  her  Divine  mission. 

One-third  of  the  membership  of  our  Methodist  Churches  in  America 
gives  absolutely  nothing  to  Missions.  The  average  contribution  for 
Foreign  Missions  is  forty  cents  per  member — less  than  one  cent  a 
week.  For  evei'y  dollar  given  to  this  cause  fourteen  dollars  thirty-four 
cents  is  spent  on  the  single  item  of  local  Church  expenses.  Five  years 
ago  the  Congregational  Church  in  America  reported  2,300  churches  out 
of  a  total  of  5,300  as  having  failed  to  make  any  offering  for  Foreign 
Missions,  and  the  Southern  Presbyterian  Church  1,100  out  of  2,700. 
Mr.  Eugene  Stock  stated  at  the  World's  Missionary  Conference  that 
not  more  than  one-fourth  of  the  congregations  of  the  Church  of 
England  contribute  to  the  supjiort  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society. 
What  is  the  explanation  ?  A  silent  pulpit,  which  fails  to  fasten  upon 
the  individual  Church  member  a  sense  of  personal  obligation  to  Christ 
to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost.  So  long  as  missionary  collections  are 
introduced  with  a  chapter  of  apologetics,  or  appeals  are  made  to  the 
low  motive  of  Church  pride,  or  reliance  placed  upon  mere  gush  and 
sentiment  we  cannot  hope  for  a  Missionary  Church.  "The  Church," 
says  Dr.  Thompson,  ''  that  is  not  missionary  in  its  spirit  must  repent 
or  wane  ;  the  pastor  who  is  not,  should  reform  or  resign." 

I  thank  God  there  are  unmistakable  signs  of  a  missionary  revival  in 
the  pastorate.  More  men  are  offering  for  missions,  and  more  mis- 
sionaries are  being  supported  by  individuals  and  by  Churches  than 
ever  in  our  histoiy.  There  is  a  decided  increase  in  the  aggregate 
contribution  for  Foreign  Missions,  and,  best  of  all,  it  is  the  prayerful 
conviction  of  a  number  of  our  leading  educators  that  not  the  occa- 
sional man,  but  all  our  young  men  preparing  for  the  ministry,  should 
be  filled  and  fired  with  the  missionary  spirit.  The  very  atmosphere 
of  our  institutions  should  be  "  charged  with  solemn  anxiety  for  the 
■world's  condition,  so  that  no  man  can  live  within  its  walls  without 
facing  for  himself  the  solemn  question :  Is  it  Christ's  will  for  me  that 
I  go  forth  to  serve  Him  in  the  regions  beyond?" 

"As  for  the  man  who  shall  enter  the  pastorate  at  home,"  exclaims 
Dr.  Cuthbert  Hall,  President  of  Union  Seminary,  "  he  requires  the 
missionary  passion  to  make  him  great  in  sympathy,  apostolic  in  his 
view  of  Christ  and  Christianity.  To  overcome  the  resistance  of  ignor- 
ance and  prejudice,  to  awaken  the  attention  of  apathetic  minds,  which 


ESSAY    OF    REV.    WALTER   R.    LAMBUTH.  545 

are  blindod  In  the  large  tiuestioii  of  the  world's  evangelisation,  to 
educate  the  ("hurch's  intelligence,  to  raise  at  home  the  supplies  that 
shall  maintain  the  work  of  God  abroad,  the  pastor  needs  nothing  less 
than  the  missionary  passion.  But  the  man  who  is  thus  to  conquer 
must  first  himself  be  conquered,  and  set  on  fire  of  God." 

In  an  enumeration  of  resources  we  must  consider  that  agency  as  the 
great  right  arm  of  missions  which  translates,,  pubhshes,  and  dis- 
seminates the  Scriptures,  sending  them  into  all  the  earth  as  leaves 
for  the  healing  of  the  nations.  As  the  pioneer  of  the  missionary, 
often  going  where  he  is  not  permitted  to  go,  as  is  the  case  at  present 
in  the  Soudan,  Thib.etj  and  in  Russia,  or  as  a  vast  armoury  from  which 
the  missionary  and  his  helpers  may  draw  the  munitions  of  war,  this 
agency  is  simply  indispensable.  Not  the  Methodist  Church  alone, 
but  all  Churches  of  Christendom  owe  an  increasing  debt  of  gratitude 
to  the  British  and  Foreign,  the  American,  the  Scotch,  and  other  Bible 
Societies  for  their  priceless  gift  to  the  world  of  Scriptures  in  421 
different  languages  or  dialects. 

During  the  past  year  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  alone 
has  had  translations  or  revisions  in  actual  progress  in  100  languages, 
it  has  issued  4,914,000  copies  of  the  Scriptures,  and  sold  1,600,000 
copies  in  thirty  foreign  countries  through  its  812  colporteurs  and  616 
native  Christian  Bible  women,  who  are  reading  the  Word  of  God  to 
40,000  women  every  week.  It  may  well  be  grateful  for  the  fact  that 
every  great  British  Foreign  Mission  is  freely  supplied  with  the  Scrip- 
tures it  needs,  that  grants  are  made  to  the  most  inaccessible  field  on 
the  same  liberal  terms  with  the  others,  namely,  "The  books  needed 
are  sent  out  free  and  carriage  paid  to  the  missionary,  who  remits 
any  proceeds  from  sales,  after  defraying  expenses  of  circulation,"  and 
that  "  no  grant  of  Scriptures  has  ever  been  denied,"  and,  further,  it  can 
state  "  nor  the  request  of  any  Missionary  Society  to  publish  a  properly 
authenticated  version  of  the  Scriptures  in  a  new  tongue  been  refused.'' 

No  greater  confirmation  of  the  Providential  mission  and  opportunity 
of  this  agency  can  be  found  than  in  Russia,  where  "to  leave  the 
National  Church  is  to  break  the  law  ;  to  circulate  tracts  unauthorised 
by  the  Holy  Synods  is  a  punishable  offence,  and  to  attempt  evangelistic 
services  is  prohibited."  Notwithstanding  that,  the  secretaries  say  in 
their  last  Annual  Report :  "  We  still  experience  the  cordial  co-opera- 
tion of  the  Russian  Church  in  contrast  with  the  sleepless  hostility 
of  the  Roman  Church  in  aU  countries  where  it  has  p>ower.  .  .  . 
Nowhere  outside  of  England  has  the  Bible  Society  wider  facilities 
and  a  warmer  welcome  than  in  Russia,  alike  from  statesmen,  soldiers, 
and  ecclesiastics."  Over  half  a  million  copies  of  the  Scriptures  in  sixty 
different  languages  were  sold  in  the  Russian  Empire  last  year,  the 
Society's  books  being  "  exempt  from  the  heavy  frontier  customs  duties, 
and,  up  to  certain  limits,  its  cases  of  Bibles  and  its  colporteurs  carried 
free  on  both  railways  and  river  steamers." 

All  that  has  been  said  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  as 
to  generosity  and  opportunity  is  true  of  the  sister  Society  in  America, 
with  the  added  fact  that  a  larger  proportion  of  its  publications  goes  to 

36 


546  FOREIGN    MISSIONS. 

foreign  lands — 973,615  copies  being  sent  abroad,  out  of  a  total  issue  of 
1,554,128  copies.  The  highest  circulation  in  Brazil  has  just  been 
reached  under  the  superintendeney  of  the  Bev.  H.  C.  Tucker,  a  member 
of  this  (Ecumenical  Conference,  who  in  thirteen  years  has  put  in 
circulation  285,859  copies  among  a  priest-ridden  people,  who  are  at  last 
waking  up  to  new  life. 

Eighteen  years  ago  our  indefatigable  agent  in  Japan,  the  Rev.  A. 
Loomis,  was  refused  admission  to  a  man-of-war.  Two  of  the  largest  battle- 
ships in  the  navy  are  now  commanded  by  Christian  men,  one  of  whom  is 
an  admiral,  and  during  the  recent  war  in  Korea,  prior  to  embarkation, 
soldiers  of  the  regular  army  were  drawn  up  in  line  by  order  of  their 
general,  that  they  should  salute  and  receive  the  vest-pocket  Testa- 
ments from  the  hands  of  the  colporteurs,  who  presented  the  Word  of 
God  and  the  good-will  to  men  of  the  American  Society.  Scores  of 
these  soldiers  returned  from  Korea  to  become  earnest  enquirers  in 
our  chapels.  By  every  token  we  must  stand  by  these  great  institu- 
tions. The  last  General  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 
South,  gave  emphasis  to  its  faith  in  this  agency  by  ordering  an  annual 
collection  for  the  American  Bible  Society  to  be  taken  up  in  every 
congregation. 

The  supreme  and  culminating  resource  of  an  aggressive  Church  is 
prayer — that  expectant  waiting  upon  God  which  is  always  antecedent 
to  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  "  And  behold  I  send  the  promise  of  My 
Father  upon  you  ;  but  tarry  ye  in  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  until  ye  be 
endued  with  power  from  on  high."  To  be  saved,  the  heathen  must 
have  a  new  sense  of  sin  ;  to  be  imbued  with  power  the  Church  must 
have  a  new  sense  of  God.  "  In  this  day  of  faith  in  the  natural,  and  dis- 
inclination to  the  supernatural,"  wrote  William  Arthui-  in  his  "Tongue 
of  Fire,"  "  we  want  especially  to  meet  the  whole  world  with  the  credo, 
'  I  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost.'  "  We  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost — His 
Personality  and  leadership — and  that  He  is  of  one  substance,  majesty 
and  glory  with  the  Father  and  the  Son,  very  and  eternal  God.  He  is 
here.  We  have  realised  His  presence  during  the  days  of  this  Confer- 
ence, but  we  need  further  enduement  of  power,  as  individuals  and  as 
a  Church,  if  we  would  finish  the  work  that  has  been  given  us  to  do. 
That  faith  in  God  which  brings  down  the  power  of  the  supernatural 
world  is  born  of  prayer — ^importunate,  unceasing,  prevailing  prayer. 
Such  prayer,  if  it  prevail  with  God,  must  be  accomjianied  by  honest 
confession,  by  separation  from  sin,  by  absolute  and  unconditional  sur- 
render to  Jesus  Christ.     Nothing  short  of  this  will  meet  the  conditions. 

In  that  upper  room,  among  the  disciples,  there  was  searching  of 
heart.  Their  eyes  waited  upon  the  Lord  until  that  He  should  have 
mercy  upon  them.  He  did  have  mercy,  and  the  power  came.  In  a 
deeper  and  more  significant  sense  than  they,  we  are  in  trust  with 
the  Gospel.  Ours  is  an  age  of  unparalleled  opportunity.  The  world- 
field  is  wide  open,  but  we  have  failed  to  occupy,  in  the  hour  of  oppor- 
tunity. The  promise  of  the  Father  has  been  ours.  We,  too,  have 
been  commissioned  to  go  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature,  and 
yet  ten   hundred  million  men   and  women  are  out  of  Olrrist.     Half 


ESSAY   OF   REV.    WALTER    R.    LAMBUTII.  547 

this  number  liav^^  nut  j-et  heard  tlie  story  of  His  hive.  They  perish  at 
the  rate  of  thirty  millions  a  year— more  than  two  millions  a  month.  In 
China  alone  there  are  nine  hundred  walled  cities  without  a  missionary, 
and  we  know  that  every  fourth  baby  born  into  the  world  looks  up  into 
the  face  of  a  Chinese  mother.  Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things? 
Surely  the  Christian  students  of  Germany  were  right  when  they  took 
the  motto  of  Joseph  Neesima,  "  We  cam  only  advance  upon  out 
knees." 

Those  who  attended  the  World's  Missionary  Conference  in  New  York 
realised  that  we  are  upon  the  threshold  of  miglitier  spiritual  move- 
ments than  the  Church  has  ewr  known.  The  forces  of  the  unseen 
world,  held  in  reserve  until  now,  are  being  unlocked  in  answer  to 
prayer.  The  leaders  of  two  of  the  greatest  of  modern  missionary  en- 
terprises made  use  at  the  Conference  of  almost  identical  statements  : 
(1)  All  power  is  with  God  ;  (2)  God's  power  is  available  ;  (3)  All  things 
axe  possible  to  him  that  believeth.  In  the  strength  of  these  great 
truths  the  Church  must  gird  herself  afresh  for  conquest. 

The  fields  are  white.  To  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  we  must  turn  for 
labourers  and  their  equipment.  David  Hill  was  a  member  of  our  last 
Methodist  CEcumenical  Conference.  He  fell  at  his  post,  a  saintly  man  and 
of  apostolic  spirit.  From  the  city  of  Wuchang,  after  making  a  passionate 
plea  for  sympathetic  and  intelligent  prayer  for  missions,  he  organised 
the  Central  China  Prayer  Union,  in  which  several  hundred  friends  in 
England  banded  together  to  pray  for  that  section  of  the  Empire.  Mr. 
Barber,  in  his  life  of  Mr.  Hill,  makes  this  remarkable  '  statement, 
"Directly  or  indirectly,  for  the  next  ten  years,  almost  every  one  who 
went  to  Central  China  was  a  volunteer  through  his  influence."  Who 
shall  say  to  what  extent  those  prayers,  during  the  recent  troubles, 
strengthened  the  two  great  Viceroys  of  the  Tangtse  Valley  in  their 
purpose  to  resist  the  ferocious  demands  of  the  Empress  Dowager, 
thereby  saving  the  lives  of  hundreds  of  foreigners,  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  native  Christians. 

In  November,  1886,  when  the  China  Inland  Mission  felt  the  special 
need  of  Divine  guidance,  both  as  to  organisation  and  reinforcement, 
Mr.  Hudson  Taylor  and  a  few  friends  agreed  to  spend  eight  days  in 
prayer.  They  were  led  to  ask  for  one  hundred  missionaries  for  1887 
and  £10,000.  They  were  further  led  to  pray  that  the  amount  might 
be  sent  in  large  sums,  that  the  hard-worke<l  office  force  might  not  be 
"unduly  occupied  in  the  acknowledgment  of  the  contributions.''  What 
was  the  result  ?  At  the  end  of  the  year  one  hundretl  men  and  women 
had  gone  out,  and  £11,000  had  been  received  in  eleven  contributions, 
the  smallest  being  £500.  "He  is  faithful  that  promised,"  He  also  will 
do  it. 

In  1887  the  Church  Missionary  Society  faced  an  extraordinary  situa- 
tion. The  Committee  met  by  agreement  to  lay  the  matter  before  the 
Lord.  Wliile  on  their  knees  the  assurance  came  that  God  would 
provide,  and  with  it  the  conviction  that  "  no  candidate  should  be  refused 
on  financial  grounds  who  appeared  to  be  God-called."  In  the  thirteen 
years  tliat  have  elapsed,  the  missionary  force  of  that  Society  has  been 


54^  FOREIGN   MISSIONS. 

more  tlian  trebled,  and  the  income  increased  by  more  than  one  hundred 
thousand  pounds. 

The  great  Decennial  Oooiferencc  of  Missionaries  in  China,  met  in 
1889  in  Shanghai,  and  sent  out  a  ringing  appeal  for  reinforcement. 
They  at  the  same  hour  appointed  an  hour  each  week  when  they 
should  pray  for  1,000  missionaries.  Before  the  five  years  closed  the 
thousand  men   and  womeoi  were  on  the  field. 

Some  of  us  have  just  been  to  a  Missionary  Conference  held  by  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  .South,  in  the  city  of  New  Orleans, 
v,'here  for  six  days  nearly  two  thousand  delegates  and  representatives  of 
our  Churches  waited  upon  God.  It  w«.s  a  council  of  war  for  the  more 
complete  occupation  of  the  fields,  the  adoption  of  plains  adequate  to 
twentieth  century  opportunity,  wiser  methods  of  administration,  and 
the  deepening  of  the  spiritual  life  of  the  Church.  Five  thousand  of 
our  people  had  pledged  to  pray  for  the  Conference.  The  names  of 
four  thousand  were  recorded  in  our  mission  rooms.  We  prayed  for 
fifty  thousand  dollars  for  our  Missionary  Twentieth  Century  Fund. 
The  offering  at  the  close  of  Bishop  Galloway's  address  was  50,150 
dollars.  We  prayed  for  reinforcement.  Forty-seven  men  and  women 
offered  for  the  foreign  fields,  some  of  whom  have  been  in  the  pastorate 
for  years.  We  prayed  for  a  missionary  revival  in  our  ministry.  One 
hundred  presiding  elders  pledged  to  a  man  the  immediate  inaugura- 
tion of  a  missionary  campaign  in  their  districts.  From  that  day  they 
have  been  pressing  the  battle  in  every  section  of  the  South.  We 
pi-ayed  for  a  vision  of  Him  who  alone  can  lead  the  Church  in  the 
fulfilment  of  her  high  purpose — to  preach  His  gospel  to  every  creature. 
While  we  tarried,  He  oame  in  the  exceeding  greatness  of  His  power, 
and  we  were  constrained  to  cry  out :  "  Lord,  what  wilt  Thou  have  me 
to  do?" 

I  believe  with  Bishop  Thobum  that  ten  milHon  souls  might  be  added 
to  the  Church  during  the  first  decade  of  this  century,  if  the  Church  will 
do  her  duty.  But  to  do  the  work  for  which  she  is  commissioned  she 
must  have  the  vision.  Let  us  heed  the  words  of  the  prophet :  "  Though 
it  tarry,  wait  for  it ;  because  it  will  surely  come." 

The  Rev.  F.  W.  Macdonald  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  gave 
the  first  invited  address,  as  follows  : 

I  have  been  a  student  and  advocate  of  Christian  Missions  from  the 
beginning  of  my  ministry,  and  now  for  several  years  I  have  been 
engaged  in  the  administration  of  Foreign  Missions.  I  am  often  em- 
barrassed, and  troubled,  and  positively  oppressed,  by  details  that  carry 
with  them  great  calls  upon  all  the  qualities  at  one's  disposal,  but  all 
the  time  the  main  inspiring  principles  and  the  master-motives  of 
Missions  have  remained  with  me  undiminished  in  their  sanctity  and 
in  their  power. 

I  was  at  a  little  loss  to  understand  what  precisely  might  be  meant 
by  the  expression,  "  Our  Eesources  for  the  Work."  It  is  a  phrase  that 
is  capable  of  several  inteii)retationSj  but  I  am  relieved  to  find  that 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  F.  W.  MACDONALD.  549 

by  "our  resources"  we  do  not  primarily  refer  to  finances.  As  3. 
Missionary  Secretary,  I  am  not  very  likely  to  take  a  fanatic  and 
unreal  position  with  regard  to  the  importance  of  finance,  but  I  am 
deeply  persuaded  that  financial  considerations  are  not  the  primary  ones, 
and  that,  however  bountiful  our  people  may  be,  our  main  resources 
arc  not  found  in  pounds  or  in  dollars.  I  would  suggest,  very  briefly, 
one  or  two  respects  in  which  it  appears  to  me  that  our  resources  at  the 
beginning  of  this  century  exhibit  a  most  cheering  and  encouraging 
increase. 

We  have  had  now  a  century  of  modern  missionary  history.  The 
organised  effort  on  the  part  of  the  Evangelical  Churches  to  give  the 
Gospel  to  the  world  may  be  said  to  be  but  a  century  old,  and  when 
we  endeavour  to  form  an  estimate  of  the  resources  we  possess,  and 
with  which  we  have  to  face  this  century,  I  think,  without  flattering 
ourselves,  we  may  assume  that  there  has  been  an  accumulation  of 
moral  and  spiritual  resource  which  will  be  available  for  the  larger 
campaigns  of  the  coming  time. 

Among  those  accumulations  of  moral  and  spiritual  capital  to  which 
I  refer,  I  would  name,  first  of  all,  the  deeper  insight  into  the  mil  of 
God,  into  the  nature  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ,  and  the  destinies  of  men, 
which  now  seems  to  be  possessed  by  the  Christian  Church.  It  is  no 
part  of  my  thought  to  disparage  the  intelligence,  the  theological  grasp, 
the  perception  of  our  ancestors.  It  would  be  a  most  shallow  and  un- 
worthy thing  to  do,  but  in  the  Providence  of  God  it  is  given  to  the 
Christian  Church  to  grow  into  larger  and  truer  perceptions,  and  to 
attain  an  insight  which  at  one  period  of  its  history  it  perhaps  did  not 
possess.  I  believe  that  the  truer  insight  which  is  now  exhibited  in 
the  best  representatives  of  the  Christian  Church  is  very  largely  the 
outcome  of  quickened,  patient,  and  successful  Biblical  study.  It  is  not 
that  those  who  went  before  us  were  wanting  in  apprehension  of  the 
great  primary  trust  committed  to  the  Church  of  Christ,  but  one  of 
the  precious  results  of  devout  Biblical  study  during  the  last  generation 
or  two  seems  to  me  to  be  that  it  has  yielded  a  finer,  deeper,  truer,  per- 
ception of  the  relation  of  the  incarnate  Son  of  God  to  humanity,  and 
that  along  with  the  generally-acknowledged  increase  of  humanitarian- 
ism  in  the  affairs  of  civilised  nations  there  has  come  a  deeper  percep- 
tion of  the  transcendent  relations  of  men  as  men  to  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  That  truer  perception  is  not  the  possession  of 
the  scholar  merely,  but  I  think  it  characterises  the  finer  spirits  of 
all  the  Churches,  and  may  be  traced  in  the  richer  and  more  fruitful 
theology  of  all  the  Churches. 

If  I  may  offer  an  illustration — and  I  do  so  with  the  more  pleasure 
because  it  carries  us  for  a  moment  outside  our  own  Churches — I  would 
siy  that  at  no  period,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  in  tlie  history  of  Christianity 
in  this  country  have  religious  leaders  of  the  stature  of  the  present 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (Archbishop  Temple)  and  the  late  Bishop 
of  Durham  (Bishop  Westcott)  brought  their  qualities  of  mind  and 
heart,  of  scholarship  and  experience,  to  bear  upon  the  subject  of 
Christian  Missions  as  tlieso  distinguished  men  have  done.     The  saintlv 


55°  FOREIGN   MISSIONS. 

scholar  who  has  recently  passed  to  his  rest  in  the  diocese  of  Durham 
has  contributed,  not  merely  to  the  formal  theology  of  his  Church,  but 
to  the  working  and  devotional  theology  of  all  the  Churches,  a  fresh 
Biblical  impulse  on  the  subject  of  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel,  the 
realisation  of  Christ's  Kingdom  upon  earth,  and  I  rejoice  to  trace  move- 
ments of  the  same  spirit  in  the  religious  thought  and  teaching  of  my 
own  brethren. 

It  is  part  of  one's  privilege,  when  one  has  passed  undoubtedly  out 
of  the  ranks  of  the  young,  and,  after  a  little  preliminary  inspection, 
has  been  received  into  the  ranks  of  the  old — it  is  part  of  one's  privilege 
and  anxiety  to  watch  the  tone  and  temper,  the  indications  of  thought 
and  spirit  to  be  seen  in  the  younger  men  that  are  coming  up  to  take 
one's  place.  I  believe  we  shall  find  that  in  the  grasp  of  theology  which 
our  younger  brethren  are  exhibiting,  the  great  asjiects  of  the  world's 
relation  to  Christ,  raised  by  the  incarnation  and  by  the  redemptional 
death  of  our  Lord,  are  coming  nearer  to  their  true  place  in  Christian 
thought  and  teaching  than  they  have  done  before.  I  think  that  is  an 
addition  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  resource  of  the  Churches.  From 
out  of  an  inspired  and  illumined  teaching  of  this  subject  much  fruit 
will  come  in  the  life  and  labour  of  our  people  on  every  side. 

Then  we  have  a  very  great  resource  in  the  history  of  the  past  century. 
That  history  has  illustrated,  interpreted,  and  laid  afresh  upon  the 
conscience  of  Christians  the  great  primary  commands  of  the  Gospel. 
By  this  time  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  speaking  to  the  Churches  in  reference 
to  the  missionary  duty,  can  say,  as  our  Lord  said  in  the  days  of  His 
flesh,  "Though  ye  believe  not  Me,  believe  the  works."  They  are  un- 
mistakably present  in  the  modern  history  of  mankind.  You  have 
the  gracious  and  beneficent  presence  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  working  in 
connection  with  Foreign  Missions.  Our  missionary  history — the  his- 
tory of  the  last  hundred  years — is  a  history  now  adorned  with  great 
names,  with  inspiring  examples,  with  the  noblest  forms  of  Christian 
character,  with  the  most  impressive  illustrations  of  the  beauty  and 
nobility  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and  these  illustrations  shed  their 
light  and  bear  their  interpretation  upon  the  whole  thing.  The  conse- 
quence is  that  the  conscience  of  the  general  community  is  now  rapidly 
following  the  more  elect  and  instructed  conscience  of  the  Christian 
Church. 

I  find  a  very  great  difference  in  the  tone  of  the  responsible  organs 
of  the  Press  on  this  subject  from  that  which  prevailed  when  first  I 
began  to  study  these  matters.  I  cannot  eixpect  the  average  conscience 
of  society  to  be  marching  step  by  step  with  the  conscience  of  elect  and 
illuminated  souls,  but  it  follows  it,  and  the  noble  history,  adorned  with 
great  names,  and  rich  in  the  triumphs  of  goodness  is  making  itself  felt 
far  and  wide  by  the  general  cotiscience  of  the  communities  in  the 
midst  of  which,  we  live.     That  is  an  additional  source  of  strength. 

I  account  it  a  great  addition  to  our  resources  that  we  now  have  a 
hundred  years'  experience  in  this  great  campaitjn.  I  believe  very  strongly 
ia  transmitted  qualities,  in  the  gradual  elevation  of  communities  to 
greater   efficiency  for  the   tasks   those  communities   have  to  face.     I 


ADDRESS   OF   REV.    WILLIAM   BURT.  55 1 

would  illustrate  it  by  referring  to  the  Anglo- American  peoples.  Their 
capacity  for  self-government,  for  the  organisation  of  society,  and  for 
the  administration  of  civil  life,  was  not  jumped  into  in  a  moment.  It 
has  come  by  growth.  The  effects  of  experience  have  passed  into  the 
very  blood  and  fibre  of  the  people,  so  that  each  of  us  is  living  a  life, 
many  precious  elements  of  which  originated  and  were  nurtured  before 
he  was  born.  So  it  is  with  the  Church.  In  reference  to  the  pro- 
pagation of  the  Gospel,  we  have,  no  doubt,  a  very  rich  experience. 
We  know  much  concerning  the  life  of  nations,  the  temper  and  spirit 
of  different  races,  the  character  and  quality  of  religions,  the  modes  of 
approach  to  human  minds  widely  separated  from  each  other,  in  respect 
to  circumstances  and  characteristics.  We  have  a  most  precious  ex- 
perience gained  amid  many  sufferings,  many  tears,  much  blood  ;  a 
precious  experience  of  tested  and  proved  methods  by  which  the  holy 
work  laid  upon  us  may  be  performed,  I  look  during  these  coming 
years  for  an  ever-increasing  application  of  our  acquired  experience  to 
the  great  tasks  that  lie  before  us.  Just  as  each  of  us  individually, 
after  half  a  lifetime  of  work,  possesses  resources  born  of  his  own 
experience  and  observation,  so  Christian  communities  organised  to 
do  the  work  of  our  Lord  may  acquire  to  themselves  a  capacity,  a 
facility,  a  practical  wisdom  which  will  lift  the  work  of  their  later 
years  to  an  immensely  higher  level  of  efficiency  than  that  of  their 
earlier  years. 

The  Rev.  William  Burt,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
gave  the  second  invited  address.     He  said  : 

It  is  natural,  perhaps,  when  we  ask :  '"  What  are  our  resources  ?  " 
to  measure  our  material  strength,  and  to  count  our  numbers.  The 
money  power  of  the  Church  to-day  is  enonnous.  Dr.  Josiah  Strong 
said,  more  than  twenty  years  ago :  "  There  is  money  enough  in  the 
hands  of  Church  members  to  sow  every  acre  of  the  earth  with  the 
seed  of  truth. '  God  has  entrusted  to  His  children  the  means  of  giving 
the  Gospel  to  every  creature  in  this  world  within  the  next  thirty 
years, 

"  Our  Pather  is  rich  in  houses  and  lands, 
He  iholdeith  the  wealth  of  the  world  in  His  hands." 

The  two  great  Protestant  nations  are  by  far  the  wealthiest  on 
the  face  of  the  earth.  If  only  a  quarter  of  the  Protestants  of  Europe 
and  America  would  give  but  a  halfpenny  a  day  we  should  have  more 
than  twenty  million  pounds  for  Missions  every  year,  instead  of  less 
than  one-fifth  of  that  sum.  "For  we  know  the  grace  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  that,  though  He  was  rich,  yet  for  our  sakes  He  became 
poor,  that  ye  through  His  poverty  might  be  rich."  How  can  we,  who 
profess  to  be  disciples  of  Jesus,  spend  so  much  on  selfish  luxuries  when 
a  dying  world  is  crying  for  help? 

It  is  not  simply,  however,  a  question  of  money.  At  the  disposal  of 
the  Church  of  Christ  are   all  the  resources  and  facilities  of  modern 


552  FOREIGN    MISSIONS. 

civilisation,    facilities  which   Christianity  has   created,   and  now  can 
make  use  of.     (1)  Organised  societies  through  which  we  may  have  an 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  social,  moral,  and  spiritual  condition  and 
needs  of  all  races  of  mankind.     (2)  The  enlarged  and  improved  means  o4 
communication.     It  took  Judson  eleven  months  to  go  from  America 
to   Calcutta.     The  voyage  can  now  be  made  in  less  than  a  month. 
The  telegraph,  the  telephone,  the  Postal  Union,   the  news  agencies, 
the  printing    press.     What   marvellous   progress  in  a  century !     We 
can  now  print,  bind,  and  fold  100,000  copies  of  our  largest  newspapers 
in  an  hour.     For  what  a  small  sum  copies  and  portions  of  the  liible 
may  now  be  produced.     One  thing  is  sure,  every  one  of  these  agencies 
was  intended  primarily  to  serve  the  sublime  purpose  of  establishing  and 
building  up  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  in  the  world.     (3)  We  have,  too, 
the   accumulated  history  of  the  facts  of  the  centuries  to  prove  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  religion  and  its  power  to  siave  men  of  all  climes, 
races,  classes,  and  conditions,  and  of  the  experiences  of  consecrated  men 
and  women  to  show  us  how  the  work  should  be  done.     (4)  Then  think 
of  the  vast  army  of  those  who  profess  to  be  disciples  of  Jesus,  members 
of  Protestant  Churches,   or  even   of   Methodist   Churches.     Contrast 
these  with  the  little  despised  seot  which,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  began 
the  evangelisation  of  the  then  known  world.     When  we  remember  what 
the  few  accomplished,  can  we  doubt  what  the  Church  of  to-day  could 
do?     Take,  for  instance,    the  young  people  of  the   Church  in  tiheir 
various  Sunday  Schools,  Leagues,  Guilds,  and  Associations.     There  is 
no  other  such  army  in  the  world. 

What  an  exhibition  the  world  has  had  lately  of  the  unity,  loyalty, 
and  power  of  the  British  Empire,  at  the  departure  for  the  field  of 
battle  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  soldiers.  Whatever  may  be  our 
opinions  in  reference  to  the  war,  we  cannot  but  admire  the  spirit  of 
self-deniail  and  of  self-sacrifice  with  which  it  has  been  prosecuted.  (1) 
Men  have  given  freely  that  which  is  most  dear  to  them — ^life  itself  in  the 
interest  of  country.  (2)  Money  has  been  lavishly  spent.  Think  of  the 
hundreds  of  millions  poured  out  on  the  altar  of  Mars.  (3)  No  one 
has  been  dismayed  because  of  the  tremendous  difficulties  encountered. 
Eegiments  have  been  decimated,  officers  slain,  and  thousands  upon 
thousands  have  been  sent  home  sick  or  wounded,  and  yet  the  spirit 
of  determination  has  risen  at  the  cry :  We  must  conquer !  When, 
however,  it  is  suggested  that  we  Methodists  should  unite  and  send  at 
least  10,000  additional  missionaries  to  the  front  for  the  speedy  con- 
quest of  this  world  to  Christ,  we  are  told  that  it  is  impracticable  and 
visionary.  We  have  no  resources  for  such  an  enterprise.  In  the 
name  of  our  Lord  and  Master,  let  us  settle  it  once  for  all.  We  must 
conquer.  No  merely  human,  secular,  or  non-Ohristian  undertaking 
should  surpass  in  enterprise,  devotion  and  aggressiveness  the  Church 
of  the  Living  God. 

We  make  a  great  mistake,  however,  if  we  think  that  our  resources  for 
the  work  consist  in  wealth  ;  in  the  number  of  our  members  ;  Ln  the 
extension  and  perfection  of  our  organisation ;  in  our  schools  and  uni- 
versities ;  in  the  acute  soholarsihip  of  our  ministers  and  professors  ;  or 


ADDRESS   OF  REV.    WILLIAM   BURT.  553 

in  our  social  position  and  political  influence.  These,  after  all,  are 
only  means.  Tho  power  is  spiritual,  the  power  of  truth  and  the 
power  of  personalities  possessed  by  the  truth.  When  God  enters  into 
a  human  heart,  the  individual  becomes  a  power  among  men,  no  matter 
what  his  sphere  in  life  may  be. 

Is  our  Methodism  producing  to-day  men  and  women  filled  with 
spiritual  Hfe  and  power,  whose  personalities  impress  the  families,  the 
communities  and  the  countries  in  which  they  live?  Men  and  women 
who  attract  others  to  Christ,  and  who  attempt  great  things  for  God 
because  they  believe  in  God  and  have  life  in  themselves.  Christ 
Himself  made  disciples  by  living  among  men,  and  by  impressing 
upon  their  minds  the  eternal  truths  which  He  came  to  teach  them. 
His  discdples  He  also  made  apostles.  Paul  did  the  same,  and  so  did 
Wesley.  As  soon  as  a  man  knows  Christ  by  a  living  experience,  and 
feels  the  thrill  of  the  Christ-love  in  his  soul,  he  must  do  as  Christ 
did — ^go  to  someone  else  with  his  message  and  life.  Could  'anything  be 
more  simple  than  for  Christ  to  say  to  His  chosen  few  just  before 
He  left  them,  Now  go  into  all  nations  and  teach  what  you  have 
learned  ;  go  among  men  as  I  have  been  among  you,  tell  them  that 
they  belong  to  God  ;  help  them  to  find  what  you  have  found?  "Lo,  I 
am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world,"  and  "  All  power 
is  given  unto  Me  in  heaven  and  in  earth." 

This  was  Christ's  method  of  saving  the  world.  Has  it  ever  been 
improved  upon  ?  Do  great  cathedrals,  vast  organisations,  robed  priests, 
and  gorgeous  ceremonies  save  men  and  make  them  more  Christlike? 
The  Eomish  Church  is  the  best  equipped  of  any  in  the  world,  but  we 
know  there  is  no  inspiration  to  a  better  life  in  mere  pomp  and  show, 
whUe  there  is  almighty  power  in  a  Christlike  life.  That  which  made 
disciples  in  the  days  of  the  apostles  and  in  the  days  of  our  fathers 
will  do  so  now — the  simple  vision  of  Jesus  manifested  in  our  lives.  This 
is  the  fundamental  idea  of  the  Church  of  Christ  in  all  its  membership, 
its  rank  and  file,  men  and  women,  laymen  and  ministers,  children  and 
adults.  If  those  who  call  themselves  Methodists  were  individually 
filled  with  this  power,  and,  consequently,  obedient  to  Christ  as  were 
the  Apostle  Paul,  Wesley,  and  others,  this  world  might  be  brought  to 
a  knowledge  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  within  the  next  thirty  years. 
Supreme  love  to  Christ  in  the  heart  of  the  individual  disciple  is  the 
only  sure  source  of  success.  From  this  all  Missionary  Societies  and 
Missions,  Tract  Societies,  Colleges,  Schools,  and  Churches  have  ori- 
ginated. All  the  forces  ctf  nature  and  all  the  powers  of  this  world 
must  obey  and  assist  him  who  loyally  obeys  Christ.  Such  an  one 
must  succeed,  because  he  is  co-operating  with  God. 

The  hundreds  of  millions  of  India,  China,  Africa,  and  of  the  Isles  of 
the  Sea  are  all  stretching  out  their  arms  to  us  for  help  and  salvation, 
while  those  at  our  very  doors  are  beseeching  us  for  the  Bread  of  Life. 
We  have  all  the  resources  necessary  to  meet  the  emergency  if  we  will 
but  avail  ourselves  of  them.  Be  filled  with  the  Spirit  which  animated 
our  Lord  Jesus.  Let  His  life  be  ours.  This  is  the  great  need  of 
the  hour.     We  can  never  save  the  world  by  our  machinery.    Tarry 


■;54  MEMORIAL    SERVICE    TO    PRESIDENT   McKINLEY. 

at  Jenisaleiii  until  endued  with  power  from  on  hjgh.  Pentecost  was 
God's  answer  to  a  praying  Church.  Another  such  answer  to  prayers 
as  effectual  and  fervent  would  convert  the  world.  All  that  we  have 
and  are  must  be  offered  on  God's  altar  in  free,  personal  consecration, 
and  the  reverent  cry  of  faith  will,  as  of  old,  be  answered  by  fire  from 
heaven,  and  all  the  earth  will  be  filled  with  the  glory  of  God.  "  The 
weapons  of  our  warfare  are  not  carnal,  but  mighty  through  God." 
'  Thanks  be  to  God,  which  giveith  us  the  victory  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ." 

In  consequence  of  the  Memorial  Service  to  be  held,  it  was  re- 
solved that  no  further  discussion  should  take  place. 

Mr.  Thomas  Snape,  J.P.  (Secretary),  then  read  the  Daily  Record 
for  Tuesday  morning  and  part  of  Tuesday  afternoon,  which  was 
confirmed,  and  the  session  terminated. 


THE  MEMORIAL  SERVICE. 

Almost  immediately  following  the  afternoon  session,  a  service  in, 
memoiy  of  the  late  President  McKinley  was  held.  The  Rev.  T.  B. 
Stkphenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  presided, 
and  among  those  present  and  on  the  platform  were  the  Right  Hon. 
Joseph  H.  Choate  (the  American  Ambassador),  the  Rev.  D.  J 
Waller,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  the  Rev.  F.  W. 
Macdonald  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  the  Rev.  S.  P.  Rose,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Church  of  Canada),  Bishop  J.  H,  Vincent,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  and  the  Secretaries. 

After  the  "  Dead  March  "  had  been  played  by  Mr.  F.  A.  Mann, 
the  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  read  the  sentences  with 
which  the  Burial  Service  opens.  Then  was  sung  the  hymn,  "  0  God, 
our  Help  in  ages  past,"  Psalm  xc.  was  read  in  alternate  verses  by 
the  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  and  the  congregation,  and 
the  Rev.  F.  W.  Macdonald  offered  prayer.  The  next  hymn  was 
"  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,"  after  which  the  Rev.  D.  J.  Waller, 
D.D.,  LL.D.,  read  1  Cor.  xv.  Then  the  hymn,  "  Give  me  the  wings 
of  faith,  to  rise,"  was  sung. 

The  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (President),  spoke  for 
the  Eastern  Section  as  follows  : 

When,  eight  months  ago,  the  best  woman  who  ever  sat  on  a 
throne,  Queen  Victoria,  lay  dead  in  her  home  over  the  Solent,  it  seemed 
to  us  that  we  could  almost  hear  the  bells  tolling  across  the  Atlantic, 
and  that  we  could  almost  see  the  Stars  and  Stripes  drooping  at  half- 
mast  over  the  White  House  at  Washington.     Little  did  we  think  then 


MEMORIAL    SERVICE    TO    PRESIDENT    McKINLEY.  555 

that,  eight  months  afterwards  the  bells  would  be  tolling  on  this  side, 
and  the  flags  flying  half-mast  here  for  the  good  and  generous  man 
who  had  ordered  that  mark  of  respect  for  the  Queen's  memory,  and  of 
sympathy  with  the  British  nation.     But  so  it  is. 

On  Sunday  last  my  duty  took  me  into  a  Yorkshire  village,  where 
they  know  little  of  international  obligations  or  policies  ;  but  there,  on 
the  old  church  tower,  the  flag  was  flying  at  half-mast  for  William 
McKinley.  It  was  not  only  reverence  for  the  woman  which  made 
your  hearts  thrill  in  sympathy  with  ours  eight  months  ago  ;  and  it 
is  not  only  reverence  for  the  man  which  now  makes  our  hearts  beat 
in  sympathy  with  yours.  On  both  occasions,,  both  nations  have 
shared  the  loss  and  the  sorrow.  This  is  not  the  time  or  place  to 
dwell  upon  the  many  ties  of  race,  of  language,  and  of  religion,  which 
unite  the  two  peoples  so  closely  that  they  cannot  help  but  share  each 
other's  national  pleasures  and  pains.  God  be  thanked  that  such  bonds 
of  sympathy  exist.  God  grant  that  nothing  may  ever  weaken  them, 
but  that  sorrow  and  joy  alike  may  ever  draw  them  closer. 

The  President  has  made  his  last  journey  to  the  Capitol  ;  never  so 
much  the  people's  man  and  President  as  now.  There  he  lies,  the 
hand  cold  and  the  heart  still,  while  thousands  pass  by  to  look  upon 
the  calm,  strong  face.  Millions  are  there  in  thought  who  cannot  be 
there  in  person  ;  and  as  we,  too,  in  thought  stand  reverently  beside 
the  bier,  we  say :  "  This  was  a  man — and  this  was  a  man  of  God." 

What  a  son  he  was !  He  had  a  good  mother,  worthy  of  his  loving 
devotion,  but  every  good  mother  has  not  such  a  son  as  he.  How  he 
loved  her !  He  was  never  so  much  her  boy  as  when  he  came  to  her, 
the  uncrowned  king  of  liis  countrymen.  What  a  husband  he  was  I 
Bringing  to  his  bride  an  unstained  and  whole-hearted  manhood,  shar- 
ing with  her  in  keenest  sympathy  the  bereavement  which  darkened 
their  home,  until  they  were  left — all  the  world  to  each  other  because 
they  had  lost  the  children  who  had  gone  before.  How  chivalrously  he 
honoured  her,  considered  her,  gave  himself  up  to  be  her  liege-man  ; 
made  her,  in  her  feebleness  as  in  her  strength,  the  queen  of  his  heart 
through  all  his  manhood. 

What  a  patriot  he  was !  Offering  his  blood  in  his  youth  for  his 
country,  studying  her  anxieties,  planning  for  her  interests,  eager  for 
her  advancement,  serving  her  loyally  in  many  posts  of  duty,  and  then, 
in  the  highest,  content  to  die  for  her  as  he  had  hved  for  her.  What  a 
lover  of  peace  he  was !  Longing  for  it,  watching  for  it,  waiting  for 
it,  refusing  to  be  rushed  into  any  action  that  would  destroy  it,  until 
at  length  he  thought  it  clear  that  only  by  the  arbitrament  of  war  could 
right  be  done,  and  then,  What  a  fighter  he  was !  Struggling  now  as 
hard  for  victory  as  before  he  had  striven  for  peace. 

What  a  Christian  he  was !  Serving  his  God  with  no  lukewarm  zeal, 
no  conventional  respect,  never  ashamed  of  his  faith  ;  always  anxious 
to  guard  the  sanctity  of  the  Lord's  Day,  and  to  respect  the  solemnities 
of  worship ;  and  then,  when  the  cruel  and  crazy  shot  had  been  fired, 
how  Christian  was  his  anxiety  that  the  misguided  wretch  should  be 
protected   from  the   indignation  of   the   people,    until   calm,    strong 


556  MEMORIAL    SERVICE    TO    PRESIDENT   McKINLEY, 

justice  could  be  done.  When  he  knew  that  he  must  die,  how  quietly 
he  looked  into  the  face  of  Death!  "Our  people  die  well,"  said  John 
Wesley.  This  man,  a  loyal  Methodist,  in  the  lofty  place  to  which 
he  had  been  raised,  died  well,  with  the  prayer  on  his  lips,  "  Thy  will 
be  done,"  and  "Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee."  His  unmurmuring  sub- 
mission and  faith  enabled  him  to  feel  confident  that  Death  itself  could 
only  bring  him  "  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee." 

"  Oh,  may  we  triumph  so 

Wlien  all  our  warfare's  past ; 
Ajid,  dying,  find  our  latest  foe 

Under  our  feet  at  last." 

Bishop  J.  H.  Vincent,  D.D.,  LL.D,  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
spoke  for  the  Western  Section  as  follows  : 

It  is  proper  that  we  should  at  this  time  remember  that  our  departed 
President  was  a  member  and  a  brother  in  that  branch  of  the  holy 
Catholic  Church  which  we  represent.  We  do  this,  not  with  the 
feverish  warmth  of  sectarian  pride,  but  with  the  glow  of  legitimate 
denominational  enthusiasm.  Mr.  McKinley  was  an  avowed  and  loyal 
Methodist.  He  was  a  dutiful  son,  an  affectionate  brother,  a  loyal 
and  tender  husband,  a  faithful  friend,  a  courageous  soldier,  a  broad- 
minded  patriot,  an  able  statesman,  a  most  eflScient  President.  He 
was,  too,  a  humble  and  consistent  Christian,  and  a  representative,  and, 
in  a  sense,  an  ideal  Methodist.  He  believed  in  the  denominationaJ 
form  of  the  visible  Church,  and  he  believed  that  this  is  the  true 
method  of  promoting  broad,  intelligent,  and  genuine  unity.  The  pro- 
nounced denominationalist  who  recognises  other  Denominations  with 
toleration  and  sympathy  is  the  genuine  Catholic ;  he  believes  some- 
thing and  stands  for  it.  But  this  does  not  limit  his  love  for  people 
of  other  faith ;  indeed,  it  must  increase  his  interest  in  them. 

Mr.  McKinley  stood  for  the  best  things  in  the  Christian  Church, 
anl  in  Christian  civilisation.  He  was  evangelical  in  doctrine,  clear 
and  positive  in  personal  Christian  experience.  In  him  were  consist- 
ency without  cant.  Church  loyalty  without  bigotry,  emotion  without 
fanaticism.  He  was  a  business  man  without  a  shadow  on  his  reputa- 
tion. He  completed  a  successful  political  career  without  the  suspicion 
of  political  corruption.  He  was  lifted  to  the  highest  earthly  honour 
without  losing  the  simplicity  and  sweetness  of  a  humble  Christian, 

I  wish  to  call  attention  to  the  type  of  Christian  manhood  which  Mr. 
McKinley  accentuated.  It  was  steady,  sturdy,  and  practical.  He  was 
in  a  good  sense  an  emotional  as  well  as  a  practical  Methodist.  He  not 
only  knew,  but  he  felt.  He  rested  and  he  rejoiced  in  his  faith. 
Emotion  is  not  a  Methodist  peculiarity  or  weakness,  if  you  ever  so  call 
it.  Keen  conviction,  personal  affection,  full-souled  devotion,  true 
sympathy,  will  find  emotional  expression  in  every  normal  nature.  It 
was  not  unmanly  in  Mr.  Root  to  falter  in  his  announcement  of  Mr. 
McKinley's  death.  It  was  not  unmanly  in  Mr.  Roosevelt  to  hesitate 
and  tremble  in  the  act  of  accepting  the  great  oflSce.  Nor  was  it  un- 
manly in  Paul  to  shed  tears,  as  he  thought  of  the  believers  whom  he 


MEMORIAL    SERVICE   TO    PRESIDENT   McKINLEY.  557 

loved,  and  to  whoiUj  in  his  day,  he  wrote.  Nor  was  it  unmanly  m 
Jesus  to  weep  at  the  tomb  of  Lazarus,  or  on  the  brow  of  Olivet,  as  He 
looked  with  pity  upon  Jerusalem.  Deep  conviction  in  a  true  heart  often 
causes  the  tremulous  voice  and  brimming  eyes.  Emotion  is  inevitable 
where  you  have  as  keen  a  sense  of  the  spiritual  and  Divine  as  of 
human  realities  and  relationships. 

It  is  a  good  thing  to  see  a  practical  and  robust  nature  swayed  by 
the  power  of  religious  faith.  We  need  more  and  not  less  emotion  in 
our  religious  experience  and  expression.  Mr.  McKinley's  religion  was 
tested  by  nearly  all  the  conditions  and  emergencies  to  which  a  man 
is  ever  exposed.  In  politics,  in  war,  in  domestic  affliction,  in  high 
Presidential  position  and  power,  he  proved  that  a  manly  man  may  be 
a  tender-hearted  and  happy  Christian.  The  death  of  Mr.  McKinley 
is  the  consummation  of  a  strong  life,  and  in  the  circumstances  of  it 
he  stood  as  on  a  mountain  summit,  radiant  with  light  from  the  open 
heavens,  and  all  the  world  is  to-day  looking  up  toward  him.  The 
study  of  his  death  is  in  itself  a  sermon,  full  of  eloquence,  and  he  lives 
in  the  hymn  which  the  world  sang  over  and  over  again  last  Sabbath. 

We  need  two  things  to-day — first,  the  knowledge  of  Christian  truth, 
and  secondly,  the  practical,  vital  illustration  of  that  truth  in  human 
lives.  The  knowledge  of  Gospel  truth  has  spread  among  all  classes  of 
people,  through  Sunday  Schools,  and  through  evangelistic  services,  as 
well  as  through  the  voice  of  the  pulpit,  and  especially  has  the  very 
soul  of  Christian  doctrine  been  embodied  in  familiar  songs  and  hymns. 
We  are  likely  to  underestimate  the  degree  of  popular  knowledge  to-day 
concerning  the  way  of  salvation.  More  people  than  we  think  know 
and  intellectually  accept  the  substance  of  our  faith.  Take  that  mixed 
multitude  in  a  New  York  park  last  Sunday  evening,  who  joined  in 
singing  from  memory  the  hymn,  "  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,''  in  tearful 
homage  to  the  man  who  on  his  death-bed  had  added  significance  and 
sacredness  to  these  words  of  saintly  aspiration.  The  people  knew 
the  words,  but  the  dying  man's  utterance  of  them  had  put  into  them 
new  meaning  and  new  power. 

The  best  of  all  is  that  Mr.  McKinley's  dying  exclamation  of  sur- 
render to  God,  "Thy  will  be  done,"  and  of  Divine  aspiration  in  his 
cry,  "  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee,"  added  emphasis  on  the  part  of  the 
people,  by  the  recollection  of  a  stainless,  noble.  Christian  career.  The 
hymn  gained  new  meaning  to  the  people  by  his  use  of  it,  and  his 
use  of  it  gained  new  force  from  the  recollection  of  his  life.  It  is  the 
incarnation — the  everyday,  modern  incarnation — of  truth  that  we 
need.  We  have  hymns  enough  just  now,  and  tunes  enough,  and  we 
have  treasures  of  theology  and  Scripture  in  memory,  but  we  need  all 
this  material  vitalised  by  personal  experience  and  consistent  living. 
The  memory  of  this,  when  th*  dead  lie  at  our  feet,  is  what  puts  music 
into  the  words  of  song  and  the  formulas  of  faith.  Thus  William 
McKinley,  by  his  life  and  character,  gave  force  to  familiar  words,  both 
of  song  and  Scripture,  and  thus  he  preached  a  sermon  to  the  greatest 
congregation  ever  addressed  by  man.  "Our  people  die  well,"  said 
Mr.  Wesley,  and  Mr.  McKinley  preached  a  good  doctrine  in  his  life, 


558  MEMORIAL    SERVICE    TO   PRESIDENT   McKINLEY.  . 

and  died  like  the  broad  and  generous  Methodist  that  he  was.  But 
really  this  is  not  death.  When  one  can  sing  the  song  of  faith,  and 
breathe  these  words  of  childlike  submission  to  the  Will  of  God,  he 
does  not  die.  To  him  there  is  no  night  or  shadow ;  it  is  rather  day- 
dawn  and  eternal  morning  that  has  no  evening  that  then  begins. 

Our  (Ecumenical  Conference  opened  with  a  memorable  appeal  in 
behalf  of  the  genuine  inner  life,  the  life  of  Christian  experience,  with 
a  preacher's  emphasis  on  two  great  doctrines,  perfect  surrender  to  God 
and  perfect  rest  in  the  very  heart  of  God.  It  closes  with  a  layman's 
deeper  emphasis,  the  emphasis  of  actual  experience  in  life  and  in  death, 
an  emphasis  that  is  the  demonstration  of  the  reality  and  power  of 
these  great  doctrines  :  Perfect  surrender  to  God^"  Thy  will  be  done  "  ; 
perfect  rest  in  God — "  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee :  E'en  though  it  be  a 
cross  that  raiseth  me."  Our  (Ecumenical  Conference,  after  all,  does 
not  close  with  pall  and  shroud  and  the  dim  light  of  the  chamber  of 
death,  but  with  the  opening  heavens  and  a  song  of  victory.  Shall  we 
this  .day,  ministers  and  laymen,  this  hour,  this  moment,  make  the 
same  surrender,  and  breathe  the  same  aspiration?  God  grant  it. 
And  may  there  be  from  this  moment  in  our  people  more  perfect  in- 
carnations and  illustrations  in  all  the  spheres  of  life  of  the  creed  we 
believe,  the  songs  we  sing,  the  professions  we  make. 

Prayer  was  offered  by  the  Rev.  Samuel  P.  Rose  (Methodist 
Church  of  Canada),  and  the  hymn  sung,  "  Love  us,  though  far  in 
flesh  disjoined."  The  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wes- 
leyan  Methodist  Church),  read  the  closing  prayers,  and  the  service, 
which  made  a  deep  impression  upon  all  who  were  present,  closed 
with  the  Benediction  and  Beethoven's  grand  Funeral  March. 


APPENDIX 
INDEX. 


APPENDIX. 


STATISTICS.— ECCLESIASTICAL    ORGANISATIONS. 
Westehn  Sectioit. 


COITNTEIEB. 

S 

m 

1 

2 

.s 

1 

(0 

O 

8 

-s 

ra 

i 

s 

iU 

-it 

OS 

§ 

§00 
03 

1.  ifeth.  Epi».  dmrch. 

16,761 

439 

353 

34 

12,752 

453 

848 

73 

2,753,970 

57,351 

114,354 

3,999 

26,190 

398 

685 

57 

115,149,055 

2,363,249 

537,963 

59,130 

27,799 

1,117 

2,058 

150 

337,769 
3,983 
3,972 
1,183 

2,493,063 
70,969 
115,10r 

9,244 

Missions  in  Europe  

Missions  in  Africa   

Total    

17,587 

6,160 
67 

14,126 

6,126 
26 

2,929,674 

1,468,599 
1,921 

27,230 

14,541 
31 

118,109,397 

22,984,.539 
27,861 

32,024 

13,813 
90 

346,907 

101,173 
226 

2,688,363 

850,466 
3,286 

2.  M.  E.  Church,  South. 
United  States 

Missions  in  Asia  

Total 

6,227 

1,994 
38 

5,151 

2,290 

1,470,520 

282,436 
2,465 

14,572 
4,334 

23,012,400 
15,397,634 

13,903 
3,405 

101,399 
33,023 

853,761 
267,654 

3.  Meth.  Church,  Canada. 

Dominion    of    Canada, 

Newfoundland,     and 

Missions  in  Asia  

• 

Total  

2,032 

6,079 
253 

2,290 

8,726 
66 

284,901 

688,354 
13,668 

4,334 

6,716 
8 

15,397,634 

9,760,131 
5,145 

3,405 

4,575 

4 

33,023 

45,958 
29 

267,664 

375,000 
144 

4.  African  M.  E.  Church. 

United  States 

Missions  in  Africa   

Total  

6,3.32 
3,735 
2,061 

1,629 
18 

8,792 
2,983 
11,000 

1,135 

701,922 
536,271 
204,972 

208,847 
469 

5,723 
3,906 
1,449 

2,394 
6 

9,765,';76 
4,972,567 
2,028,600 

4,476,597 
8,124 

4  579     dJi  QS7 

375,144 
198,467 
180,000 

125,407 
624 

6.  African  M.  H.  Zion  Ch. 

6.  Coloured  M.  B.  Church. 

7.  Meth.  Protestant  Ch'ch. 
United  States 

2,049 
1,456 

2,005 
29 

14,402 
11,173 

16,680 

Missions  in  Asia   

Total 

1,647 

853 
3 
2 

1,135 

759 
3 
2 

209,316 

28,588 
83 
80 

2,400 

944 
2 
1 

4,484,721 

1,329,655 
6,000 
12,000 

2,034 

1,069 
6 
3 

16,680 

6,645 
6 
6 

126,031 

340,0091 
360 
120' 

8.  Free  Meth.  Church. 
United  States 

Missions  in  Asia   

Missions  in  Africa   

Total 

9.  Wesley  an  Methodist  Ch. 

10.  Prim.  Meth.  Church. 

11.  Union  Amer.  M.  E.  Ch. 

12.  African  Union  Meth'st 
Protestant  Church. 

858 
700 
73 
160 

106 
340 
192 

6 
30 

8 

764 

132 
60 

28,751 
15,000 
6,837 
15,500 

3,563 
21,000 
4,000 
319 
2.346 
2.569 

947 
360 
100 
250 

88 

335 

366 

5 

32 

15 

1,346,655 
300,200 
347,800 
250,000 

1,067 
465 
102 
125 

"m 

"    10 

6,657 
2,378 
1,559 
1,550 

34(^,489' 
17,000 
11,348 
10,250 

13.  Cong.  Meth.  Church. 

14.  New  Cong.  Meth'st  Ch. 

164,500 

1,160 

23,200 

15.  Coloured  Cong.Meth.Ch. 

16.  Zion  Uyi'n  Apostolic  Ch. 

50 

300 

17.  Independent  Meth.  Ch. 



6-',40l 

682,9?5 

Total,  Western  Section  ... 

42,083 

46,423 

■■.,437,461 

62,121 

180,179,750 

5,091,897 

37 


S6i 


S62 


APPENDIX. 


STATISTICS.-BCOLESIASTIOAL   ORGANISATIONS. 
Eastkbn  Section. 


Conferences. 

i 

1 

2 

1 

3 

£ 

1 

6 

1 
0 

to 
0 

c 

0 

1 

02 

Sunday-school 
Officers  and 
Teachers. 

1 

|l 

§02 
02 

British  Wesley  an  Methodist  Church 
Irish  Methodist  Church   

2,202 
251 
364 

35 
214 

87 
207 
1,099 
247 
405 
372 

18 
775 

18,323 

617 

2,575 

93 

3,925 

913 

1,179 

16,497 

1,621 

3,392 

491,897      8,508 

28,462         529 

62,370;     2,404 

1,689          75 

90,124      2,867 

45,936         431 

42,186,        674 

198,874      5,413 

31,724'        793 

93,521 !     1,604 

8,805i        153 

7,192i        188 

118,984      3,438 

7,316  130,402 
351        2,766 

1,233        4,103 

67           278 

574       2,613 

299j       2,758 

456      10,756 

4,289  59,929 
520       8,110 

1,361  24,483 
144  2,905 
167|       2,694 

3,973      21,618 

965,057 
25,270 
66,974 
2,435 
38,118 
28,750 
83,188 

460,763 
49,935 

194,199 
26,194 
20,015 

214,734 

French  Methodist  Conference  

Methodist  New  Connexion 

Primitive  Methodist  Church  

United  Methodist  Free  Churches... 
Independent  Methodist  Church    ... 
Wesleyan  Reform  Union 

495 

8,783 

Australasian  Methodist  Church  ... 

Total,  Eastern  Section 

6,276 

58,413 

1,221  824'   9i'  f^" 

20  750'   "s  ^1 K 

2,175,632 

SUMMARY.— EASTERN    AND    WESTERN    SECTIONS. 


1 

1 

0 

i 

1 

10 

•1 

1 

03 

Sunday-school 
Officers  and 
Teachers. 

Sunday-school 
Scholars. 

6,276 
42,083 

48,359 

45,283 

58,413 
46,423 

1,221,824 
6,437,461 

27,077 
62,121 

20,750 
62,409 

273,415  2,175,632 

682,925  5,091,879 

Total 

104,836 
99,202 

7,659,285 
6,503,959 

89,198 
71,196 

83,159 
81,288 

856,340  7,267,511 

Report    to    (Ecumenical    Con- 

861,392  6,634,162 

3,076 

5,634 

1,155,326 

18,002 

1,871 


1     633,349 

5,052       

Adherents. 

Church 
Property. 

5,487,657 
22,531,113 

£24,000,000 
36,000,000 

Total 

28,018,770 
24,899,421 

£60,000,000 

Report  to  (Ecumenical  Conference, 
1891          

3,119,349 

N.B.— The  foregoing  Tables  of  the  Eastern  and  Western  Sections  have  been  carefully 
prepared  after  clo.se  inquiry,  as  have  also  the  adherents  in  the  Eastern  Section.  There  has 
been  much  research  and  inquiry  on  other  matters  of  Statistics,  but  the  figures  given  are 
rather  estimates  than  ascertained  results.  See  report  of  proceedings  of  Conference,  pages 
273—280. 


APPENDIX. 


5(^3 


STATISTICS— EASTERN   SECTION. 


The  following  statistics  of  the  Eastern  Section  have  been  prepared  since  the  close  of 
the  Conference,  but  are  not  given  as  a  complete  record. 


TWENTIETH  CENTURY  THANKSGIVING  FUNDS. 


Wesleyan  Methodist  Church     ... 
Methodist  New  Connexion 
Primitive  Methodist  Church 

Bible  Christian  Church] 

United  Methodist  Free  Churches 


Twentieth  Century  Fund 

Extension  Fund    

Missionary  Jubilee  Fund 
Twentieth  Century  Fund 
Twentieth  Century  Fund 


£1,050,000 
10,000 
60,000 
25,000 
109,065 


BENEVOLENCES. 

Children's  Home  and  Cephakaqk.— Supported  by  all  the  British  Methodist  Churches 
except  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church,  which  has  an  Orphanage  of  its  own. 

Wesleyan  Methodist  Local  Pkeacheks'  Mutual  Aid  Association.— Supported  by 
the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  the  Methodist  New  Connexion,  the  United  Methodist 
Free  Churches,  and  the  Wesleyan  Reform  Union. 

SUPERANNUATION  AND  BENEFICENT  FUNDS. 


Wetleyan  Methodiet  Church — 

Worn-out   Ministers'  and   Ministers' 
Widows'  AuxiUary  Fund. 


Methodist  New  Connexion- 

Capital  

Income,  1901 


£30,184  12 
3,461    5 


Primitive  Methodist  Church — 
Income  


£8,600    0    0 


United  Methodiit  Free  Churches — 

Capital  £46,689    6 

Income,  1901 5,524    8 

Local  Preachers'  Fund- 
Capital  £2,252    7 

Income,  1901 88  12 

Bible  Christian  Church — 
Beneficent  Fund,  In- 
come, 1901 £285  19 


EDUCATION. 
Wesletan  Methodist  Chuech. 
Theological  Colleges  for  Training  Ministers  (4). 
Training  Colleges  (2)—  I    Bay  Schools  (746)— 

Students,  120  men,  109  women.  I  Scholars,  159,771. 


Peimitivk  Methodist  Chuech. 


Boys'  Colleges  (2) — 

Cost,  about  £14,000  each. 

Students,  100  each. 

Income £6,000    0   0 


College  for  Training  Ministers  (1) — 
Founded,  1864.    Cost,  £20,000. 
Students,  60. 
Income £2,370    0    0 


Methodist  New  Connexion. 


College  for  Training  Ministers  (1) — 
Founded,  1864.    Students,  9. 

Expenditure,  1901     

Endowment  Fond     


United  Methodist  Feee  Churches. 


Training  College  for  Ministry  (1)— 
Students,  16. 
Goat  of   Building  and 
Endowment £31,657    1    2 


Boys'  College  (1)— 
Cost 
Debt 
Income    ... 


Bible  Chbistian  Ohueoh. 


Boys'  College  (1)— 
Income,  1901 


£3,680  18    3 


Oirls'  College  (1)— 
Income,  1901 


£1,184  16 
9,033  10 


£22,383  0  0 
9,160  10  10 
3,780  14    9 


£2,656  17  11 


.564  APPENDIX. 


SUNDAY  SERVICES,  RECEPTIONS.  AND   EVENING 
MEETINGS. 

The  Sunday  Sbrvicbs. 

Arrangements  were  made  by  the  Committee  for  the  services  in  many 
of  the  Methodist  Churches  in  and  around  London,  on  September  8  and 
September  15,  to  be  conducted  by  representatives  of  the  Western 
Section.  A  plan  of  the  arrangements  was  pubUshed  in  the  Handbook  of 
the  Conference,  but  considerable  alterations  had  to  be  made  in  the 
appointments  after  the  arrival  of  the  delegates.  A  large  number  of 
services,  however,  were  conducted  by  the  Western  representatives. 

Reception  by  the  London  Methodist  Council. 

A  reception  was  given  on  Thursday,  September  5,  from  7  to 
10.30  p.m.,  by  the  London  Wesleyan  Methodist  Council,  at  the  Portman 
Rooms,  Baker  Street,  London,  W.  In  the  unavoidable  absence  of  the 
Chairman  of  the  Council,  the  Eev.  Hugh  Price  Hughes  (Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church),  the  guests  were  received  by  the  Vice-Chairman,  the 
Eev.  Walford  Green  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  and  Mr.  R.  W. 
Perks,  M.P.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Chvirch),  who  gave  short  addresses  of 
welcome.  Responses  were  given  by  Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.D., 
LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  Rev.  W.  Briggs,  D.D.  (Methodist 
Church  of  Canada),  and  Bishop  W.  B.  Derrick,  D.D.  (African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church).  Refreshments  of  a  high-class  character  were  pro- 
vided, and  music  was  rendered  from  8  to  10.80  p.m. 

Young  People's  Meeting. 

The  Young  People's  Meeting  was  held  at  St.  James's  Hall,  Piccadilly, 
London,  W.,  on  Friday,  September  6.  Bishop  J.  C.  Hfirtzell,  D.D., 
LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  presided.  The  choir  from  the 
Children's  Home  led  the  singing.  Prayer  was  offered  by  the  Rev.  R. 
Culley  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church).  Addresses  were  given  by  Bishop 
J.  H.  Vincent,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  Prof.  W.  S. 
Scarborough,  LL.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  the  Rev. 
Simpson  Johnson  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  Mr.  J.  R.  Inch,  LL.D. 
(Methodist  Church  of  Canada),  and  Mr.  E.  Jennings  (Primitive  Methodist 
Church). 


appendix.  565 

Rbobption  at  thb  Children's  Homb. 

A  reception  was  given  on  Saturday,  September  7,  at  the  Children's 
Home,  founded  by  the  Bev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church).  The  Rev.  A.  E.  Gregory,  D.D,  (Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church),  Principal  of  the  Home,  and  Mrs.  Gregory,  and  the 
Rev.  R.  Bevan  Shepherd  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  and  Mrs. 
Shepherd  received  the  delegates  and  their  friends.  Tea  was  provided. 
There  were  special  musical  and  gymnastic  entertainments  by  the  girls 
and  boys,  and  the  houses,  workshops,  hospital,  Acj  were  open  for 
inspection.  Addresses  were  given  by  the  Rev.  Joseph  Berry  (Australasian 
Methodist  Church),  the  Rev.  J.  F.  Goucher,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  the  Rev.  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
and  Bishop  E.  Cotterell,  D.D.  (Coloured  Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

The  Morai,  Unity  op  the  English-speaking  Peoples. 

On  Monday,  September  9,  a  meeting  on  the  above  subject  was 
held  at  St.  James's  HaU,  Piccadilly,  London,  W.  Mr.  R.  W.  Perks, 
M.P.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  took  the  chair.  Prayer  was  ofifered 
by  the  Rev.  John  Bond  (Wesleyan  Metlaodist  Church).  Addresses  were 
given  by  Bishop  B.  F.  Lee,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  Bishop  A.  W.  Wilson,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South),  the  Rev.  WiUiam  Briggs,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada), 
the  Rev.  E.  J.  Watkin,  D.D.  (Australasian  Methodist  Church),  and  Mr. 
Thomas  Ball  (South  African  Methodist  Chm-ch).  Owing  to  the  lateness 
of  the  hour,  the  Rev.  W.  A.  Bracken  (Irish  Methodist  Church)  did  not 
speak. 

Reception  by  Mr.  R.  W.  Perks,  M.P. 

Mr.  R.  W.  Perks,  M.P.,  and  Mrs.  Perks  gave  a  reception  to  the 
members  of  the  Conference  and  their  ladies  at  their  residence,  11, 
Kensington  Palace  Gardens,  London,  W.,  on  Tuesday,  September  10 
from  8  p.m.  to  11  p.m.  Refreshments  were  served  in  a  large  marquee  in 
the  grounds  and  music  was  rendered. 

Evangelistic  Work  in  Great  Cities. 

-r 
On  Tuesday,   September    10,  the    meeting    at    St.    James's    HaU, 

Piccadilly,    London,    W.,   was   devoted    to     the     important    topic     of 

Evangelistic  Work  in  Great  Cities.     The  choir  of  the  Children's  Home 

gave  a  selection  of  music.     Mr.  R.  Bird,  J.P.   (United  Methodist  Free 

Churches),  was  in  the  chair.     The  Rev.  J.  Luke  (Bible  Christian  Church) 

offered  prayer.     Addresses  were  given  by  the  Rev.  F.  Mason  North, 

D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  the  Rev.  J.  A.  B.  Wilson,  D.D. 

(Methodist  Episcopal   Church),  and  the  Rev.   S.  F.  Collier  (Wesleyan 

Methodist   Church).      The   lateness  of    the   hour  prevented   the   Rev. 

William  Redfem  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches)  giving  his  address. 


566  appendix, 

The  Lord's  Day  and  Temperance. 

The  importance  of  the  Temperance  and  Lord's  Day  Observance  move- 
ments was  emphasised  at  the  meeting  held  at  St.  James's  Hall,  Piccadilly, 
London,  W.,  on  Thursday,  September  12.  The  Kev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  presided.  The  Kev.  G.  Armstrong 
Bennetts,  B.A.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  opened  with  prayer. 
Addresses  were  given  by  the  Rev.  W.  J.  Townsend,  D.D.  (Methodist 
New  Connexion),  the  Rev.  W.  B.  Pahnore,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South),  the  Rev.  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  Sir  George  Smith  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  and  Mr. 
Joseph  Gibson  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada). 

Women's  Work  in  Methodism. 

On  Friday,  September  13,  a  meeting  was  held  at  Wesley's  Chapel, 
City  Road,  London,  B.C.,  in  connection  with  the  great  work  of  Methodist 
women  throughout  the  world.  Mrs.  Hugh  Price  Hughes  (Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church)  presided.  Prayer  was  offered  by  Sister  EHzabeth 
(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church).  Addresses  were  given  by  Miss  Belle 
Bennett  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South),  Miss  Aitkin  (Australasian 
Methodist  Church),  Mrs.  F.  C.  Stephenson  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada), 
Mrs.  Wiseman  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  Mrs.  Bancroft  Robinson 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  Mrs.  Bishop  Clinton  (African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Zion  Church),  Mrs.  Horace  Benton  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  Sister  Dora  Stephenson  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  and 
Baroness  Langenau,  of  Vienna.  Mrs.  Bishop  Clinton  also  rendered 
Bolos  during  the  evening.  A  Resolution  was  passed  requesting  a  place 
on  the  regular  programme  of  the  Fourth  fficumenical  Conference  for  the 
presentation  of  the  work  of  the  women  in  world-wide  Methodism.  The 
address  of  Mrs.  Horace  Benton,  referred  to  above,  was  read  by  Mrs. 
Humbert,  of  Chicago,  who  also  gave  details  of  her  own  work. 


APrENDIX.  567 


PROVINCIAL    MEETINGS. 

A  series  of  meetings,  as  follows,  was  held  in  the  Provinces,  at  the 
close  of  the  London  Conference. 

Birmingham. 

On  September  19th,  a  meeting  was  held  in  the  Town  Hall,  Birming- 
ham. An  organ  recital  by  Mr.  C.  W.  Perkins  (City  organist)  preceded 
the  meeting,  which  was  addressed  by  delegates.  A  Memorial  Service 
for  the  late  President  McKinley  was  held.  Mr.  Thomas  Barnsley,  J.P. 
(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  presided  at  the  meeting,  and  addresses 
were  given  by  the  Eev.  Thomas  Allen,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  Eev.  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South), 
and  others. 

Bristol. 

On  September  18th,  two  services  were  held  in  the  afternoon.  At 
Wesley's  Chapel,  Broadmead,  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Meredith  (Methodist 
Episcopal  Church)  preached,  and  at  Kingswood  Reformatory,  an 
address  on  "Wesley"  was  given  by  the  Rev.  C.  E.  Wansborough 
(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church).  In  the  evening  a  large  meeting  was 
held  in  Colston  Hall.  The  singing  was  led  by  a  choir  of  700  voices. 
Alderman  W.  Howell  Davies,  J.P.,  presided,  and  the  speakers  were 
Bishop  W.  B.  Derrick,  D.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
and  the  Rev.  J.  Berry  (Australasian  Methodist  Church).  A  resolution  in 
regard  to  the  death  of  President  McKinley  was  proposed  by  the  Eev.  J. 
F.  Holdsworth  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  and  adopted. 

Hull. 

A  united  Conference  was  held  in  the  afternoon  of  September  19th, 
at  Waltham  Street  Chapel,  Hull.  The  Rev.  Joseph  Robinson  (Wesleyan 
Methodist  Church)  presided,  and  the  Rev.  J.  0.  Willson,  D.D.  (Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South),  and  Bishop  C.  S.  Smith,  D.D.  (African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  gave  addresses.  The  Revs.  J.  Robinson, 
J.  W.  Slater,  Dr.  Whittaker  and  Mr.  W.  R.  Locking  took  part  in  the 
open  conference.  A  large  number  gathered  in  the  same  church  again  in 
the  evening.  Mr.  T.  E.  Ferens,  J.P.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  was 
in  the  chair,  and  the  speakers  were  the  Eev.  J.  0.  Willson,  D.D.  and 
Bishop  C.  S.  Smith,  D.D.  Sympathy  was  expressed  with  the  American 
nation  owing  to  the  death  of  President  McKinley. 


568  Appendix. 


Leamington. 

A  meeting  was  held  in  Dale  Street  Wesleyan  Church,  Leamington, 
on  September  18th.  Mr.  W.  Hopkins  occupied  the  chair,  and  the  speakers 
were  the  Eev.  J.  P.  Moreland,  Ph.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Zion 
Church),  and  the  Rev.  A.  C.  Courtice,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada). 
All  the  ministers  of  the  Leamington  Methodist  Circuits  were  present, 
viz. :— The  Revs.  W.  B.  Dalby,  G.  E.  Waterhouse,  and  H.  V.  J.  Angel 
(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  Joseph  Kirsop  (United  Methodist  Free 
Churches),  and  A.  Harding  (Primitive  Methodist  Church).  Most  of  these 
brethren  took  part  in  the  meeting. 


Leeds. 

A  series  of  meetings  were  held  at  Leeds.  On  September  18th  they 
commenced  with  a  Devotional  and  Sacramental  service,  conducted  by 
the  Rev.  J.  S.  Banks  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church),  in  the  Woodhouse 
Lane  Methodist  New  Connexion  Church.  In  the  afternoon  a  Conference 
was  held  in  Brunswick  Wesleyan  Methodist  Ch\u:ch,  when  the  subject 
"  Methodism  in  Relation  to  Evangehstic  and  Social  Work  "  was  discussed. 
The  Rev.  E.  Dalton  (Primitive  Methodist  Church)  presided,  and  the  Rev. 
J.  T.  Shaw  (United  Methodist  Free  Chvirches)  introduced  the  subject.  The 
Revs.  S.  Chadwick,  J.  S.  Banks,  Mr.  R.  P.  Dalton,  Mr.  W.  E.  Clegg,  Mr. 
James  Wilson  and  Mr.  S.  Wildblood  took  part.  In  the  evening  Mr.  W. 
P.  Beckworth,  J.P.  (Primitive  Methodist  Church),  presided  over  a  public 
meeting  held  in  Oxford  Place  Wesleyan  Church.  Addresses  were  given 
by  Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church), 
the  Rev.  T.  B.  Stephenson,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church), 
and  the  Rev.  S.  P.  Rose,  D.D.  (Methodist  Church  of  Canada).  The 
Conference  was  continued  in  Brunswick  Church  on  Thursday  morning, 
the  topic  for  discussion  being  "Foreign  Missions."  The  Rev.  J.  W. 
Mawer  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches)  occupied  the  chair,  and 
addresses  were  given  by  the  Rev.  Gr.  T.  Candlin  (Methodist  New  Con- 
nexion), Mr.  T.  S.  Simpson,  and  Mr.  R.  G.  Heys.  A  Memorial  Service 
for  the  late  President  McKrnley  was  conducted  in  the '  afternoon,  in 
Brunswick  Church,  by  the  Rev.  J.  E.  Radchffe  (Methodist  New  Con- 
nexion), and  Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.D.,  LL.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal 
Church),  delivered  an  address.  Subsequently  a  Conference  was  held, 
and  the  Eev.  Simpson  Johnson  (Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  introduced 
the  subject  of  "  Methodism  and  Young  People,"  and  Messrs.  J.  Harrison 
and  W.  Wildblood  also  spoke.  Bishop  J.  W.  Hamilton,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
preached  in  Oxford  Place  Church  in  the  evening. 


appendix.  569 

Manchester. 

The  meetings  commenced  with  a  sermon  in  the  Central  Hall,  by  the 
Rev.  E.  J.  Watkin,  D.D.  (Australasian  Methodist  Church),  on  Wednesday 
evening,  September  18th.  Bishop  A.  "Walters,  D.D.  (African  Methodist 
Episcopal  Zion  Church)  and  others  took  part.  A  united  Commanioa 
service  was  held  on  Thursday  afternoon,  September  19th,  in  the  Central 
Hall,  conducted  by  the  Rev.  Marshall  Randies,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Metho- 
dist Church).  The  Rev.  E.  D.  Cornish  (United  Methodist  Free  Churches), 
gave  an  address.  From  5  p.m.  to  7  p.m.  a  Reception  was  given  by  the 
Lord  Mayor  and  Lady  Mayoress  (Councillor  and  Mrs.  Briggs),  at  the 
Town  Hall.  The  Rev.  Marshall  Randies,  D.D.  (Wesleyan  Methodist 
Church),  replied  to  the  address  of  welcome  given  by  the  Lord  Mayor, 
and  the  Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  spoke 
to  the  resolution  of  thanks.  At  7.30  p.m.  a  pubUc  meeting  was  held  in 
the  Central  Hall.  Sir  J.  J.  Harwood  presided.  The  speakers  were  the 
Rev.  A.  B.  Leonard,  D.D.  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  Professor  W. 
S.  Scarborough,  LL.D.  (African  Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  and  the 
Rev.  E.  J.  Watkin,  D.D.  (Australasian  Methodist  Church).  Many 
references  were  made  to  the  death  of  President  McKinley. 

Sheffield. 

On  Wednesday,  September  18th,  a  luncheon  was  provided  by  the 
Wesleyan  Methodist  District  Synod.  A  public  service  followed  in  Carver 
Street  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  the  Rev.  H.  S.  Doyle,  M.A.  (Coloured 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  being  the  preacher.  Li  the  evening  a 
large  meeting  was  held  in  the  Albert  Hall.  The  Rev.  H.  T.  Smart 
(Wesleyan  Methodist  Church)  presided.  Addresses  were  given  by  the 
American  Vice-Consul,  also  by  Bishop  C.  S.  Smith,  D.D.  (African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  the  Rev.  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D.  (Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South),  the  Rev.  R.  A,  Carter,  M.A.  (Coloured 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  and  the  Rev.  H.  S.  Doyle,  M.A.  (Coloured 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church). 

LiVERPOOi.  AND  Newcastle -on-Tynb. 

As  suitable  arrangements  could  not  be  made,  the  meetings  intended 
to  be  held  at  these  places  were  abandoned. 

Belfast. 

On  September  18th  a  meeting  was  held  xmder  the  auspices  of  the 
Belfast  Methodist  Council  in  the  Grosvenor  Hall.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Nicholas  presided.  A  resolution  of  sympathy  with  the  American  nation 
and  Mrs.  McKinley  was  adopted.  Bishop  G.  W.  CUnton,  D.D.  (African 
Methodist  Episcopal  Zion  Church),  and  the  Rev.  M.  C.  B.  Mason,  D.D. 
(Methodist  Episcopal  Church),  gave  addresses. 


57° 


APPENDIX. 


Dublin. 


The  closing  meeting,  arranged  by  the  Committee,  was  held  in  Centenary 
Church,  Dublin,  on  Friday,  September  20th,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Dublin  Methodist  Council.  Expression  was  given  to  the  heartfelt 
sympathy  with  the  United  States  in  the  death  of  the  late  President 
McKinley,  and  with  Mrs.  McKinley.  The  Rev.  J.  O.  Park,  B.A.  (Vice- 
President,  Irish  Methodist  Conference),  presided,  and  the  Eev.  J.  D. 
Lamont  proposed  the  resolution,  which,  being  seconded  by  Mr.  Alfred 
Crawford,  was  passed  by  a  silent  vote.  Addresses  were  given  by  the 
Rev.  E.  E.  Hoss,  D.D,  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South),  and  the 
Rev.  E.  J.  Watkin,  D.D.  (Australasian  Methodist  Church). 


REPLY   FROM   KING   EDWARD   VII. 

As  the  last  sheet  of  this  Volume  was  being  passed  for 
press,  the  following  Reply  to  the  Address  to  King  Edward  VII. 
(given  on  page  540)  was  received : 

Home  Ofl&ce,  Whitehall. 

November  27th,  1901. 

Sir, — I  am  commanded  by  the  King  to  convey  to  you  hereby  His 
Majesty's  thanks  for  the  Address  adopted  at  the  (Ecumenical  Methodist 
Conference,  recently  assembled  in  London,  expressing  on  behalf  of  the 
Methodist  Churches  in  the  British  Empire,  in  the  United  States  and 
other  Countries,  sympathy  with  His  Majesty  and  the  Royal  Family  on 
the  occasion  of  the  lamented  death  of  Her  late  Majesty  Queen  Victoria, 
and  congratulation  on  His  Majesty's  Accession  to  the  Throne. 

I  am,  Sir, 

Your  Obedient  Servant, 

(Signed)  Chas.  T.  Ritchie. 

J.  Bamford  Slack,  Esq., 

31,  Queen  Victoria  Street,  E.G. 


INDEX. 


Editorial  Note iii 

iNxnoDUCTiON    ix 

Official  List  op  Delegates   xiv 

Officers  of  the  Conference     xxviii 

IjIST  of  Committees    xxix 

Rules  and  Regulations  fob  the  Govei.nment  of  the  Conference xxxiii 

Daily  Programme     xxxvi 

First  Day,  First  Session  3 

First  Day,  Second  Session  21 

Second  Day,  First  Session    44 

Second  Day,  Second  Session    68 

Third  Day,  First  Session 92 

Third  Day,  Second  Session 112 

Fourth  Day 136 

Fifth  Day,  First  Session 166 

Fifth  Day,  Second  Session  191 

Sixth  Day,  First  Session  219 

Sixth  Day,  Second  Session  244 

Seventh  Day,  First  Session     273 

Sevhnth  Day,  Second  Session    301 

Seventh  Day,  Third  (Special)  Session    325 

Eighth  Day,  First  Session    353 

Eighth  Day,  Second  Session   376 

Ninth  Day,  First  Session 4  1 

Ninth  Day,  Second  Session 419 

Tenth  Day    443 

Eleventh  Day,  First  Session 454 

Eleventh  Day,  Second  Session 487 

Twelfih  rjxY,  First  Session    512 

Twelfth  E'xy,  Second  Session    5il 

IwEi.FTH  Day,  Memorial  Service  for  the  late  President  McKinley  554 

Appendix,  Statistics 561 

Appendix,  Sunday  Services,  Receptions,  and  Evening  Meetings  564 

Appendix,  Provincial  Meetings   567 

Appendix,  Reply  from  King  Edward  "VII 570 


NAMES. 

(For  Name*  of  Memhert  of  Committeeg  see  pages  xxix—xxxii.) 


Aberckombie,  Ralph  : 

Discussion  on  Conference  Arrange- 
ments, 91;  International  Peace,  104; 
Methodism  and  Christian  Unity,  125; 
Protestantism  v.  Modern  Sacerdotalism, 
183  ;  Address,  Christianiiy  and  Modern 
Unbelief,  227  ;  Committee  to  Draft 
Replies  to  Addresses,  441. 

Adams,  Adam  : 

Discussion  on  International  Peace,  105 
The  Spiritual  Vitality  of   Methodism, 
365 ;  Temperance,  414, 

Adams,  S.  B.  : 
Absence  of,  99. 

Adamson,  W.  C.  : 
Absence  of,  43, 

Aitken,  Miss  : 

Public  Meeting,  564, 

Albert,  A.  E.  P.  : 

Discussion  on  Modern  Biblical  Criti- 
cism, ica. 


Allen,  Thomas  : 

Discussion  on  International  Peace,  111 ; 

Protestantism  V.  Modern  Sacerdotalism, 

189 ;  The  Spiritual  Vitality  of  Methodism, 

375 ;    Prayer  for  President   McKinley, 

412;  Devotional  Service,  443;  Provincial 

Meetings,  565, 
Allen.  W.  S.  : 

Discussion  on  the  Spiritual  Vitality  of 

Methodism,  368. 
Allen,  Young  J.  : 

Devotional    Service,  273;    Address   on 

Foreign  Missions,  507,  525. 
American  Ajibassadoe  : 

See  Choate,  J.  H. 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  : 

Greetings  from,  4i,  271 ;  Reply  to,  272, 
Arnett,  B.  W.  : 

Sacramental    Service,   21  ;    President, 

Fourth  Day,   136;    Statistical   Report, 

273. 


572 


INDEX 


Atktns,  James  : 
Absence  of,  493. 

Atkins,  S.  G.  : 

Discussion  on  Methodism  and  Educa- 
tion, 209. 

Bakeh,  Daniel: 

Essay :  Practical  Methods  of  Dealing 
with  the  Liquor  Traffic,  402. 

Baldwin,  C.  W.  : 

Devotional  Service,  63;  Prayer  for 
President  McKinley,  419 ;  Presentation 
of  Gavel,  512. 

Ball,  T.  : 

Public  Meeting,  563. 

Balmp.p,  J.  E.  : 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Yonng  People's 
Societies,  323. 

Bancroft,  Mrs.  : 

Public  Meeting,  664. 

Banks,  J.  Shaw  : 

Address,  Protestantism  v.  Modern 
Sacerdotalism,  174;  Provincial  Meet- 
ings, 566. 

Baunslet,  Thomas  : 

Provincial  Meetings,  665. 

Beckem,  Dr.  : 

Devotional  Service,  136. 

Beckworth,  W.  P.  : 

Provincial  Meetings,  566. 

Bebt,  J.  Agar  : 

t)i8CU8SiononModern  Biblical  Criticism, 
160;  Essay,  Christianity  and  Modem 
Unbelief,  220. 

Bennett,  Miss  Belle  : 
Public  Meeting,  564. 

Bennetts,  G.  Ahmstbowg  : 

Discussion  on  Meckodism  and  Cliristian 
Unity,  131 ;  Protestantism  v.  Modem 
Sacerdotalism,  182;  Gambling,  435: 
Public  Meeting,  564. 

Benton,  Mrs.  Horace  : 
Public  MeettDg,  664. 

Berry,  J. : 

Address,  Present  Position  of  Methodism 
in  the  Eastern  Section,  52 ;  Keception, 
563  ;  Provincial  Meetmgs,  565. 

Bird,  Robert  : 

Statistical  Report,  279 ;  Chairman,  Pub- 
lic Meeting,  563. 

Bishop  of  London  : 

Greetings  from,  44, 90 ;  Reply  to,  269. 

Blackwell,  G.  L.  : 

Discussion  on  Indifferentism  and 
Apathy,  266. 

BoADEN,  Edward  : 

Essay,  Present  Position  of  Methodism 
in  the  Eastern  Section,  44 ;  Discussion 
on  Methodism  and  Christian  Unity, 
130;  Statistical  Report,  273;  Devo- 
tional Service,  401. 

Bond,  John  : 

Secretary,  First  Division,  21 ;  Roll  of 
Representatives  (Eastern  Section),  21; 
Communication  from  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury,  44;  Discussion  on  Con» 
ference  An-angements,  91 ;  Sunday 
Services,  92,  219  ;  Official  Volume,  167 ; 
Discussion  on  Protestantism  v.  Modern 
Sacerdotalism,  184;  Trip  to  Bpworth, 
244,  401 ;  Statistical  Report,  279 ; 
Addresses  from  Sister  Churches,  376; 
G.  Campbell  Morgan,  398 ;  Fourth  (Ecu- 
menical Methodist  Conference,  446; 
Women's  Work,  446;  Discussion  on 
Pulpit  Effectiveness,  483;  Nominated 
Secretary  for  Fourth  CEcumenical 
Methodist  Conference  (Eastern  Section), 
502  ;  Res)gnati(»n  of  Secretaryship,  503  ; 


Replies  to  Addresses,  504;  Received 
Thanks  of  Conference,  536;  Reply  to 
Resolution  of  Thanks,  539 ;  Resignation 
Acce]ited,539;  PubUc  Meeting,  563. 

Bourne,  F.  W,  : 

Discussion  on  CEcumenical  Methodism, 
67,  Methodism  and  Christian  Unity, 
132;  Essay,  Principles  of  Protestantism 
V.  Modem  Sacerdotalism,  167 ;  Discus- 
sion on  Indifferentism  and  Apathy,  264; 
Family  Religion  and  Worship,  393; 
Prayer  for  President  McKinley,  419; 
Received  Thanks  of  Conference,  537. 

Bbaceen,  William  A. : 

Discussion  on  CEcumenical  Methodism, 
57 ;  Protestantism  v.  Modern  Sacerdo- 
talism, 188;  Statistical  Report,  276; 
Public  Meeting,  563. 

Brigos,  W.  : 

Fourth  CEcumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference, 441;  Reception,  562;  Pubhc 
Meeting,  563. 

Brimelow,  William  : 

Address,  Methodist  Journalism,  288, 

Bristol,  Frank  M. 

Vote  of  Sympathy  to  President 
McKinley,  141  ;  Death  of  President 
McKinley,  444,  447. 

Brook,  David  : 

Sacramental  Service,  21 ;  Vote  of  Sym- 
pathy to  President  McKinley,  143 ;  Con- 
ference Arrangements,  220 ;  Discussion 
on  the  Spiritual  VitaUty  of  Methodism, 
372 ;  Committee  to  Prepare  Address, 
269;  President,  Ninth  Day,  401,  419; 
Chairman's  Address,  401;  Essay,  How 
to  Mobilise  the  Whole  Chm-ch,  487; 
Deputation  to  American  Ambassador, 
513 ;  Committee  to  Prepare  Address  to 
King  Edward  VII.,  540. 

Brown,  Frederick  : 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Young  People's 
Societies,  312 ;  Fourth  CEcumenical 
Methodist  Conference,  446 ;  The  Mobili- 
sation of  the  Church,  500. 

Beoxap,  John  : 

Prayer  for  President  McKinley,  419. 

Brushinguam,  J.  P.: 

Discussion  on  CEcumenical  Methodism, 
83 ;  Methodism  and  Education,  205 ; 
Address,  Gambling,  425 ;  Discussion  on 
Fourth  CEcumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference, 446. 

Bunting,  Percy  W. 

Discussion  on  Methodism  and  Christian 
Unity,  126;  Methodist  Union,  216; 
Pulpit  Effectiveness,  483. 

Burroughs,  George : 

Received  Thanks  of  Conference,  637. 

Burt,  W.  : 

Address,  Missions— Our  Resources  for 
the  Work,  551. 

BUEWASH,   N. : 

Discussion  on  Christianity  and  Modern 
Unbehef,  233;  Committee  to  Prepare 
Address,  269;  President,  Eighth  Day, 
353,  376;  Introduction  of  G.  Campbell 
Morgan,  398. 

Butler,  J.  W. : 

Discussion  on  CEoumenical  Methodism, 
86 ;  Resolution  re  Foreign  Mission 
Statistics,  300. 

Cadbury,  George : 

Fraternal  Address,  328. 

Caldwell,  J.  S. : 

Discussion  on  FftmUy  Religion  and 
Worship,  306 


INDEX. 


573 


Candlin,  G.  T.  : 

Sacramental  Service,  21 ;  Uiscussiou  on 
l^IethorUsm  and  Christian  Unity,  132; 
P.  esidcnt.  Seventh  Day,  273,  301  ; 
Chairman's  5\.d(lress,  28() ;  Provincial 
Meetings,  660. 

CaRNS,  J.  B.  : 

Discussion  on  Temperance,  412. 

Caeroix,  H.  K.  : 

Statistical  Report,  273. 

Carter,  D.  W.  : 

Discussion  on  Foreign  Missions,  534. 

Carter,  R.  A. 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Young  People's 
Societies,  322 ;  Provincial  Meetings,  567. 

Cawood,  S.  Barrett  : 

Common  Hymnal,  216  ;  Address,  The 
Neglect  of  Family  Religion  and  Worship, 
383. 

Chadwick,  Samuel  : 

Provincial  Meeting,  566. 

Champnjss,  Thomas: 

Discussion  on  (Ecumenical  Methodism, 
61  ;  Protestantism  v.  Modern  Sacerdo- 
talism, 181;  Family  Religion  and 
Worship,  392;  Temperance,  415. 

Chapman,  Jamfs  : 

Appointed  Secretary  Fourth  (Ecume- 
nical Methodist  Conference  (Eastern 
Section),  539. 

Chapple,  F.  : 

Discussion  on  Methodism  and  Educa- 
tion, 206. 

Choat-  ,  .J.  K.  (American  Ambassador)  : 
Telegrams  from,  244,  401 ;  Deputation 
to,  513;   Memorial   Service,    President 
McKiuley,  554. 

Clayton,  Albert  : 

Business  Committee  Report,  21,  89,  135 
1(>4,  215,  219,  324,  440,  441,  443,  507; 
Resolution  re  Address  to  the  Churches, 
2(39  ;  Reply  to  the  Bishop  of  London, 
269 ;  Ministers  and  Workers  in  the 
Foreign  Mission  Field,  324 ;  Report  on 
Mrs.  Susannah  Wesley's  Monument, 
324;  Foreign  Mission  Statistics,  325; 
Fourth  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference, 445,  501 ;  Replies  to  Addresses, 
503 ;  Received  Thanks  of  Conference, 
537. 

Clifford,  John  : 

Fraternal  Address,  330. 

Clinton,  G.  W.  : 

Essay,  The  Neglect  of  Family  Religion 
and  Worship,  376 ;  Provincial  Meeting, 
567. 

Clinton.  Mrs.  Bishop: 
PubUc  Meeting,  564. 

COATEs,  J.  Calvert  : 

Discussion  on  Gambling,  437. 

Colbert,  J.  B. : 

Address,  Methodist  Young  People's 
Societies,  309. 

Collier,  S.  F.  : 

Public  Meeting,  563. 

Conway,  P,  V.  D. : 

Fourth  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference, 441. 

COOKE,  B.  J.: 

Discussion  on  Int-emational  Peace, 
109;  Modem  Biblical  Criticism,  161; 
ftotestantism  v.  Modern  Sacer- 
dotaUsm,  184;  Christianity  and  Modern 
Unbelief,  239 ;  Statistical  Report,  278. 

CooMBES,  Commissioner  : 
Fraternal  Address,  344. 

Cornish,  E.  D.  : 

Provincial  Meeting,  666. 


Cottrell,  B. 

Member  of   Memorial  Committee,  89; 

Reception,  563. 
Courtick,  a.  0. : 

Provincial  Meeting,  666. 
Coutts,  Baroness  Buedett-i 

Visit  by,  268. 
Crawford,  Hanford  : 

Member  of    Business  Commit'ee,    90 ; 

Joint  Kditor  of    Official  Volume,   218 : 

("onvener  of  Committee  to  Draft  Replies 

to    Addresses,    441  ;    Telegram    from 

World's  Fair  Directory,  441. 
Ceombie,  Andrew: 

Joint  Editor  of   Official  Volume,  218; 

Proofs  for  Official  Volume,  243,  507. 
Crotheus,  W.  J.  : 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Young  People's 

Societies,  315;  Devotional  Service,  353  ; 

Committee  to  Draft Repliesto  Addresses, 

441. 
Culley    Robert : 

Public  Meeting,  562. 

CURNOCE,   N. : 

Member  of  Memorial  Committee,  89 ; 
Statistical  Report,  275;  Mrs.  Susannah 
Wesley's  Monument,  324;  Bulletins, 
President  McKinley,  412;  "Conference 
Daily  "  Photographs,  454 ;  Thanks  to 
'•  Conference  Daily,"  539. 

Dalton,  Edwin  : 

Discussion  on  Gambling,  438;  I'ro- 
vincial  Meeting,  566. 

Davies,  W.  H.  : 

Provincial  Meetings,  565. 

Davison,  W.  T.  : 

President,  First  Day,  3, 21 ;  Sacramental 
Service,  21 ;  Address  of  Welcome,  22 ; 
Vote  of  Sympathy  to  President 
McKinley,  137 ;  Discussion  on  Modern 
Biblical  Criticism,  159 ;  Methodist 
Union,  217 ;  Devotional  Service,  325 ; 
Discussion  on  the  Spiritual  VitaUty 
of  Methodism,  361;  Substitution  of 
President,  442. 

Derrick,  W.  B.  : 

Discussion  on  (Ecumenical  Methodism, 
88 ;  Address  on  Resolution  of  Thanks, 
538;  Reception,  562;  Provincial 
Meetings,  665. 

Dick,  S.  M.  : 

Discussion  on  Protestantism  v.  Modem 
Sacerdotalism,  177;  the  Spiritual 
Vitality  of  Methodism,  363. 

DOKCHKSTER,  L.  H.  : 

Discussion     on      Indifierentism     and 

Apathy,  263. 
Doyle,  H.  S.  : 

Vote     of     Sympathy     to      President 

McKinley,    144;    Provincial    Meeting, 

567. 
DuBS,E.  ;  ^ 

Absence  of,  244,  447. 
Duckles  T. E.  : 

Discussion  on  (Ecumenical  Methodism, 

59 ;  Foreign  Missions,  532. 
Duncan,  J.  A. : 

Discussion  on  the  Spiritual  Vitality  of 

Metliodism,  371. 
Dunn,  W.  Kaye  ; 

Precentor,    135 ;    Received   Thanks  of 

Conference,  537. 
Dymond,  G.  l\: 

Discussion  on  Methodism  and  Christian 

1  nity,  123;  Methodism  and  Education, 

210. 
Eaton,  Homer  : 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Literature,  293. 


574 


INDEX, 


Edge,  J.  Wilcox: 

Discussion  ou  Family  Religion  aud 
Worship,  396. 

Edward  VII:,  Kikg  • 

Address  to,  540 ;  Reply  from,  570. 

Elizabeth,  Sister: 
Public  Meeting,  564. 

Elliott,  George  : 

Discussion  on  International  Peace,  107  ; 
Modem  Biblical  Criticism,  161 ;  Princi- 
ples of  Protestantism  and  Modern 
Sacerdotalism,  187;  Christianity  and 
Modern  Unbelief,  235. 

Ferens,  T.  E.  : 

Address,  Gambling,  428 ;  Provincial 
Meetings,  565. 

Ferguson,  W,  J. : 

Discussion  on  Family  Religion  and 
Worship,  397. 

Fitzgerald,  James  M.  : 

Greetings  from  Cincinnati  Conference, 
92. 

Freeboeough,  J.  H.  : 

Address,  Practical  Methods  of  Dealing 
with  the  Liquor  Traffic,  406. 

Fbeeman,  R.  W.  : 

Devotional  Service,  376. 

Gaines,  W.  J. : 

Vote  of  Sympathy  to  President  McKln- 
ley,  143 ;  Discussion  on  Methodism  and 
Education,  207;  Pulpit  Effectiveness, 
474. 

Galloway,  C.  B.  ; 

Conference  Sermon,  3;  Vote  of  Sym- 
pathy to  President  McKinley,  138 ; 
Reply  to  Bishop  of  London's  Letter,  271 ; 
Statistical  Reiwrt,  278 ;  Prayer  for  Presi- 
dent McKinley,  419 ;  Death  of  President 
McKinley,  4M;  Fourth  (Ecumenical 
Methodist  Conference,  411,  446 ;  Motion 
for  Adjournment,  447. 

Galpin,  Frederick  : 

Essay,  Missions— the  Work  before  us, 
513. 

Gibson,  Joseph  ; 

Discussion  on  (Ecumenical  Methodism, 
82;  Indifferentism  and  Apathy,  265; 
Fourth  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference, 416  ;  Pulpit  Effectiveness,  476 ; 
Public  Meeting,  564, 

Gibson,  J.  Monro  : 

Fraternal  Address,  326. 

Gilbert,  B.  H.  : 

Discussion  on  Christianity  and  Modern 
Unbelief,  237 ;  Methodist  Young  People's 
Societies,  311;  Gambhng,  432;  Pulpit 
Effectiveness,  478. 

GOODSELL,  D.  a.  : 

Absence  of,  90,  93. 

Gouohee,  John  F. : 

Essay,  the  Present  Position  of  Method- 
ism in  the  Western  Section,  68;  Recep- 
tion, 563. 

Geanbekt,  J.  C.  : 

Address,  Is  Methodism  Retaining  its 
Spiritual  Vitality  ?  360;  Presided 
Twelfth  Day  (Part  of  Session),  537. 

Gkat,  E.  J.  : 

Devotional  Service,  244  ;  Discussion 
on  Indifferentism  and  Apathy,  260  . 
Temperance,  411;  Foreign  Missions,  530. 

Gseen,  Walfoed  : 

Reception,  London  Methodist  Council, 
562. 

Gresoet,  a.  B  : 

Reception   Children's  Home,  563 


Guard,  Wesley  : 

Address,  The  Present  Position  of 
Methodism  in  the  Kastern  Section,  5S; 
Statistical  Report,  i:77  :  Mrs.  Susannah 
Wesley's  Monument,  325  ;  Committee  to 
Draft  Replies  to  Addresses,  411 ;  Dis- 
cussion on  Fourth  (Ecumenical  Metho- 
dist Conference,  446. 

Hallam,  John  : 

Discussion  on  Christianity  and  Modern 
Unbelief,  232. 

Hamilton,  J.  W.  : 

Mover  of  a  Vote  of  Sympathy,  91  ; 
Address,  Secularism  ami  Christianity, 
221;  Response  to  Addresses  at  Open 
Session,  318 ;  Address  at  Reception, 
562  ;  Provincial  Meetings,  566. 

Hammond,  J.  D. : 

Address,  The  Present  Position  of 
Methodism  in  the  Wessem  Section,  73. 

HaNDLEY,  J.  : 

Discussion  on  (Ecumenical  Methodism, 
81 ;  Trip  to  Epworth,  211 ;  Discussion 
on  Indifferentism  and  Apathy,  266; 
Statistical  Report,  277. 

Haed,  Manley  S.  : 

Deceased  Delegates,  44 ;  Memorial  Com- 
mittee, 89 ;  Discussion  on  Indiffe  entisni 
and  Apathy,  259;  Devotional  Service, 
413 :  Resolution  on  President  McKinley, 
445. 

Harris,  W.  H.  Coky  : 

Devotional  Service,  419 ;  Discussion  on 
Fourth  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference, 446. 

Habtzell,  J.  C.  : 

Opening  Service,  3;  Discussion  on 
(Ecumenical  Methodism,  62;  President, 
Tenth  Day,  443 ;  Death  of  President 
McKinley,  441 ;  Discussion  on  Foreign 
Missions,  533 ;  Addi'ess  on  Resolution 
of  Thanks,  537 ;  Resolution  on  Address 
to  King  Edward  VII.,  539;  Committee 
to  prepare  Address  to  King  Edward 
VTI.,  510;  Chairman,  Public  Meeting, 
562. 

Harvey,  T.  Morgan  : 

Discussion  on  International  Peace,  108. 

Haven,  W.  Ingbaham  : 

Essay,  Methodist  Young  People's 
Societies,  301, 

Herben,  S.  J. : 

Joiut  Editor  of  Official  Volume,  218. 

Holdsworth.  J.  F. : 

Provincial  Meetiags,  565. 

HOSS,  E.  K.  : 

Discussion  on  (Ecumenical  Methodism, 
82 ;  Memorial  Committee,  89 ;  Discus- 
sion on  Internatii  nal  Peace,  102 ; 
Protestantism  v.  Modern  Sacerdotalism, 
176 ;  Statistical  Report,  279  ;  Address, 
The  New  Demands  upon  Methodist 
Authorship,  285 ;  Discussion  on  Family 
Religion  and  Worship,  391 ;  Address  on 
Resolution  of  Thanks,  539;  Provincial 
Meetings,  565,  567,  508. 

Hubbabd,  p.  a.  : 

Devotional  Service,  136;  Discussion  on 
Christianity  and  Modern  Unbelief, 
234. 

Hughes,  Hugh  Peice  ; 

Resolution  of  Sympathy  with,  91 ; 
Greetings  from,  166  ;  Absence  of,  187. 

Hughes,  Mrs.  Hugh  Phice: 
Presided  at  Public  Meeting,  561. 

Hughes,  Bobert  : 

Greeting  from  British  Columbia  Con- 
ference of  the  Methodist  Church,  220 


INDKX. 


575 


HoMBEliT,  Mrs.  : 

Piiblic  Meeting,  564. 

HuKiT,  John  F.  : 

Sacramental  Service,  21  ;  Response  to 
Addresses  of  Welcome,  31;  Visit  oC 
Baroness  Bui  dett-Coutts,  208;  Fourth 
(Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference,  411. 

Inch,  J.  R. : 

Public  Meeting,  5G2. 

Jackson,  Georoe  .- 

Discussion  on  Protestantism  v.  Modem 
Saceitlotalism,  185;  Methodist  Litera- 
ture, 299. 

Jacobs,  F.  M.  : 

Discussion  on  Gambling,  439. 

Jenkins,  Ebenezkr  E.  .- 

Address  of  Welcome,  23;  "Vote  of  Sym- 
pathy to  President  McKinley,  138. 

Jbnnings,  E.  : 

Public  Meeting,  562. 

Jbnnings,  M.  L.  : 

Devotional  Service,  454. 

Johnson,  Simpson  ; 

Public  Meeting,  562  ;  Provincial  Meet- 
ings, 566. 

Keaiing,  H.  T.  : 

Address,  Methodism  and  Education,  198. 

Kelly,  C.  H.  : 

Visit  of  Baroness  Burdett  Coutts,  269 ; 
Discussion  on  Methodist  Young  People's 
Societies,  317  ;  Mrs.  Susannah  Wesley's 
Monument,  325. 

Kendall,  H.  B.  : 

Saci-amental  Service,  21;  President, 
Third  Day,  92, 112 ;  Essay  on  Methodist 
Literature,  280 ;  Joint  Editor  of  Oflacial 
Volume,  218. 

King,  J.  M. : 

Secretary,  Third  Division,  21 ;  Business 
Proceedings,  44 ;  Discussion  on  Inter- 
national Peace,  109 ;  Sympathy  to  Presi- 
dent McKinley,  142, 145 ;  Daily  Record 
and  Telegram  re  i  resident  McKinley, 
219  ;  Address,  The  Antidote  for  Indifler- 
entism  and  Apathy,  253;  Statistical 
Report,  269,  277  ;  Arrangements  for 
Provincial  Meetings,  300;  Telegram  re 
President  McKinley,  419;  Discussion  on 
Gambling,  436 ;  Appointed  Secretary  for 
Fourth  (Ecumenical  Methodist  (Joufer- 
ence  (Western  Sectionj,  502  ;  Replies  to 
Addresses,  504 ;  Received  Thanks  of 
Conference,  536. 

Kino,  William  F.  : 

Discussion  on  Methodism  and  Educa- 
tion, 212. 

Lambuth,  W.  E.  : 

Resolution  re  Training  of  Missionaries, 
243;  Foreign  Mission  Statistics,  300; 
Essay,  Missions— Our  Resources  for  the 
Work,  541. 

Langenau,  Baroness : 
Public  Meeting,  564. 

Langhau,  P. : 

Discussion  on  (Ecumenical  Methodism, 
66. 

Lee,  B.  F.  : 

Public  Meeting,  563. 

Leonaku,  a.  B. 

Discussion  on  (Ecumenical  Methodism, 
64,  87  ;  Member  of  Memorial  Committee, 
89;  Discussion  on  International  Peace, 
103 ;  Vote  of  sympathy  to  President 
McKinley,  142  ;  Discussion  on  Christi- 
anity and  Modern  Unbelief,  230;  Re- 
solution re  Training  of  Missionaries, 
243 ;  Discussion  on  Methodist  Young 
People's  Societies,  313 ;  Family  Religion 


and  Worship.  300;  Temperance,  417; 
Address,  Missions— the  Work  before 
Ub,  520;  Adilress  on  Resolutions  of 
Thanks,  53'J ;  Chairman,  Public 
Meeting,  564 ;  Provincial  Meetings,  567. 
Lidoett,  Georgk  : 

Vote  of  Sympathy  to  President 
McKinley,  144;  Discussion  on  Fourth 
(Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference,  446 ; 
Pulijit  Effectiveness,  480. 

LlDGETT,    J.    ScOTT  : 

Devotional  Service,  352;  Received 
Thanks  of  Conference,  537. 

Little,  0.  J. ; 

Kssay,  Methodism  and  Education  in 
the  Twentieth  Century  (Read  by  J.  H. 
Vincent),  191. 

LOMAX,  T.  H.  : 

Devotional    ervice,  136. 

Luke,  J. : 

President,  Seventh  Day  (Third  Session), 
325;  Response  to  Addresses,  347;  Dis- 
cussion on  Temperance,  416 ;  Devo- 
tional Service,  541 ;  Public  Meeting,  563. 

Luke,  W.  B.  : 

Discussion  on  Gambling,  434 ;  Com- 
mittee to  Prepare  Address  to  King 
Edward  VII.,  540. 

McCutcheon,  J.  B  : 

Discussion  on  Pulpit  Effectiveness,  485 ; 
Address,  Missions  —  the  Work  before 
Us,  523. 

Macdonald,  F.  W.  : 

Address,  Missions— Our  Resources  for 
the  Work,  548 ;  Memorial  Service, 
President  McKinley,  554. 

McKiNLET,  President  : 

Attempted  Assassination  of,  136,  164, 
166,  219,  244,  401,  412,  418,  419  ;  Death  of, 
443;  Memorial  Service,  498,  501,  513,551. 

McNeill,  William  .- 

Discussion  on  Pulpit  Effectiveness,  482. 

Mann,  P.  A.  : 

Organist,  Memorial  Service,  President 
McKinley,  554. 

Mann,  Henry  : 

Discussion  on  Foreign  Missions,  530. 

Mabsden,  William  : 

Discussion  on  Fourth  (Ecumenical 
Methodist  Conference,  446. 

Mason,  M.  C.  B.  : 

Discussion  on  (Ecumenical  Metho- 
dism, 62;  International  Peace,  106; 
Methodism  and  Education,  214  ;  Recep- 
tion, 563;  Public  Meeting,  564;  Pro- 
vincial Meetings,  5G7. 

Meredith,  W.  H.  : 

Provincial  Meetings,  565. 

Mitchell,  Charles  B.  : 

Address,  Is  Methodism  Retaining  Its 
Spiritual  Vitality  P  358. 

Mitchell,  T.  : 

Member  of  Memorial  Committee,  89 : 
Discussion  on  Methodism  and  Christian 
Unity,  133;  Methodist  Union,  216; 
Statistical  Report,  27a,  277 ;  Discussion 
on  the  Spiritual  Vitality  of  Methodism, 
373. 

MORELAND,  J.  F.  : 

Provincial  Meeting,  566. 

Morgan,  G.  Campbell  : 
Fraternal  Address,  398. 

MOHSE,  L.  L. : 

Address,  the  Consecration  of  Wealth, 
451 

Mocltok,  J.  Hope  : 

Discussion  on  Methodism  and  Educa- 
tion, 203. 


576 


INDEX. 


MuRRAV,  T.  H.: 

Address,  The  Practical  Methods  of  Deal- 
ing with  the  Liquor  Traffic,  408;  Dis- 
cussion on  Pulpit  Kffectivcness,  469. 

Nelson,  W.  H.; 

Discussion  on  Christianity  and  Modem 
Unbelief,  232;  Methodist  Literature, 
299. 

Newman,  J.  W. : 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Young  People's 
Societies,  323. 

North,  F.  Mason  : 

Discussion  on  Methodism  and  Christian 
Unity,  128 ;  Committee  to  Draft  Replies 
to  Addresses,  441 ;    PubUe  Meeting,  563. 

Odell,  Joseph  : 

Address  of  Welcome,  27;  Devotional 
Service,  92. 

OSBOKN,   T.   G.  : 

Address,  Methodism  and  Education, 
195. 

Packeb,  George  : 

Committee  to  Draft  Replies  to  Addresses, 
411. 

Palmore,  W.  B.  : 

Public  Meeting,  564, 

Park,  J.  u. : 

Discussion  on  Christianity  and  Modern 
Unbelief,  240 ;  Provincial  Meetings,  568. 

PAtKEn,  Dj(.  Joseph  : 
Greetings  from,  165. 

Parkin,  George  : 

Discussion  on  Protestantism  v.  Modern 
Sacerdotilism,  183  ;  Christianity  and 
Modern  Unbelief,  234;  The  Spiritual 
Vitality  of  Methodism,  372. 

Paer,  Theophilus  : 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Literature, 
298;  Gambling,  431;  Pulpit  Effective- 
ness, 472. 

Par-,  W.  D  : 

Discussion  on  International  Peace, 
110 ;  Methodist  Young  People's 
Societies,  321 ;  Deputation  to  American 
Ambass  idor,  513. 

Peakce,  E.  H.  : 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Literature, 
291. 

Perks,  E.  W.  : 

Address,  Influence  of  Methodism  in  the 
Promotion  of  International   Peace,  97 
Death    oE     President    McKinley,    444 
Received   Tnanks   of   Conference,  537 
Reception,   London  Methodist  Council, 
562 ;   Reception  at  Kensington  Palace 
Gardens,  563;   Chairman,  Public  Meet- 
ing, 663. 

PdlLLlPS,  C.  H. : 

Discussion  on  Methodist  Literature, 
296  ;  Response  to  Addresses,  351. 

Potts,  John  : 

Sacramental  Service,  21 ;  Response  to 
Addresses  of  Welcome,  3S ;  Fourth 
(Ecumenical  Methodist  Conference,  441. 

Radcliffe,  .T.  E.  : 

Discussion  on  Protestantism  v.  Modem 
SacerdotaUsm,  178;  Devotional  Service, 
301 ;  Committee  to  draft  Replies  to 
Addresses,  441 ;  Provincial  Meetings, 
56  J. 

Ranliles,  Marshall: 

Address,  Recent  Corroborations  of 
the  Scripture  Narratives,  151 ;  Pro- 
vincial Meetings,  567. 

Eanki  ,  G.  C. : 

Devotional  Service,  273;  Address,  The 
Elements  of  Pnlpit  Effectiveness,  467. 


Ransom,  R.  0. : 

DiscusBion  on  Methodism  and  Educa- 
tion, 211. 

Bedfern,  William  : 

Convener  of  Cominittee  to  Prepare 
Address  to  the  Churches,  269 ;  Presen- 
tation of  Address  to  the  Churches,  507 ; 
Public  Meeting,  663. 

BiDEB,  Thomas : 

Discussion  on  Methodism  and  Christian 
Unity,  129;  Christianity  and  Modern 
Unbelief,  236;  Address,  The  Neglect  of 
Family  Religion  and  Worship,  387. 

RiGG,  James  H.  : 

Sacramental  Service,  21. 

ElTSON,  J. : 

Address,  Apathy  in  the  Church,  261< 

Robinson,  Mrs.  Bancroft  : 
Public  Meeting,  564. 

Robinson,  Joseph  : 

Provincial  Meeting,  566. 

BoBiNSON,  Zadock  : 

Discussion  on  (Ecumenical  Methodism, 
60. 

EoONET,  Isaac  : 

Discussion  on  Christianity  and  Modern 
Unbelief,  241. 

Rose,  S.  p.  : 

Member  of  Memorial  Committee,  89; 
I  evotional  Service,  112;  Address  on 
Resolutions  of  Thanks,  538 ;  Member  of 
Committee  to  Prepare  Address  to  King 
Edward  VII.,  540;  Memorial  Service, 
President  McKinley,  554,  558;  Pro- 
vincial Meetings,  566. 

EOWELL,  N.  W.  : 

Address,  The  Present  Position  of 
Methodism  in  the  Western  Section,  77 ; 
Conference  Arrangements,  220;  Dis- 
cussion on  Methodist  Young  People's 
Societies,  320;  Pulpit  Effectiveness, 
481. 

KOTsrs,  R.  G.  : 

Discussion  on  Christianity  and  Modern 
Unbelief,  238;  Address,  The  Elements 
of  Pulpit  Effectiveness,  464. 

Ruddle,  T.  : 

Discussion  on  the  Spiritual  Vitality  of 
Methodism,  367. 

Salt,  E  och  : 

Chairman  of  Provincial  Meeting  Com- 
mittee, 90  ;  Provincial  Meetings  (Sup- 
plementary) ,  398. 

Salteh,  M.  B.  : 

Devotional  Service,  136  ;  Discussion  on 
Pulpit  Effectiveness,  479. 

SANFOBf),  A.  B. : 

Official   Volume,    167 ;    Discussion   on 
Pulpit  Effectiveness,  471. 
Sanford,  a.  K.  : 

Discussion  on  Family  ReUgion  and 
Worship,  388. 

SCARBOKOUGH,  W.  S.  : 

Public  Meeting,  562;  Provincial  Meet- 
ings, 567. 

Scott,  LB.: 

Devotional  Service,  166;  Discussion  on 
Methodist  Literature,  295. 

Shaw,  W.  L: 

Secretary,  Fourth  Division,  22;  Dis. 
cussion  on  (Ecumenical  Methodism,  68 ; 
Common  Hymnal,  92,  216 :  Essay, 
Modern  Indifferentism,  244;  Statistical 
Report,  278;  .American  AJnbassador, 
401;  Replies  to  Addresses,  604;  Devotional 
Service,  612 ;  Received  thanks  of  C<m- 
f  erence,  686. 


INDEX. 


577 


Shekn.  Danzt  : 

Address,    Methodist    Young    People's 
Societies,  'Mr,. 
Shephehd,  E.  I!kvan: 

Reception,  5t;.{. 
Sherwood,  T.  : 

Discussion    on    Mctliodist    Literature, 
297. 
Simmons,  J.  C.  : 

Devotional  Service,  44;  Discussion  on 
(Ecumenical  Methodism,  80. 
Skelton,  Sir  C.  T. : 

Addi-ess  of  Welcome,  30. 
Slack,  J,  Bamford  : 

Convener  of  Memorial  Committee,  89 ; 
Convener    of    Committee    to    prepare 
Address  to  King  Edward  VII.,  540. 
Smith,  C.  S.  : 

Discussion  on  (Ecumenical  Methodism, 
63 ;  Fourth  (Ecumenical  Methodist  Con- 
ference, 441 ;   Provincial  Meetings,  565, 
567. 
Smith,  C.  W.  : 

Essay,  Influence  of  Methodism  in  the 
Promotion  of  International  Peace,   90, 
93  ;  Discussion  on  Methodist  Literature, 
296. 
Smith,  Ezekiel; 

Discussion  on  the  Mobihsation  of  the 
Church,  499. 
Smith,  Sik  George : 

Essay,  The  Perils  of  Increasing  Wealth 
and  Luxury,  447  J   Public  Meeting,  564. 
Snape  Thomas : 

Secretary,  Second  Division,  22;  Dis- 
cussion on  International  Peace,  101 ; 
Report  of  Memorial  Committee,  135  • 
Discussion  on  Methodism  and  Educa- 
tion, 206;  Fourth  (Ecumenical  Methodi.st 
Conference,  442 ;  Replies  to  Addres.ses, 
504;  Received  Thanks  of  Conference, 
536. 
Snell,  B.  S.  : 

Committee      to       Draft      Replies     to 
Addresses,  441. 
Somerset,  Lady  Henry  : 

Greetings  from  and  Reply  to,  535. 
Spencer  J.  Smith  : 

Received  Thanks  of  Conference,  537. 
Stephen,  W.  : 

Received  thanks  of  Conference,  537. 
Stephens,  D.  S  .- 

Address,  Appeal  of  the  Old  Testament 
to  the  Life  and  Conscience  of  To-day, 
164. 
Stephenson,  Sister  Dora  : 

Public  Meeting,  564. 
Stephenson,  Mrs.  F.  C.  : 

PubUc  Meeting,  564. 
Stephenson,  T.  B.  : 

Introduction  to  Volume,  135;  Address, 
Interdenominational  Fellowship  among 
Methodists,  120 ;  Discussion  on  Metho- 
diBt  Union,  217;  Committee  to  pre- 
pare Address  to  the  Churches,  269; 
Discussion  on  Methodist  Young 
People's  Societies,  316 ;  Greetings 
from  and  Reply  to  Bishop  of  London, 
90,209;  Greetings  from  and  Reply  to 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  271- 
Statistical  Report,  273;  Prayer  for 
President  McKinley,  419;  Resolution 
re  Death  of  President  McKinley,  443 ; 
Proposal  to  hold  Memorial  Service  for 
the  late  President  McKinley,  498,  501; 
President,  Twelfth  Day,  442,  512,  541 ; 
Acceptance  of  Gavel,  512;  Communi- 
cation from  and  Reply  to  Lady  Henry    | 


38 


Somerset,  535;  Received  Thanks  of 
Conference,  .'iSC ;  Committee  to  Prei)are 
Address  to  King  Edward  VII.,  ,514); 
Memorial  Service,  President  McKinley, 
554;  Provincial  Meetings,  566. 

Stewart,  Charles  : 

Vote  of  Sympathy  to  President 
McKinley,  140;  Address,  Principles  of 
Protestantism  versus  Modern  Sacer- 
dotaUsm,  172. 

Swift,  P.  H.  : 

Discussion  on  Methodism  and  Edu- 
cation, 213 ;  Methodist  Young  People's 
Societies,  314. 

Taqg,  F.  T.  . 

President,  Eleventh  Day,  454,  487; 
Discussion  on  Pulpit  Effectiveness, 
48G ;  Address  on  Resolutions  of 
Thanks,  539. 

Tannbe,  B.  T.  : 

Discussion  on  Protestantism  versus 
Modem  Sacerdotalism,  180  ;  Essay, 
The  Elements  of  Pulpit  Effectiveness. 
454. 

Tatloh,  W.  Ross  : 

Fraternal  Address,  337, 

TiGEET,  John  J. : 

Roll  of  Representatives  (Western 
Section),  21;  Essay,  BibUcal  Criticism 
and  the  Christian  Faith,  146 ;  Statistical 
Report,  273. 

Tindall,  D.  K.  : 

Discussion  on  Christianity  and  Modem 
Unbelief,  242;  The  Spiritual  Vitality  of 
Methodism,  366. 

TOWNSEND,  W.  J. : 

Essay,   Relation  of  Methodism  to  the 
Evangelical   Free    Church  Movement, 
112  ;  Public  Meeting,  561. 
TOCKER,  H.  C. : 

Discussion  on  (Ecumenical  Methodism, 
85 ;      Protestantism     versus     Modern 
Sacerdotalism,  187. 
Tyeee,  Evans  : 

Di.^cussion  on  GhriBtianitv  and  Modem 
Unbelief,  229. 
Vincent,  J.  H.  : 

Reader  of  Essay  on  Methodism  and 
Education  in  the  Twentieth  Century 
(written by  C.  J.  Little),  191 ;  President, 
Sixth  Day,  219,  241 ;  Visit  of  Baroness 
Burdett-Coutts,  268 ;  Committee  to  re- 
pare  Address  to  the  Churches,  269: 
Memorial  Service,  1  resident  McKinley, 
501,  551,  556 ;  Pubhc  Meeting.  562. 
Vleck,  J.  M.  Van  : 

Fourth  (Ecumenical  Methodist  OonfeT- 
ence,  441. 
Wakefielp,  John  : 

Devotional  Service,  21. 
Wakinshaw,  W.  : 

Received  Thanks  of  Conference,  637. 
Waller,  D.  J. : 

Vote  of  Sympathy  to  President 
McKinley,  137,  115  ;  Statistical  Report, 
276;  Fourth  (Ecumenical  Methodist 
Conference,  416;  Proposal  to  hold  Me- 
morial Service  for  the  late  President 
McKinley,  498 ;  Memorial  Service,  554. 
Walters,  A. : 

Response  to  Addresses  of  Welcome,  10 ; 
Discussion  on  Methodist  Young  People's 
Societies,    319;    Provincial    Meetings, 
567. 
Walters,  W.  D.  : 

Discussion     on      Indifferentism     and 
Apathy,  261. 


578 


INDEX. 


Wansbobough,  0.  E.  : 

Provincial  Meetings,  565. 

Watkin,  K.  J. : 

Opening  Service,  3  ;  rH>:cnssioii  on 
Ecumenical  Methodism, 65  ;  I'lesident, 
Fifth  Day,  ICO,  191  ;  Discussion  on 
Methodist']  iterature,  291 ;  Reply  to  the 
Bishop  of  London,  271;  Committee  to 
Draft  Replies  to  Addresses,  441 ;  Public 
Meeting,  563  :  Provincial  Meetings,  667, 
568 

Watkinf,  Owkn  : 

Devotional  Service,  191. 

Watkinson,  W.  L.  : 

Resolution  of  Sympathy  veith,  91 ;  Greet- 
ings from,  190. 

Whelpton,  G.  : 

Discussion  on  Protestantism  v  Modern 
Sacerdotalism,  179. 

Whisnek,  p.  H.  : 

Devotional  Service,  487  ;  Deputation  to 
American  Ambassador,  513. 

White,  John  : 

Discussion  on  Gambling,  433. 

Williams,  E.  S.  : 

Address,  Methodism  and  Chi'istian 
Unity,  118. 

Williams,  W.  J. : 

Essay,  Is  Methodism  Retaining  its 
Spiritual  Vitality?  353. 

WiLLSON,  J.   O. : 

Discussion  on  Temperance,  416;  Pro- 
vincial Meetings,  565. 

WiLMORE,  J.  C. : 

Discussion  on  the  Spiritual  Vitality  of 
Methodism,  370. 

Wilson,  a.  W.  : 

President,  Second  Day,  44, 68 ;  Address, 


Influence  of  Methodism  in  the  Pro- 
motion of  International  Privco,  99;  Coin- 
inittee  to  prei)are  Adilress  to  the 
Churches,  269  ;  Address  on  Resolution 
of  Thanks,  536;  Public  Meeting,  563. 

Wilson,  J.  A.  B. : 

Discussion  on  OScumenical  Methodism, 
84;  Discussion  on  Indifferentism  and 
Apathy,  267;  Stati-tical  Report,  276; 
Methodist  Young  People's  Societies, 
318  ;  Pulpit  Effectiveness,  473  ;  The 
Mobilisation  of  the  Church,  498 ;  Public 
Meeting,  563. 

Wilson,  J.  M. : 

Fraternal  Address,  342. 

Windsor,  W.  : 

Address,  How  to  Mobilise  the  Whole 
Church,  496. 

Wiseman,  F.  Luke  : 

Essay,  The  Ethics  of  Gambling,  419. 

Wiseman,  Mrs. : 

Pnblic  Meeting,  564. 

Wood,  Peter  F.  : 

Discussion  on  Family  Religion  and 
Worship,  389. 

Wright,  VV.  A.; 

Discussion  on  Family  Religion  and 
Worship,  394. 

Young,  J.  B. : 

Devotional  Service,  219;  Discussion  on 
Christianity  asd  Modern  Unbelief,  231 ; 
Pulpit  Effectiveness,  477. 

Young,  J.  Hat  : 

Address,  Hovr  to  Mobilise  the  Whole 
Church,  493. 

Youngs,  C.  J. : 

Discussion  on  the  Spiritual  Vitality  of 
Methodism,  369. 


SUBJECTS. 


Address  to  King  Edward  VII.,  539;  Reply 
from,  570. 

Address  to  the  Churches,  219,  269,  507. 

Addresses  from  Free  Churches,  325,  376, 440, 
503. 

Addresses  of  Welcome,  22;  Responses  to, 
31. 

Antidote  for  Indifferentism  and   Apathy, 
253. 

Apathy  in  the  Church,  251. 

Appeal  of   the  Old  Testament  to  the  Life 
and  Conscience  of  To-day,  154. 

Appendix,  559. 

Assassination  of  President  McKmley,  136. 

Authorship,  New  Demands  upon  Methodist, 
285 

Biblical  Criticism  and  the  Christian  Faith, 
146. 

British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  135. 

British  Columbia  Conference  of  the  Metho- 
dist Church,  220. 

Business  Committee :  „.       .  ^ 

Address  to  the  Churches,  269,  376 ;  Ad- 
journment, 4, 447;  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, 44,  271  ;  Bishop  of  London,  44, 
90,  269 ;  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society,  135  ;  Cincinnati  Methodist 
Conference,  92  ;  Conference  Arrange- 
ments, 44,  90,  135,  220,  447  ;  Common 
Hymnal,  92,  216 ;  Correspondence,  167  ; 
Deceased  Delegates,  44,  89,  135 ;  Degrees 
and  Honorary  Titles,  44  ;  Deputations, 
Replies  to,  135;  Epworth,  Trip  to,  244, 
401  ■  Evangelistic  AVork,  507;  Foreign 
Missions,     507;   Fourth     (Ecumenical 


Methodist  Conference,  441,  445,  501; 
Hugh  Price  Hughes,  Greetings,  169 ; 
King  Edward  VII.,  539;  Members, 
XXX;  Methodist  Union,  210;  Mission- 
aries, Training  of,  243,  324;  Opium 
Traffic,  441;  Parker,  Dr.,  165;  Pre- 
centor, 135  ;  President  McKinley,  145, 
164,  443  ;  Presidents,  Appointment  of, 
22,  91,  269,  442;  Provincial  Meetings, 
300,  398,  454;  Replies  to  Churches, 
376,  441,  503.  Resolutions  of  Thanks, 
536  ;  Secretaries,  Appointment  of,  21 ; 
Society  of  Friends,  Greetings,  215 ; 
Statistical  Committee,  300,  325  ;  Susan- 
nah Wesley's  Monument,  324  ;  W.  L. 
Watkinson,  Greetings,  190 ;  Women's 
Work,  446,  507. 

Children's  Home,  Reception  at,  563. 

Christianity  and  Modern  Unbelief,  219. 

Christian  Unity,  Methodism  and,  118. 

Cinormnati  Conference,  Greetings  from,  92. 

Committees,  List  of,  xxix. 

Common  Hymnal,  92,  216.  ' 

"Conference  Daily,"  454,  f39. 

Conference  Sermon,  C.  B.  Galloway,  3. 

Consecration  of  Wealth,  The,  451. 

Daily  Programme,  xxxvi. 

Delegates,  Official  List  of,  xiv,  21. 

Dinner  and  Tea  Arrangements,  21. 

Editorial  Committee,  xxxii. 

Editorial  Note,  iii. 

Education,  191. 

Elements  of  Pulpit  Effectiveness,  The,  454. 

Epworth,  Trip  to,  244,  401. 

Ethics  of  Gambling,  The,  420. 


INDRX. 


579 


Evarip:elistic  Work,  507;  Public  Meeting, 
5..3. 

Kxrculive  CominiUcc,  xxix. 

P'Hiuily  Religion  and  Wtirsliip,  376. 

Fiiiaiu-e  Committee,  xxxi. 

ForeifTii  Missions,  507,  5)2,  541;  Statistics, 
aoo,  325. 

Fourtli  tEcnmonical  Methodist  Conference 
(I'JU),  411,  445, 446,  501,  502  ;  Secretaries, 
602,  503,  539. 

Fraternal  Greetings,  92,  215,  220,  325,  376, 
440,  503,  535. 

Gambling,  419. 

Gambling,  The  Ethics  of,  420. 

(jHvel,  Presentation  of  a,  512. 

Homes  and  Entertainment  Committee,  xxxi. 

How  to  Mobilise  the  Whole  Church,  487. 

Huguenot  Congi-egation  of  Canterbury, 
Address  from,  343  ;  Reply  to,  441. 

Hymnal,  Common,  92,  216. 

Indifferentism  and  Apathy,  244. 

Influence  of  Methodism  in  the  Promotion  of 
International  Peace,  93. 

Inter-denominational  Fellowship  among 
Methodists,  120. 

International  Peace,  93. 

Introduction,  is. 

Is  Methodism  Retaining  its  Spiritiial 
Vitality?  353. 

Journalism,  Methodist,  288. 

Liquor  Traffic,  Practical  Methods  of  Deal- 
ing with,  402. 

List  of  Committees,  xxix. 

Literature,  Methodist,  273. 

London  Methodist  Council,  Reception  by, 
562. 

Lord's  Day  Observance,  Public  Meeting, 
564. 

Meetings,  Public,  562. 

Memorial  Committee  for  Deceased  Dele- 
gates, 89. 

Memorial  Service,  President  McKinley,  554. 

Methodism  and  Christian  Unity,  118, 

Methodism  and  Education  in  the  Twentieth 
Century,  191. 

Methodism,  Present  Position  of,  44,  68. 

Methodism,  Relation  of,  to  Evangelical  Free 
Church  Movement,  112. 

Methodism,  Spiritual  Vitality  of,  353. 

Methodist  British  Columbia  Conference, 
220. 

Methodist  Journalism,  288. 

Methodist  Literature,  273. 

Methodist  Recorder  "Conference  Daily," 
Photographs,  454 ;  Thanks  to,  539. 

Methodist  Union,  Resolution  and  Dis- 
cussion, 216. 

Methodist  Young  People's  Societies,  301. 

Missionaries,  Training  of,  243,  324. 

Missions,  Foreign,  300,  325,  507,  512,  541. 

Missions,  Our  Resources  for  the  Work,  541. 

Missions,  The  Work  before  Us,  513. 

Mobilisation  of  the  Church,  The,  487. 

Modem  BibUcal  Criticism,  136. 

Modern  Indifferentism,  2M. 

Monument,  Mrs.  Susannah  Wesley,  324. 

Moral  Unity  of  the  English-speaking  Peo- 
ples, The,  563. 

Moravian  Church,  Address  from,  341;  Reply 
to,  441,  f  06. 

National  Council  of  the  Evangelical  Free 
Churches,  112 ;  Address  from,  326 ; 
Reply  to,  441,  503. 

Neglect  of  Family  Religion  and  Worship, 
The,  376. 

New  Demands  upon  Methodist  Authorship, 
285. 

(Ecumenical  Metbodism,  44, 68. 


fReumenical  Methodist  Conference,  1911, 
411,  415,  416,  5<11,  502,  503,  539. 

Olficers  of  tlu>  Conference,  xxviii. 

Official  List  of  Delegates,  xiv.,  21. 

Official  Volume,  Accuracy  of,  167;  E'iitors, 
218  ;  Proofs,  243, 5()7. ' 

Opium  'I'rafHc,  Resolution  on,  441. 

Peace,  Influence  of  Methodism  in  the  Pro- 
motion of  International,  93. 

Perils  of  Increasing  Wealth  and  Luxury, 
The,  447. 

Perils  of  Wealth,  The,  443. 

Perversion  of  Wealth,  'I  he,  417. 

Photographic  Group  of  Delegates,  21. 

Photographs  in  "  Conference  Daily,"  454. 

Plan  for  Sunday  Services  Committee, 
xxxii. 

Practical  Methods  of  Dealing  with  the 
Lifiuor  Traffic,  402. 

Present  Position  of  Methodism — Eastern 
Section,  44 ;  Western  Section,  68. 

Presentation  of  a  Gavel,  512. 

Presidents  of  the  OScumenical  Conference, 
xxviii. 

Principles  of  Protestantism  versus  Modem 
Sacerdotalism,  167. 

Programme,  Daily,  xxxvi. 

Protestantism  versus  Modern  Sacer- 
dotalism, 166. 

Provincial  Meetings,  300,  398,  454;  Com- 
mittee, xxxii.  ;  Reports  of,  567. 

Public  Meetings,  562. 

Publications  Committee,  xxxii. 

Pulpit  Effectiveness,  454. 

Recent  Corroborations  of  the  Scripture 
Narratives,  151. 

Reception  at  the  Children's  Home,  563. 

Reception  by  the  London  Methodist 
Council,  562. 

Reception  by  Mr.  R.  W.  Perks,  M.P.,  563. 

ReceiDtions  Committee,  xxxi. 

Receptions,  562. 

Relation  of  Methodism  to  the  Evangelical 
Free  Church  Movement,  112. 

Resolutions  of  Thanks,  536. 

Responses  to  Addresses  of  Welcome,  31. 

Roll  of  Representatives,  xiv.,  21. 

Rules  and  Regulations  for  the  Government 
of  the  Conference,  xxxiii. 

Sacerdotalism,  Protestantism  v.  Modern, 
166. 

Salvation  Army,  Representative  of,  344. 

Sacramental  Service,  21. 

Secretaries  of  the  CEcumenical  Conference, 
xxviii. 

Secularism  and  Christianity,  224. 

Sermon,  Conference,  C.  B  Galloway,  3. 

Society  of  Friends,  Greetings,  215. " 

Spiritual  Vitality  of  M  thodism.  The,  353. 

Statistical  Committee,  xxxi. 

Statistical  Report,  269,  273,  561. 

Statistics,  269,  273,  561.-, 

Sunday  Services,  92,  219;  Committee, 
xxxii. ;  Report  of,  564. 

Temperance,  401 ;  Pubr c  Meeting,  564. 

Thanks,  Resolutions  of,  536. 

Training  of  Missionaries,  243,  324. 

United  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  Address 
from,  335  ;  Replv  to,  441,  504. 

Wealth,  Perils  of,  447. 

Wesley,  Mrs.  Susannah,  .324. 

Wesley's  Chapel  Committee,  xxxii. 

Women's  Work,  507  ;   Public  Meeting,  564. 

World's  Women's  Christian  Temperance 
Union,  Greetings  from  and  Reply  to, 
535. 

Young  People's  Meeting,  562. 

Young  People's  Societies,  301. 


Date  Due 

fXCOUt 

d^^g^i^j^ 

fiSWS^IWWk 

JUN  1 

Siiao^ 

m  1 

5  1991 

^ 

f) 

PRINTED 

IN  U.  S.  A. 

• 

